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More troops sent to iraq Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030422_1260.htmlhttp://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030422_1260.html
More Troops From Virginia Sent to Iraq
More Troops Deployed From Virginia Air Force Base Even As Fighting in Iraq Wanes
The Associated Press
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. April 22 —
Army Spc. Jacob Stanley stood in a gymnasium at Fort Eustis, his 1-year-old son, Tershawn, on his arm and his M-16 rifle slung over his shoulder. "I'm going to miss you," Stanley told his wife, Johnnetta. "You've got to stay motivated for whatever is to come."
The war in Iraq may be all but over, but troops from Virginia to California are still being sent overseas, to transport supplies and relieve the battle-worn.
Stanley was among nearly 200 soldiers who said farewell to their families Monday afternoon at Fort Eustis before boarding buses to nearby Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, where they took a commercial flight Monday night.
The soldiers are from the 155th Transportation Company, a cargo transfer company, and they're headed to Kuwait.
The late deployers are more than just "the clean-up crew," said Stanley, 27, an Army truck driver from Jacksonville, Fla. There are still things to do such as moving vehicles and supplies and dangers remain, he said.
"Anything could happen at any time," Stanley said, adding, "I plan on coming back, all 10 fingers and 10 toes."
The open-ended deployment should remind people that the war isn't over, his wife said.
"It's not going to be over until everybody pulls out and goes home," Johnnetta Stanley said.
The soldiers had been ready to go since November, so they were relieved to finally deploy, said 1st Lt. Shane Lucker, 35, of Brosser, Wash., leader of one of three platoons.
"We have a lot of forces in theater still that are still going to be there and need food, water, medicine, maybe some humanitarian aid," Lucker said. "We have to sustain the forces there."
Michael Branch said he was less worried about his wife, 35-year-old Pvt. Wendy Branch of Silver Spring, Md., now that the fighting basically is over.
"But it's still in the back of my mind that something could happen. There's all this talk about suicide bombing," Michael Branch said.
"I'll be all right," his wife told him.
More than 300 family members gathered inside a gymnasium at Fort Eustis for a departure ceremony that included a prayer by a chaplain and words of praise for the soldiers' courage.
The soldiers shouted "One, five, five all the way!" as they stood in formation. Then they filed out of the gym as families sitting in the bleachers applauded.
Outside, some soldiers stuck their arms out of the windows of the parked buses to touch the outstretched hands of crying family members.
The 155th Transportation Company is part of the 10th Transportation Battalion of the 7th Transportation Group. More than 2,000 soldiers from the 7th Transportation Group more than half are deployed.
Last week, as the Pentagon prepared to bring home troops, about 325 sailors from the USS Benfold flew from Coronado, Calif., to Singapore to trade places with the crew of the Persian Gulf-bound USS Higgins. The Higgins was one of several San Diego-based battleships that launched a massive Tomahawk missile attack on Baghdad on the third day of the war.
Sailors appeared more worried about getting homesick than coming under enemy fire, but the Benfold's commander, Cmdr. Randy Hill, cautioned the sailors to be ready for anything.
"If things flare up, we could be called into action," said Petty Officer Adlai Cotton, 36, of New Orleans.
Also last week, 155 New Jersey National Guard members from the 253rd Transportation Company boarded a plane at New Jersey's McGuire Air Force Base, headed to the Middle East war zone. And about 160 Arkansas Army National Guard soldiers left Fort Polk, La., for an undisclosed location in support of the war in Iraq.
On April 13, about 100 soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment a unit known for rockets that explode with a downpour of "steel rain" boarded a civilian jumbo jet at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. The unit's destination was Iraq.
"With the firepower we've got, I wish we'd have been there earlier helping take care of business," said Sgt. Brandon Neff, 25.
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