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Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Worry over storm hard to handle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Striker, Iraq � If she were in the United States, Spc. Shareema Love would probably be on the Gulf Coast now with thousands of other Army National Guard soldiers helping in the hurricane relief effort.
Instead, Love, a member of the 48th Brigade Combat Team, is almost 7,000 miles away in southwest Baghdad, checking identification cards of soldiers entering a recreational facility at Camp Striker.
“It’s crazy to be here right now and not be there to help, particularly because that’s our specialty,” said Love, an administrative clerk in Savannah.
Many of her fellow Georgia soldiers feel the same way. Their emotions have been heightened by the presence of soldiers from Louisiana’s 256th Brigade Combat Team, who have been temporarily housed at Striker before they head home.
Spc. Jennifer Jones played softball with Louisianans this week.
Hearing their stories of flooded homes and loved ones in trouble was difficult to bear.
“I can’t imagine what they are going through,” said Jones, a student and certified nursing assistant from Dublin.
After Hurricane Frances last year, Jones was called up to distribute water and food to storm victims. She wished she could be home now to help.
“That’s our job, to protect our homeland,” she said. “And we’re not there.”
For some support battalion soldiers such as Jones, who drives a supply truck, helping hurricane victims would be a more personally rewarding job.
She acknowledged the Army needs her in Iraq’s war zone, but she would rather be helping fellow Americans than be a part of a combat mission in a foreign land that she doesn’t always fully comprehend.
About 1,500 citizen soldiers from Georgia have been sent to the Gulf Coast, including about 250 members of the 48th Brigade’s rear detachment.
Pfc. Jacob Chapman, whose father serves in the Monroe-based 178th Military Police Co., which is among the units involved in hurricane aid, said every soldier has a role to play.
He is glad the 48th Brigade soldiers who stayed behind in Georgia are doing their part in hurricane-ravaged areas. But, as an infantryman, he said he would rather be fighting the insurgency in Iraq.
“I’d rather be here than there,” said Chapman, an employee of a Walton County utilities network.
“There’s too much politics over there,” he said referring to criticism of government response to the disaster.
Staff Sgt. Eddie Riggins, a heavy-equipment operator from Albany, said he hopes America has enough Guard units to assist in the emergency.
“If I was there, I would want to be a part of it,” he said. “That’s what I do.”
But, for the moment, he said, 48th Brigade soldiers in Iraq have to concentrate on their tasks at hand.
First Lt. Michael Zellous, a schoolteacher from McDonough, agreed.
“It’s a terrible shame I can’t help my fellow Americans,” he said. “But when duty calls, I am required to serve wherever they send me. It’s true I’d rather help Americans, but I feel like my presence here is helping Americans too.”
