Staff Sgt. Robert Solis Duty: Coordinating communications with two camps Age: 52 Hometown: Medford Occupation: Full-time Oregon National Guard Family status: Married, three grown children
The National Guard is not always deployed. Sometimes troops are just weekenders with two weeks of summer duty.
At those times, somebody still has to be around during the nontraining days to keep order in the regiment. People like Robert Solis.
For the past 24 years, Solis has been a full-time guardsman. The last 20 of those years have been spent at the headquarters of the 186th Infantry. He's done a little of everything, from administration to recruiting and, finally, to the 186th's big moment.
"I wanted to go, then I didn't want to go for family reasons," he said, "But Lieutenant Colonel Cameron called me and said that he felt the unit needed me. So I'm going."
His duty makes him more mobile than most of the troops -- and perhaps more vulnerable. He will be traveling, on occasion, to North Camp, which from South Camp is straight up the Red Sea coastline, along the border with Israel and almost to the Mediterranean. It's near the Gaza Strip.
"People have been kidding me," Solis said. "They've been telling me to stay out of airports and don't get on buses. But when you're doing a peacekeeping mission, you can't think it."
Lt. Col. Daniel Cameron Duty: Commander, 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry Age: 41 Home town: Ashland Civilian occupation: Former attorney, now full-time Oregon National Guard Family status: Married with three sons
Dan Cameron came to Oregon from his native Florida to go to law school at the University of Oregon. He planned to stay to practice law in Eugene.
But he's a full-time National Guard soldier and intends to stay that way at least until he's eligible to retire from the military in 2006. The mission to the Sinai Desert may be his last chance to lead his troops into a potentially hostile situation.
So he wants this, and his family has adjusted. "My wife is a good Army wife," he said. "My two younger sons (2 and 4) aren't quite aware of what's going on, but the oldest one (6) seems to understand that I won't be around for a while.
He's the only one on the mission who has actually seen South Camp, the station across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia where 1st Battalion will spend the second half of the year.
"It helps to have gone there," he said. "I was only there for four days, but it was enough to crystallize what we're facing.
"We train to attack and defend, but given the right training, which we'll get at Fort Carson (Colo.), I have no doubt that we'll do this (peacekeeping), too."
((((( hug ))))