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With mixed feelings, troops assemble
Compiled from Times wires More than 1,350 members of the Florida Guard and U.S. Army reservists have been called to active duty this week, part of a national deployment of troops called for by President Bush. The call-up of 1,200 members from two battalions of the 124th Infantry is the largest deployment for the Florida Guard since World War II, according to officials in Guard headquarters in St. Augustine. The 124th is made up of foot soldiers with high-tech weaponry, said Lt. Col. Ron Tittle, spokesman for the Florida National Guard. Most of them live in Central Florida and the Panhandle. He said they will likely spend the next week training in Florida, then go to Fort Stewart, Ga. Members of the 257th Transportation Battalion from Gainesville were also called to duty. The final destinations of those groups haven't been announced. About 150 U.S. Army reservists from a military police unit based in Fort Lauderdale were also called up Thursday. The members of the 724th Military Police Battalion, the first Army Reserve unit to be activated in South Florida, will ship out Thursday to Fort Dix, N.J., for training, said Maj. Steve Kalch of Coral Springs. The unit will eventually be deployed in Kuwait to help with the operation of an internment facility for prisoners of war or civilian internees, Kalch said. Soldiers will be ordered to active duty initially for one year. The secretary of the Army may add an additional year of mobilization. Members of Alpha Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 124th Infantry, mustering at the National Guard Armory in Tallahassee on Friday, say they are ready for wherever war takes them. It will be the first active duty Company A has seen since Hurricane Opal ripped through the Florida Panhandle in 1994. This is different. These are the foot soldiers, and they are sent where the battle is fiercest. "I actually didn't think about it; it's a total shock," said Pvt. Steven Clemens, 22, a car salesman. He moved his planned February wedding to Tuesday so he could leave as a married man. "I'm scared," he said. "It's a new opportunity, but I'm scared about leaving my family." The troops could be used in the U.S. war on terrorism. They could be sent to Iraq or some other world trouble spot. They won't know until they assemble at Fort Stewart and get their orders. Friday's call-up was to inspect troops and their gear, make sure both were ready for action, and repack gear into knapsacks and duffel bags once troops got the okay from superiors. Then it was a lot of hurry-up-and-wait for someone to tell them what to do next. Dressed in their camouflage fatigues and boots, they gathered in small knots and talked, held earnest conversations on their cell phones, read books or took catnaps. Most have been training and drilling together the one weekend a month and two weeks a year the National Guard requires.. Everywhere, the mood was somber. The Guard members, many in their 20s, leave behind spouses, girlfriends or boyfriends, parents, jobs and school. "They aren't saying it, but you can see it in their eyes," said Sgt. Raymond Branch, 32. "We may goof around sometimes, but it's serious now." Spc. John Crawford, 24, had to cancel the last class he needed to get his bachelor's degree in anthropology from Florida State University. It will have to wait for his return. "I'm not too concerned," Crawford said. "This is something that we train for, we prepare for, just like doing a job." "Actually, I'm kind of looking forward to it," said Pvt. Lashard Gardner, 21, in civilian life a produce worker at Publix who lives at home with his parents and sister. "It may be a new adventure, something new to add onto my chronicles." -- Information from the Associated Press and Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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