Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) February 28, 2003
REGIMENT REFLECTS, GETS READY FOR MISSION
By John C. Ensslin, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
On Monday, Capt. Burris Wollsieffer, a 29-year-old West Point graduate, expects to hear whether he got into graduate school at MIT.
But even if he's accepted, Wollsieffer won't be going, at least not right away. For him, the immediate future is in the Middle East.
Wollsieffer is a member of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Based at Fort Carson, the 3rd ACR was placed on alert earlier this month for as yet unspecified duty.
On Thursday, Wollsieffer and others marked Heritage Day at the regiment museum, an occasion that evoked both pride and concern.
The pride comes from the regiment's storied past, a history that includes such notables as Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson, Jeb Stuart and George Patton.
The concern grows from uncertainty.
"I'm not going to lie to you. I am pretty nervous about this upcoming mission," Wollsieffer said.
"The bottom line is we don't know how long we're going to be over there and we don't know what the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein are going to throw at us."
The last time the 3rd tangled with the Iraqi Republican Guard was during Operation Desert Storm.
In two major engagements, the regiment destroyed more than 300 enemy vehicles and captured more than 2,000 prisoners.
Wollsieffer, who has a wife and 4-year-old daughter, is two months away from completing his five-year commitment to the Army.
Long before the situation in Iraq started to heat up, he had applied to graduate schools and began planning his post-military career. The program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology combines electrical engineering with a master's degree in business administration.
But all of that is on hold now.
"I couldn't live with myself - getting out of the Army - if we're going to war," Wollsieffer said.
He said whatever worries there are about the mission have given way to tradition and a sense of faith and duty.
"My wife, she's just been crying nonstop," he said. "It's tough . . . But I just tell her that you've got to have faith that things will work out, that I'll come home and that we'll continue on with our lives."
Micah Turner, a Buckeye, Ariz., native, regrets that he probably won't get to see his daughter Abby's second birthday. He'll miss watching her play, as she was doing Thursday underneath a vintage cavalry saddle.
"Da-da!" she said.
"Hey, squirt," he replied.
Turner said he loves how his daughter will laugh for hours at the dog, a dachshund. He'll miss that, too.
But then the sense of duty kicks in.
"It's my job," said Turner, who spent three years with the Marines and the last four with the Army.
"It's something I take very seriously. It's a commitment that I have," he said. "When you're put in a situation like this, you have to maintain focus, because if you don't, somebody gets killed."
Right now, his wife and daughter depend on him. But in combat, a lot of soldiers also rely on him.
"I've got soldiers who are scared. I've got soldiers who need to be prepared for what's going to happen," Turner said.
"It'll keep my mind busy and as long as my mind is busy, it doesn't dwell on the things that I can't control."
INFOBOX
The 3rd Armored Cavalry in the first Gulf War
On Aug. 7, 1990, the regiment was alerted to move overseas in defense of Saudi Arabia.
In September 1990, the regiment arrived as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps and moved into defensive positions south of the Kuwaiti border.
On Jan. 22 , 1991, elements of I Troop led by Col. Douglas Starr engaged in the first ground combat of the XVIII Airborne Corps.
On Feb. 22, F Troop led the regiment into Iraq. In 100 hours, the regiment moved more than 300 kilometers and left remnants of three Iraqi Republican Guard divisions in its wake.
As quickly as it had been deployed overseas, the regiment was deployed back to the United States, arriving home on April 5, 1991.
Source: www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/3acr.htm
NOTES:
Related color photo p.1A;
SEE END OF TEXT FOR INFOBOX
GRAPHIC: Photo, Sgt. Micah Turner, center, enjoys the afternoon Thursday with his, wife, Kira, and 1-year-old daughter, Abby, at the 3rd Armored Cavalry Museum, at Fort Carson. Turner, a member of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, is, preparing to be sent overseas. The 3rd was placed on alert earlier this month, for as yet unspecified duty. Turner and others marked Heritage Day at the, museum. BARRY GUTIERREZ , ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
Copyright © 2003, Denver Publishing Company
