N.J. Guard Gears For Early Iraq Tour

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer
November 12, 2007
Pg. 1
But the Army's renewed commitment to families is a welcome move.
By Edward Colimore, Inquirer Staff Writer
They didn't expect to be called up for duty in Iraq until 2010. They didn't know the coming holidays would be the last with their families for a year. And they didn't realize they'd be retrained as in-lieu-ofs - the name for provisional military police.
But 2,650 members of the New Jersey Army National Guard's 50th Brigade Infantry Combat Team are now training for their new jobs and preparing their families for a yearlong absence.
"I want everything to be as normal as possible over the holidays," said Staff Sgt. Kirk-Patrick Capers, 35, a member of the 50th who lives in Easton, Pa. He is married and has a 9-year-old son.
"Time is precious. It's more precious than anything you can buy in the store. But people can't be thinking too much that I will be gone for a year."
The soldiers will become increasingly busy during the coming months and are likely to enter an intensive training phase by June before leaving for Iraq in September.
The unit is being shipped to Iraq earlier than its expected 2010 deployment because of a change in Defense Department policy limiting call-up time - including training - to one year. That means other units in Iraq come home earlier, creating a need for fresh combat troops.
Joining the 50th will be about 170 members of the 328th Military Police Co. headquartered at the Cherry Hill Armory and more than 100 members of the General Support Aviation Battalion from West Trenton. About 16 Guard soldiers were mobilized Sept. 20 as Army mentors and advisers to the Afghan National Army.
In Pennsylvania, the National Guard got word that nearly 4,000 troops will likely head to Iraq next year, including members of an infantry company that lost six of itsmembers there in 2005.
"We're prepared mentally and physically. This is what we train for," Sgt. Capers said Wednesday at Fort Dix. "The families take in stride that you have a commitment."
Another member of the 50th, Staff Sgt. Mike Scuzzese, 24, of Hopatcong, N.J., said he wanted "nothing more than to go" to Iraq. He has already been there as a member of the Third Battalion of the 112th Field Artillery, whose members were pressed into service as provisional military police and which lost four members in combat in 2004.
Cherished moments
Scuzzese was assigned to the same squad as two of them - Sgt. Humberto Timoteo of Newark and Sgt. Ryan Doltz of Mine Hill, who died when a roadside bomb destroyed their vehicle. He now dates Timoteo's younger sister, Dina.
"Timoteo was my mentor and Doltz was my roommate," said Scuzzese at Fort Dix, where Senior Army Reserve Command leaders pledged to help support families of soldiers through a $1.4 billion military program. "Dina has serious doubts about me going back.
"She stresses over it every day. I have a hard time talking about the subject."
Scuzzese said he and his girlfriend want to "spend the maximum time together" before the deployment.
"We don't plan anything special," he said. "The moments cherished most are those shared just before the soldier leaves."
As Scuzzese and Capers prepare to deploy, they said they felt comforted by the Army's renewed commitment to soldiers' families through the Family Covenant ceremonies at bases all over the world.
The convenantcovenant pledges better communication with families, better employment opportunities, and improved services.
Supporting families
Soldiers "have to know their families were being taken care of," Scuzzese said. "You have to be 100 percent [in Iraq]. Any distractions can mean your life."
Patricia Keffer, wife of one the 50th's soldiers, David Keffer Sr., said Army officials had been "very supportive and opened their arms to me."
"It may just be a hug or kind words," said Keffer, who lives in Browns Mills with her two children, 4-year-old David Jr. and 5-month-old Angelica. "I don't know if you can ever be ready."
Keffer said she kept a scrapbook. "I can see all the times we've been separated," she said of her husband.
The commander of the 50th, Col. Steve Ferrari, 45, of West Berlin, said the unit would head to its mobilization station, probably at Fort Bliss, Texas, in June.
"The biggest challenge will be completing the training in the window of time allotted," said Ferrari, who swore in his 19-year-old son, Steve, this month to be a member the 328th Military Police Co. in Cherry Hill. "There is a sense of anticipation and focus on the mission."
Beginning Nov. 26, the troops will go through soldier readiness processing, which includes a full medical evaluation and administrative check of all records to make sure they're current, including wills and power-of-attorney documents.
"That will run through January," said Ferrari, who also has a 17-year-old son. "You are leaving jobs and family members, so there are various issues."
At the end of January, Ferrari said, the troops "will do some training, mandatory briefings, and then go to the range and forward operating base at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., in April. Once we are there, they will be carrying their weapons 24 hours a day."
The 50th's primary mission will be security at prison sites, though some soldiers may serve at security checkpoints and on convoys, Ferrari said.
The unit's deputy commander, Lt. Col. Ken Schechter, 45, of Toms River, N.J., said he had served overseas before "but this is a little more hostile environment.
"Most people have a little trepidation leaving loved ones overseas in that environment, but that's part of what we do," said Schechter, who is married and has a 20-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter.
"If we're ordered to go overseas to protect the country, that's what we do. That's what we signed up for."
The Army's pledge to help families comes after senior members of the military have served extended periods in Iraq and Afghanistan and understood better what the troops were enduring.
Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz Jr., commander of the U.S. Army Reserve, said the family convenant signing ceremony "signifies that the Army recognizes how important families are in sustaining a long war. We have to take care of the families back home."
"More of our soldiers are married now," he said. "And if they don't focus on the mission, somebody's going to get hurt."
 
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