The Courier-Journal February 28, 2003
Troops depart Kentucky for Mideast as war looms
Soldiers, anxious families say goodbye
By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
Almost 5,000 troops from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell were deployed to the Middle East this week -- a move that one analyst called a sign that war is imminent.
And at Fort Knox, 140 soldiers from the 233rd Transportation Company left yesterday.
''This is one of those 'really, no kidding' deployments people have been waiting for,'' Patrick Garrett, an associate analyst with Alexandria, Va.-based GlobalSecurity.org, said of the 101st Airborne's departure.
The Fort Knox unit learned Wednesday that it would be leaving.
When the word came, Connie Gregg knew she had less than 24 hours to say goodbye to her husband, Sgt. Robert Gregg.
She helped him pack his rucksack. She decided which pictures of their children, 1 and 2 years old, to send with him. She cooked him his favorite supper -- homemade chicken and noodles. They sat up all night, talking, until he had to report at 3 a.m.
''I know he's gonna face danger, but being a military wife, you just can't think about it,'' Gregg said, wiping away tears after her 24-year-old husband, dressed in desert battle fatigues and carrying a rifle, blew a final kiss before stepping aboard an Army bus at Fort Knox.
The Kentucky soldiers will join about 225,000 U.S. forces that the Pentagon says have been deployed to the Persian Gulf region. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that the show of force is designed in part to pressure Saddam Hussein into complying with United Nations resolutions demanding his country's disarmament.
The 233rd Transportation Company at Fort Knox trucks 70-ton Abrams battle tanks among ports, bases and battlefields. It is the first permanent unit from the fort to be sent overseas.
For the past week, eight to 12 flights a day have been transporting almost 5,000 members of the 101st, said Sgt. Michael Polanco, a public affairs officer at Fort Campbell. The 101st is a rapid-deployment division and parts of it -- some of its forward units -- are trained to go anywhere in the world within 36 hours.
Former Army Col. Bill Taylor said the 101st's deployment adds to ''unbelievable'' military momentum toward war against Iraq.
''We're leaning so far forward in the saddle that in international politics there is no way to back off now unless there's a coup in Iraq or some kind of major (Iraqi military) defection we can't predict,'' said Taylor, who is senior vice president with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ''We are committed.''
The 101st is ''the most versatile force we have,'' he said. ''They can go anywhere, do anything, any time.''
But former Marine Lt. Col. Phil Anderson, a senior fellow at the center and a military analyst, cautioned about reading too much into the 101st's deployment.
''Does this mean war is getting closer? Yeah, but every deployment means we're getting closer,'' he said.
The driving factors in determining the start of the war go beyond when troops are deployed, he said.
''A simple, straightforward (factor) is weather,'' Anderson said. ''We don't want to be caught up in a protracted conflict when it heats up over there in the desert or anywhere in Iraq. . . . Another is phases of the moon. We want to operate in low ambient light.''
Taylor and other military analysts expect the 101st to be deployed on the western front against Iraq, to be sent into the desert to seize enemy airfields and knock out missile sites.
Taylor said the 101st's soldiers will link up with U.S. special forces who have already penetrated Iraq and are pinpointing key targets.
He said he expected U.S. action against Iraq to begin by about March 14.
Garrett said his only question is how quickly the 101st will link up with its equipment. Some is on two ships that already are bound for staging areas near Iraq. Two additional vessels are being loaded now, and are likely to take 18 days to reach their destinations, he said.
Kentucky's latest deployments come on top of more than 2,000 Kentucky reservists and National Guard members who are on active duty as the nation faces a fight against terrorism and a looming war.
With the U.N. Security Council at odds over the U.S. push for military action and uncertainties about whether Iraq will disarm, soldiers said that even their commanders probably can't predict what's ahead.
''We don't know if (Saddam Hussein) is going to roll over or put up a fight,'' said Sgt. Kevin Hooper, 40, dressed in desert fatigues and battle gear as he prepared to leave Fort Knox yesterday morning. ''Either way, we're ready.''
His company -- which served in the Gulf War when it was based out of Texas -- will fall under the U.S. Central Command, which coordinates operations in the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.
Master Sgt. John Pinnell, a Fort Knox spokesman, said he didn't know how long the 233rd's soldiers would be away from their families. ''It could be for the duration,'' he said.
Although some individuals and small groups from Fort Knox already have been deployed, few additional units are likely to follow because the base is largely a training facility.
Officials at Fort Campbell have said that all of the 101st Airborne's 20,000 members will be deployed to the area of operation of the Army's Central Command.
Jim Patton, national secretarytreasurer of the 101st Airborne Association, which has an office at Fort Campbell, said, ''Our prayers go with them and we wish them the very best.''
He added: ''We live in fear that Saddam Hussein might unleash weapons of mass destruction on our troops. You don't like to see anybody move into harm's way, but I have all kinds of confidence in the world that they will succeed.''
At a sendoff ceremony yesterday at Fort Knox, hundreds of family members and fellow soldiers filled a flaglined theater to say goodbye. Wives held babies and cried. Children waved patriotic pinwheels and passed out yellow ribbons. A brass band played rousing marches as soldiers squeezed, along with their guns, into seats beneath stern portraits of the legendary Gen. George Patton to listen to speeches.
''I'm damn proud of you,'' Lt. Col. Ty Siedule, the company's battalion commander, told his troops from a podium. ''You're trained and ready. If we go to war, we're going to win.''
The men and women of the company shuffled outside, where darkwindowed buses waited to take them for further processing and, later, to Louisville for a flight. Commanders gave the soldiers about 20 minutes to say goodbye to dozens of family members who stood, hugged and wept in a freezing drizzle.
Sgt. Gregg said he was ''worried as much as anybody is.'' But he said that leaving his family was ''much harder than I expected.''
Connie Gregg said it has been hard explaining it all to her sons: ''I said, 'Daddy's got to go away for a while.' My oldest, Hunter, asked, 'Daddy back? Daddy back?' I said, 'Yes. Daddy back.' ''
Joycelyn McGlothen, 18, was at the ceremony to see her father off, having just arrived from Florida. She took the first plane out when she heard the news. Her father served in Operation Desert Storm, she said, but she was too young to worry at the time. That's no longer true.
''It's the fear of the unknown,'' she said, as she helped her mother pass out yellow ribbons. ''It's been hard.''
Sgt. Tabatha Gibson, 28, pushed her rifle out of the way before hugging her three young children and husband goodbye. She said she was proud of what she was doing but uneasy about leaving her family. Her daughter shared those sentiments.
''I'm sad,'' said daughter Jazmine, 7. ''But my mom told me not to worry.''
Staff writers Jim Malone and James R. Carroll contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2003, The Courier-Journal.
