By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
09-10-2004

A U.S. Army Reserve spokesman confirmed this morning that the 844th Engineer Battalion, including Greeneville-based Company C, is being mobilized for active duty.

Lt. Col. Dave Rodgers, a Birmingham, Ala.,-based public affairs officer, said the reserve soldiers of Company C, along with their counterparts from 844th units in Johnson City, Chattanooga, and Knoxville, will be sent to Camp Shelby, Miss., in October for training for possible deployment to Iraq.

Col. Rodgers said the exact date on which the local Army reservists will report to Camp Shelby had not yet been set.

The 844th also was called to active duty, as a unit, during Operation Desert Storm in 1990-91.

However, a number of individual members of Greeneville-based Company C were transferred last year to other Army Reserve units that were being sent to Iraq.

This time, Col. Rodgers said, reservists from other units will be transferred to Company C to bring the unit up to combat strength of about 140 personnel when it is deployed to Camp Shelby.

Col. Rodgers said a ceremony honoring the departing reservists will be held at the Greeneville Army Reserve Center before the unit departs for Camp Shelby, but no date for that ceremony had been set as of this morning, he colonel said.

Many members of Greeneville-based Troop G of the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment already are at Camp Shelby, Miss., and are undergoing training in preparation for an expected assignment in Iraq later this year.

The 278th will get a “big send-off” on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, before deploying to the Mideast, Tennessee National Guard officials said.

Guard Spokesman Sgt. Randy Harris told The Associated Press that the National Guard doesn’t have a definite date for when members of the state’s largest unit will deploy.

But the going-away party is set for Nov. 11 at Camp Shelby, Miss., he said.

“It’s a good time for families to travel down,” Harris told the AP.

Story Copyright to Greene County Online