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Guardsman on hold with no mission Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/12583517.htmhttp://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/12583517.htm
Posted on Wed, Sep. 07, 2005
Frustrated Pa. Guardsmen await orders, hours from Katrina damage
KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, La. - They packed their pistols and their Pop Tarts, said goodbye to their families for a month, and with a great eagerness to help, headed here over the Labor Day weekend on a mission to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
But two frustrating days after arriving in Louisiana, more than 2,500 Pennsylvania National Guardsmen were still awaiting orders at the former England Air Force Base in Alexandria, about 170 miles northwest of New Orleans.
"All the soldiers were saying 'Let's go,'" said Lt. Col. Jerry Miller, a battalion commander. "The soldiers really want to do something."
Guardsmen from Pennsylvania rode more than 1,200 miles in Humvees, sleeping in truck stop parking lots, to get to Alexandria - only to find they had no mission yet. On Wednesday, their second day of inactivity, they did maintenance on their vehicles and got vaccinated.
The contingent from Pennsylvania comes from about one-third of the state's Guard armories, has 500 vehicles, and is self-sustaining with the capability to purify its own water and maintain vehicles. The soldiers packed bulletproof vests, ammunition and weapons.
It is the largest state activation of Pennsylvania Guard troops since Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
Several sleeper buses full of Pennsylvania troops did get close to the devastation. They arrived at the airfield in St. Tammany Parish on the outskirts of New Orleans on Tuesday morning after 24 hours on the road; they unpacked, only to be told to load the buses back up and head to Alexandria four hours away because Marines and members of the Alabama National Guard were already in the parish.
Col. Joel Wierenga did not hide his frustration when he told his officers the news, and also informed them they might eventually be split up to provide security to utility crews.
On Wednesday in Alexandria, Wierenga said he was more hopeful that the troops would be able to stay together and be given an "area of operations" Friday.
Maj. Gen. Ron Mason, who is commanding National Guard operations in Louisiana, said Wednesday that 25,000 Guard troops are expected to be on the ground by Thursday, and the Pennsylvania troops will get an assigned task as soon as it is clear how they can best be used.
"There's plenty of work for everybody," Mason said. "We have saturated this area down there, the 13 parishes that we're working in that have been the most devastated ... with soldiers and we're conducting assessments right now of where do we need additional effort."
Lt. Col. Marc Ferraro, another battalion commander, said the mission would also help the troops, who are still coping with the recent deaths of six of their fellow battalion members in Iraq. He said it would enable them "get their minds focused on other things."
While his unit had yet to go on a mission, Wierenga said Pennsylvania Guardsmen pulled two people from a burning tractor-trailer Wednesday along the highway.
"You never know what's going to happen, wherever you're doing what you're doing," Wierenga said.
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