News Article

Sun Photo by Bill Jones - Three more National Guardsmen assigned to 278th Regimental Combat Team units left the Greeneville National Guard Armory on Sunday morning on the first stage of a journey that will take them to Iraq. Shown above, from left, are Spc. Paul E. Ricker, of Greeneville; 1st Sgt. William LaForce, of Rogersville; and Spc. Don. L. Whitlow, of Parrottsville.

By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
02-28-2005

Three more Tennessee National Guardsmen assigned to area units of the 278th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) departed from the Greeneville National Guard Armory early Sunday morning on the first stage of a journey that will take them to Iraq.

Spc. Paul E. Ricker, of Greeneville, Spc. Don L. Whitlow, of Parrottsville, and 1st Sgt. William LaForce, of Rogersville left the armory on Hal Henard Road at 7 a.m. Sunday aboard a Greene Coach bus as a small group of family members and well-wishers watched.

Before the departure, Whitlow and Ricker said they were traveling first to Camp Shelby, Miss., but expected, eventually, to be sent to Forward Operating Base Bernstein in northern Iraq, where many Greeneville-area 278th RCT National Guardsmen already are serving.

Sunday marked the second time LaForce, Ricker and Whitlow have departed for Camp Shelby. All three, according to fellow National Guardsmen, went to Camp Shelby last year with the main body of their units, but were sent home because of various medical problems that have since been corrected.

Waiting with Ricker and Whitlow before the bus departed from the armory at 7 a.m. Sunday were their wives, Janna Ricker, and Diane Whitlow.

Mrs. Ricker tearfully hugged her husband, who is an employee of the MTD plant in Greeneville, a short time before the bus departed. Ricker said the couple had been married for 17 years.

Nearby, Don and Diane Whitlow also embraced as their son, Brian, watched from a short distance away. The Whitlows said they have been married for 15 years.

Moment’s later, word was passed that it was time for the bus to depart, and the three soldiers boarded after exchanging final goodbyes with their families.

The large, green and white bus quickly pulled from the parking lot as family members waved amid the morning chill.

"Those bus motors sure will sound a lot better when they’re coming the other direction," said Dwight Carr, a National Guard retiree who now works as a "readiness technician" at the Greeneville National Guard Armory.

Carr said after the three guardsmen departed that he did not believe that any other 278th RCT soldiers who had been left behind when the main body of the unit departed last year would be called to active duty.

In addition to family members, Gary Hensley, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1990, and Carolyn Broyles, the VFW post’s adjutant, were present on Sunday morning to say goodbye to the departing soldiers.

Both Hensley and Broyles are veterans of 2003 service in Kuwait and Iraq with the Gray-based 730th Quartermaster Company of the Tennessee Army National Guard.

Hensley said the local VFW post was inviting the National Guardsmen to join the post when they return. He also said the post is providing free steak dinners to 278th RCT soldiers when they come home on leave from Iraq.

278th RCT’s Background

Many of the citizen-soldiers from 278th RCT units across the state were called to active duty last June and are serving in Iraq. More than 60 members of Greeneville-based Troop G of the 278th RCT left home last Father’s Day for training at Camp Shelby, Miss., and Fort Irwin, Calif.

The Troop G citizen-soldiers were among more than 3,000 other 278th RCT members from Tennessee who were called to active duty last year and who are serving in Iraq.

They were sent to Kuwait last November and reached Iraq in December.

Nine other 278th RCT National Guardsmen from Northeast Tennessee bid farewell to their families at the Greeneville National Guard Armory on Jan. 16.

A spokesman at Tennessee National Guard headquarters in Nashville had said in January that about 60 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment soldiers who had been left behind when the main body of 278th troops were sent to Kuwait last fall were being called up in January.

In addition to the National Guardsmen from Greeneville-based Troop G of the 278th RCT who are serving in Iraq, more than 100 members of Greeneville-based Company C of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 844th Engineer Battalion are on active duty in Kuwait.

Story Copyright to The Greeneville Sun