By Rich McKay, FORT BRAGG, N.C.
For many of the soldiers, it would be their first mission.
They packed up ammunition and rifles, placed last-minute calls to loved ones,
then turned in their cell phones. Some gave blood
The 600 mostly young soldiers at Fort Bragg, North
Carolina, were headed for the Middle East, part of a group of some 3,500 U.S.
paratroopers ordered to the region. Kuwait is the first stop for many. Their
final destinations are classified.
“We’re going to war, bro,” one cheered, holding two
thumbs up and sporting a grin under close-shorn red hair. He stood among dozens
of soldiers loading trucks outside a cinder block building housing several
auditoriums with long benches and tables.
Days after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the
drone killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, raising fears of
fresh conflict in the Middle East, the men and women of the U.S. Army’s storied
82nd Airborne Division are moving out in the largest “fast deployment” since
the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
U.S. Army Major General James Mingus waded through
the sea of camouflage-uniformed men and women as they prepared to leave the
base near Fayetteville on Sunday. He shook hands with the troops, wishing them
luck.
One soldier from Ashboro, Virginia, said he wasn’t
surprised when the order came.
“I was just watching the news, seeing how things
were going over there,” said the 27-year-old, one of several soldiers Reuters
was allowed to interview on condition they not be named. “Then I got a text
message from my sergeant saying ‘don’t go anywhere.’ And that was it.”
Risks seemed to be pushed to the back of the minds
of the younger soldiers, though many packed the base chapel after a breakfast
of eggs, waffles, oatmeal, sausages and 1,000 doughnuts.
One private took a strap tethered to a transport
truck and tried to hitch it to the belt of an unwitting friend, a last prank
before shipping out.
The older soldiers, in their 30s and 40s, were
visibly more somber, having the experience of seeing comrades come home from
past deployments learning to walk on one leg or in flag-draped coffins.
“This is the mission, man,” said Brian Knight,
retired Army veteran who has been on five combat deployments to the Middle East.
He is the current director of a chapter of the United Service Organizations
military support charity.
“They’re answering America’s 911 call,” Knight
said. “They’re stoked to go. The president called for the 82nd.”
There was lots of wrestling holds as the troops
tossed their 75-pound (34 kg) backpacks onto transport trucks. The packs hold
everything from armor-plated vests, extra socks and underwear, to 210 rounds of
ammunition for their M-4 carbine rifles.
A sergeant pushed through the crowd shouting for
anyone with type-O blood, which can be transfused into any patient.
“The medics need you now. Move,” he said, before a
handful of troops walked off to give a little less than a pint each.
While members of the unit - considered the most
mobile in the U.S. Army - are used to quick deployments, this was different,
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Burns, an Army spokesman.
“The guys are excited to go but none of us know how
long they’ll be gone,” Burns said. “That’s the toughest part.”
Soldiers were ordered
not to bring cell phones, portable video games or any other devices that could
be used to communicate with friends and family back home, out of concern that
details of their movements could leak out.
“We’re an
infantry brigade,” Burns said. “Our primary mission is ground fighting. This is
as real as it gets.”
A sergeant
started rattling off last names, checking them off from a list after “heres”
and “yups” and “yos.”
For every
fighter, there were seven support crew members shipping out - cooks, aviators,
mechanics, medics, chaplains, and transportation and supply managers. All but
the chaplains would carry guns to fight.
A senior
master sergeant, 34, said: “The Army is an all-volunteer force. We want to do
this. You pay your taxes and we get to do this.”
The reality
of the deployment wouldn’t sink in until the troops “walk out that door,” he
said, pointing to the exit to the tarmac where C-4 and C-7 transport planes and
two contract commercial jets waited.
His call
came when he was on leave in his hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida, taking his
two young daughters to visit relatives and maybe go to Walt Disney World.
“We just got
there and I got the call to turn right around and head back to base,” he said.
“My wife knows the drill. I had to go. We drove right back.”
On a single
order, hundreds of soldiers jumped to their feet. They lined up single file and
marched out carrying their guns and kits and helmets, past a volunteer honor
guard holding aloft flags that flapped east in the January wind. -
Reuters
Yeah guys, going to war in the midddle east is no joke! Keep the faith
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