Soldiers take off for Iraq with more than just guns
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By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
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The passenger terminal just off the tarmac at Hickam Air Force Base yesterday was a contrast of combat and comfort, civilian and military gear, excitement and trepidation.
Spc. John Cratty, left, and Spc. Minerva Martinez played with a Gameboy as they waited to board their Iraq-bound jet. Cratty said he was taking 65 CDs; video games are also a popular item among the deploying soldiers.
Desert camouflage and M-16s with grenade launchers mixed with black carry-on suitcases, laptop shoulder bags, Gameboy SPs and portable DVD players.
About 100 Schofield Barracks soldiers left on a Continental Boeing 777 for a yearlong mission to Iraq, and although they won't have all the comforts of home, they're sure trying.
Sgt. John Bullock's company commander bought three PlayStation 2s, 20 to 30 video games and a couple of TVs for his soldiers.
"I've seen some of the people load up on some of the things they transport — swimming pools, portable basketball hoops — what he brought is minor," Bullock said.
Most of it went by ship weeks ago. But there was room on the 777 for some carry-ons. One soldier boarded yesterday with an M-16 over her shoulder and a toothbrush in hand.
It was the second such deployment flight in a series that will move about 4,000 Schofield soldiers in the next couple of weeks. The first group of 250 left Tuesday.
A year of duty in northern Iraq is a long time, and the soldiers are trying to make the best of it.
Spc. Monica Juancho, 21, was supposed to be getting out of the Army in June at what would have been the end of three years.
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She planned to go back to school to New Mexico to be a teacher. Instead, the Army's "stop-loss" order kept her in and now she's headed to Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson, left, commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division (Light), and Command Sgt. Maj. Frank Ashe shook hands with each of the Schofield soldiers heading to Iraq.
Juancho works with laundry as part of the 540th Quartermaster Company.
"Since this is my time to go, I want to make something good of it. I just hope when we get there things will calm down and we can find some sort of purpose ... and make it better."
Sgt. Brandon Cruz from Guam, a light-wheeled vehicle mechanic with the 125th Signal Battalion, said he's excited.
"We get to finally do what we train for," said Cruz, 25. "You know, you are doing something real. The Iraqi people really depend on us, and we have an important job to do."
Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson, commander of the 25th Infantry Division (Light), greeted soldiers in the passenger terminal. He slapped them on the back, asked how they were doing and shook the hand of each as they boarded the stairs of the aircraft.
"Tropic Lightning," he said to each. "Thanks for what you are doing."
The exodus of about 4,000 25th Infantry Division (Light) soldiers for Iraq will be followed in March and April by the departure of 4,500 more Schofield soldiers for Afghanistan, leaving the base with just 1,500 troops in its biggest combat deployment since Vietnam.
Olson will head up U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
"To be honest with you, I know there's a lot of nervousness, and I'm nervous myself because of the unknown out there," Olson said. "But we're very well prepared."
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The 9,200-square-mile region in Iraq that infantry, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter crews and engineers are being assigned to is near Kirkuk, an oil-rich city that has seen ethnic clashes between Kurds and others, and whose stability is seen as key to the reconstruction of Iraq.
Sgt. Latisha Eddings of the 540th Quartermaster Company, talked on a cell phone with her mother in Nashville, Tenn., while waiting to board the flight.
Although the Schofield soldiers will be based largely north of the "Sunni Triangle" where many of the attacks on U.S. forces have occurred, officials said elements of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team may be attached to Army units operating in that region.
Yesterday's flight was expected to stop in Houston and Italy before arriving in the Middle East. Four more flights are leaving tomorrow and the last flight out is expected Jan. 26.
Some of the soldiers will fly to Iraq from Kuwait, and others will make the six-day, 600-mile trip north by convoy to the region, where daytime lows can be in the 40s and highs in the 60s this time of year.
The 950-foot Navy Military Sealift Command ship USNS Pililaau is due in Kuwait with about 800 vehicles, 500 trailers, scrapers, bulldozers, more than 20 helicopters and around 300 shipping containers with weapons, night-vision goggles, camouflage nets, generators and combat gear.
Among the items the soldiers will be looking for: ceramic inserts, called SAPI plates, for flak jackets. The "small-arms protection insert" can stop a 7.62 mm round, the most common in Iraq. The plates initially were issued only to frontline soldiers.
"They will 100 percent have their plates in Kuwait," said 25th Division Command Sgt. Maj. Franklin G. Ashe.
"Every soldier in this division and this command will leave Kuwait with SAPI plates."
Pfc. John Wheatley, 23, of Texas said he was nervous before getting on the plane.
"This is my first deployment and first time being in a situation like this," he said. "But I know that I'm serving my country, and I'm taking care of my family."
Cruz leaves a wife, a daughter, 4, and son, 2, on O'ahu. He's hoping he can communicate regularly by e-mail or phone.
"Every opportunity I get, I'm going to take it," he said. "The wife and kids back home — they have the tougher job. I'll be occupied."
Sgt. Freddie Bueno, 33, a 1988 Farrington High graduate with the 40th Quartermaster Company, said he was thinking about "how the weather is going to be, the living conditions, where we're going to be working, what kind of obstacles we're going to be facing."
"I feel like I can get this mission done," Bueno said. "We did a lot of training, and I think we're prepared to do the mission there."
The USO handed out pizza and soda to the soldiers, along with bags with a disposable camera, a calling card and other items. State Rep. Marcus Oshiro, D-39th (Wahiawa), meanwhile, gave soldiers small "pocket flags" with a note in Hawaiian on one side: Me Ke Aloha Pau Ole A Hui Hou (With Never Ending Love, Until We Meet Again).
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
