[Peace-discuss] preparations for war

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

As war approaches, it is essential that somehow these individuals find out 
that their NBC equipment is defective and if injured that they will be 
abandoned as has happened with Gulf War I vets who are sick and injured.  


Reservists Savor Time Before Deployment
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 2:14 p.m. ET

Army reservist Suzanne Middleton knows what she's getting for Christmas -- a 
tattered piece of cloth printed with faded lions that, 19 years ago, was a 
new baby blanket.

Middleton will pack the present -- the blanket her daughter clung to from her 
toddler years and kept into her college years -- along with her fatigues when 
her Army Reserve unit mobilizes two days after Christmas.

``She's never given it to anyone. So it'll be real special for me,'' said 
Middleton, a middle-school reading coach from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and 
sergeant first class in the Reserve. ``She wanted me to know she would be 
there, no matter where I was.''

Middleton is among 150 citizen-soldiers of the 724th Military Police 
Battalion leaving their families and day jobs to report to Fort Dix, N.J. 
Their destination from there, domestic or overseas, remains unknown.

With the full-time military focused on Afghanistan and a possible war with 
Iraq, part-time Reserve and National Guard units across the nation face 
post-Christmas deployments. For them, the holidays are bittersweet, a last 
chance to be with family for a while.

``Obviously, it's something we try to avoid. We look at a window around the 
holidays to try and alleviate the level of discomfort for the families and 
reservists,'' said Joseph Hanley, public affairs director for the Army 
Reserve. ``With the activity in Afghanistan and that part of the world, 
there's a sense of increased urgency.''

Units mobilizing include the Kentucky National Guard's 223rd Military Police 
Company, which will depart for Fort Dix right after Christmas. The Army 
Reserve's 427th Medical Battalion, Logistics from Forest Park, Ga., has a 
farewell ceremony scheduled Jan. 5. The 787th Combat Support Battalion, a 
Reserve unit in Dothan, Ala., mobilizes Jan. 6.

Two Oklahoma National Guard units preparing for a six-month deployment next 
month to Kuwait and Egypt faced spending their Christmas leave 750 miles away 
from home at Fort Carson, Colo., where they've been training since October.

Then Wal-Mart stepped in as their Santa chauffeur, chartering 17 buses to 
drive the 800 guardsmen to their homes in seven Oklahoma cities, where they 
arrived Saturday.

``For the morale of the troops, being able to be home with their families for 
Christmas is wonderful. In the middle of training, sometimes troops don't get 
to go home,'' said Maj. Eric Bloom, public affairs officer for Task Force 
1-180 of the Oklahoma National Guard.

For Bloom, a corporate video producer, it's a chance to spend the first 
Christmas with his 3-month-old daughter, Erica, who was born two weeks before 
he left for Colorado.

Without the buses, Bloom said, he and some of the troops likely would have 
rented cars to drive home. ``It's much safer for the troops this way,'' he 
said.

``We felt like it was the right thing to do,'' said Wal-Mart spokeswoman 
Sarah Clark. ``We wanted to honor those men and women who maintain peace on 
earth, literally.''

For other reservists and their families, the holidays marked an unexpected 
homecoming rather than a point of departure.

Last week, Terry Fennel of Sylvania, Ga., got a surprise call from her son, 
Senior Airman Wesley Fennel of the 224th Joint Communications Support 
Squadron of the Georgia Air National Guard. Overseas as part of Operation 
Enduring Freedom, he had packed his bags and was flying home the next day.

``I wasn't expecting to be home, that's for sure. It's indescribable. I'm a 
very happy man,'' Fennel, 19, said Thursday after stepping off a C-130 
airplane to greet his mother, aunt and grandmother.

He puckishly claimed he'd won his trip home in a poker game with his 
commanding officer.

``This is the best Christmas present we've ever gotten,'' his mother said. 
``But we don't have anything for him. We have to go shopping now.''

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