IndyStar.com February 23, 2007
3,500 Hoosiers may go to Iraq in '08
Call up of an entire Guard brigade would be biggest since WWII
By Will Higgins and Tim Evans
The Indiana National Guard announced Thursday that the biggest unit called up since World War II could head for Iraq in 2008 to bolster the surge of U.S. troops there.
Every unit in the 76th Infantry Brigade has seen duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the 3,500-soldier outfit has not served together in a war zone. The mobilization is "potential," according to a Guard statement released Thursday, as the Army looks for ways to sustain the increased number of troops ordered into Iraq by President Bush.
The soldiers of the 76th had been told they'd be staying home until at least 2010. Last month, the Defense Department notified its leaders to move that up a year. On Wednesday night, Guard officials informed their soldiers the timeline had been bumped up again, to 2008, with the mobilization expected in the first half of the year.
Mobilization of brigades in Arkansas, Ohio and Oklahoma also was moved up.
"You hate to tell soldiers and families on rumor," said Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, the adjutant general in charge of Indiana's 13,000 National Guard troops, "but the comment to me (from the Defense Department) was, 'This isn't certain, but we're looking at your unit.' "
First, the 76th will need some re-fitting.
"We're short on night-vision goggles," Umbarger said, "and some machine guns, vehicles and communication equipment." He said he has "made that clear" to the Defense Department and expects a full larder in advance of departure.
Word that the 76th is short of key equipment is a worry, U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Evansville, said in a written statement.
"I am deeply concerned about reports of weapon and equipment shortages for soldiers," he said.
Guardsmen on Thursday said they were ready to go and had no qualms.
"It's a fluid situation, and our job is to respond," said Lt. Kent Anderson, an urban planner in Columbus who will lead an ambulance platoon. "If you're not ready to deploy, you're in the wrong organization."
Still, for such citizen-soldiers, mobilization means serious disruption. Anderson, 39, has a wife and three children -- two 7-year-olds and a 9-year-old. He and his wife have discussed having her and the children stay with her parents in Germany while he's away.
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, units in the 76th have spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Roughly 200 of the soldiers -- 150 artillerymen from Evansville and 60 engineers from Hammond -- returned from Iraq only three months ago. Those troops won't be required to go back with the others.
Although Umbarger was optimistic about the accelerated mobilization, military analyst John Pike said it could cause recruiting and retention problems.
"If not for the surge, I think they would have left the Guard alone," said Pike, who operates the Web site GlobalSecurity.org. "But they cannot sustain the surge on the active component alone. And there is no way the Army is going to tell Mr. Bush, 'You are going to have to give up on this surge idea because the Army can't hack it alone.' So they are turning to the Guard."
Spc. Timothy Thomas, 26, an infantryman from Highland who served a tour in Afghanistan, said he is ready and willing for more action.
"That's what we do," said Thomas, who works as a police officer.
But he said the public's growing opposition to the war is a stark contrast to the mood when Indiana units were first deployed in 2004.
"Questioning is always a good thing," he said. "Having your own opinions is always a good thing. But when all people do is slam the president and the policies, it is kind of hard."
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