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Monday, June 5, 2006
Families bid farewell to soldiers off to Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kimberly Smith/AJC
Amanda Hickman (top) of Rome, Ga., gives her husband, Specialist Jeremy Hickman a tearful hug. Sgt. Ian Carter of Decatur bids farewell to Caddock, his 6-month-old son.
Tears flowed and the apprehension was evident on the faces of family members and friends who gathered Monday at Fort Gillem for a send-off ceremony for Georgia Army National Guard soldiers.
On the heels of the 48th Brigade Combat Team’s return from a yearlong deployment in Iraq, more of Georgia’s citizen soldiers are heading to the combat zone.
Company H of the 121st Infantry Regiment’s 1st Battalion leaves for Fort Hood, Texas, today for two months of training, after which the 175 soldiers will head to Iraq, many for a second tour.
“I’m excited to go,” said Pfc. Jason Tomassini, 20, who works at a sporting goods store near Douglasville. “I’ve always wanted to be a soldier since I was little.”
Company H, an airborne long-range surveillance unit, deployed to the Middle East in February 2003, spending seven months in Iraq after the U.S. invasion in March. This time they will spend 12 months there.
Although the 48th, with about 4,400 soldiers, was the largest Georgia Guard unit to serve in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Lawrence Ross, commander of the 78th Troop Command, said at least 475 Guard troops from the state are serving there. Several more units are preparing to go later this year, and eventually will raise the total number of Georgia Guard members in Iraq to about 700, Ross said.
An additional 215 soldiers of the Georgia Air National Guard are also in Iraq, according to the state Guard office.
One of those soldiers already in Iraq, Maj. Michael Fordham, plans officer for the 122nd Rear Operations Center, is in charge of base defense operations at Baghdad’s vast Camp Victory complex near the airport. He described his job running the watch towers, checkpoints and badging facilities as “sort of like running a small city.”
Fordham, a 27-year veteran of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation with expertise in undercover sting operations, said that like many of the 48th’s soldiers, his civilian occupation helps him in his military role in Iraq.
Gary Rothwell, a special agent in Perry, said Fordham was good in his job in Iraq because he is “creative in working out solutions.?”
“If you’re playing a role and something changes, you have to figure out how to maintain your cover and use what’s given to you,” Rothwell said.
He said GBI agents often would be working on several cases simultaneously and that meant taking on several personas at once. Fordham credited those organizational skills learned at the GBI for his successes in Iraq.
He reiterated what Guard leaders say frequently: National Guard soldiers bring an important set of civilian skills to their duties in Iraq. That’s especially true of men and women who deal with Iraqi citizens and local governments and institutions regularly.
That kind of close interaction worried Sgt. Jason Strohmetz, 32, a lineman for Georgia Power who served with Company H in Iraq in 2003. He said he knew the nature of the Iraq war had changed vastly since he was last there — roadside bombs and insurgent attacks were not nearly as prevalent then — and he feared having to perform civilian-like policing duties in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.
“I’m more concerned about having to act like a police officer rather than a soldier,” he said. “Combat seems simpler.”
Ross said the long-range surveillance soldiers such as Strohmetz are badly needed in the fight against Iraq’s insurgency.
“They go forward in small teams and gather intelligence,” Ross said. “They look for infiltrators, look for bombs, bad guys. Their role is to not be seen, to be stealthy. It’s a tremendous role for our unit.”
But of all the anxieties of being called to war, Strohmetz said he most dreaded having to say goodbye again to his wife and four daughters. His youngest, Abby, 4, didn’t recognize him when he returned last time.
“I’m going to miss my family but I don’t mind at all,” said Strohmetz, who lives in Warner Robins. “I’m old-fashioned about the military. I feel like I’m supposed to be doing this when our country is at war.”
— Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this article.
