Posted on 02/11/2003 4:55:37 AM PST by demlosers
ILLESHEIM, Germany — An icy fog hung over the Army airfield, suiting the mood of the soldiers and their families gathered for an uncertain farewell.
Several troops in camouflage jackets huddled one last time with their sweethearts, staring through the fluorescent gloom of the cavernous hangar.
Others handled pajama-clad kids, sleepy because of the midnight hour.
Sgt. Shawn Jackson cuddled his 7-month-old, daughter, Mia, while his wife, Christina, and three sons sat nearby. Within hours Jackson, 28 — a Longbow Apache crew chief from the 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment — would stow his gear and climb aboard a charter jet bound for Kuwait.
The Jacksons had barely two weeks to prepare for this desert deployment.
“I’ve been in denial until today,” Christina Jackson said. “If they’re just going to the field, you know they’re coming home safe. There’s no one who wants to blow them up or disperse chemical weapons.”
Jackson and members of his squadron led a two-day exodus of troops that will fly to Kuwait through Monday. The parade includes the 6th Squadron of the 6th Cavalry and its ground crews from the 7th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, along with elements of the 12th Aviation Brigade from nearby Giebelstadt, Germany.
The departures will leave this base in northern Bavaria empty of troops, except for a skeleton rear guard. All of the 11th Aviation Regiment will have moved from Illesheim to a new base in the Kuwaiti desert. The 6th Squadron’s sister unit, the 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, has been there since October.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld’s late-January deployment orders to V Corps units have prompted a storm of activity in Illesheim. Immediately, soldiers began working around the clock to pack up the trucks, tools and other gear they would need in Kuwait.
Pilots flew their brand-new Longbow helicopters to Belgium, where workers removed the rotors, shrink-wrapped the aircraft, and placed them aboard ships — exactly the reverse of the process that brought them to Europe for the first time last summer.
Maj. Scott Bemis, the regimental personnel officer, said the packing went relatively quickly. Since then, soldiers have been taking refresher courses in desert deployment, studying the culture and religion of the region and learning about the rules of engagement.
Bemis said the regiment at least had an inkling it might end up in the Middle East, given the war rhetoric out of Washington and the sudden deployment of the 2nd Squadron last fall.
“We kind of had been leaning forward in the saddle,” he said.
Still, the unit found out only Friday that flights would begin ferrying troops downrange late Saturday night. Troop rosters had to be prepared and buses chartered immediately, even as the number and types of planes shifted right up to the final hours.
“It’s been a headache,” Bemis admitted. “It’s been a very short-notice move-out.”
The 11th Regiment soldiers will be arriving at a base lacking most of the comforts of home. They will be sleeping in cotton Bedouin tents that do not have cots.
“It’s still a work in progress,” said Col. William Wolf, the regimental commander. “What’s there is adequate. It will continue to get better and better.”
There is no e-mail, and minimal phone service. At least for a while, they likely will be communicating with their families through old-fashioned letters.
Soldiers like Sgt. Duane Walton — father of a 7-month-old daughter, Harley Jean — will try not to think about what they’re missing at home. No one knows how long this deployment will last. He may miss hearing her first word or seeing her crawl for the first time.
“I’ve been there for a lot of the ‘firsts,’ but I’ll miss a lot of the ‘firsts,’ ” said Walton, 27, a 6th Squadron crew chief. “That’s what really hurts.”
His wife, Erica, said mentally preparing for the mission has been much tougher than the training exercises that frequently take him away from home.
“This one is going to be a lot longer, and there’s all the unknown dangers,” she said. “If he goes to [a training course], you know nothing’s going to happen.”
The soldiers think less about personal fear and more about what their absence is doing to their families.
“I don’t want them to worry about me,” Jackson said. “I want to come home, and I want all my guys to come home safe.”
Hah! Brings back memories. I did the same with my fiance before the 2nd Armoured Cav left for Gulf War I...
Prayer bump for all our troops and their families.
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