News Article

Photo Special to the Sun - Sgt. lst Class Jon Taber, of Greeneville, left, and his platoon leader, Lt. Petero, posed for the photo last year behind an armored personnel carrier in a repair area at Camp Cook north of Baghdad, Iraq. Taber said he could not recall Lt. Petero’s first name.

By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
03-08-2005

Sgt. 1st Class Jon Taber, a U.S. Army reservist from Greeneville, returned home Feb. 17 after a year of military service in Iraq.

"I’m glad to be home in the good old USA," Taber, 36, said during a Monday interview. "We returned with our entire unit. We were truly blessed."

He recalled that when the Lyons, Miss.,-based 850th Transportation Company returned from Iraq to Fort Stewart, Ga., last month, his wife, Kim; son, Caleb; and mother, Narda Taber, drove there to pick him up.

Sgt. 1st Class Taber said he has been employed by the Parker Hannifin plant on Snapps Ferry Road for 15 years. He plans to return to work there later this month.

During a Monday interview, Taber said that he had been a member of Greeneville-based Company C of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 844th Engineer Battalion for 18 years before he was transferred in January 2004 to the Mississippi unit shortly before it deployed to Iraq.

Taber said he deployed to Iraq from Fort Stewart, Ga., last year. He recalled that 30 to 40 percent of the company’s members at the time it went to Iraq on Jan. 10, 2004, were reservists from other southern states. He was one of only three East Tennesseans assigned to the unit. The other two, he said, were from the Knoxville area.

"We had pretty much the entire South represented," he said.

Once in Iraq, he said, the 130-soldier-strong 850th Transportation Company was based at Logistic ("Log") Base Seitz on the outskirts of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.

At Log Base Seitz, he said, the soldiers of the 850th Transportation Company lived in a converted warehouse that had been divided into two-man "cubicles."

He noted that he learned from younger members of the unit how to save photos he had taken in Iraq onto a laptop computer that he purchased at his base’s Post Exchange (PX).

He noted that he also used the computer to view DVD movies that could be purchased from Iraqi street vendors for as little as four for one dollar.

"They were copies and kind of grainy, but we watched them," he said.

Air-conditioning units at the converted warehouse sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t, he said, noting that temperatures went as high as 140 degrees at times and often were well above 100 degrees in the hotter months.

Trucking 'All Over Iraq'

From Log Base Seitz, Taber said, he, drove large 10-wheel-drive military trucks known to the army as Palletized Loading Systems (PLS) to military bases “all over Iraq.” They were used to transport massive 20-foot-long shipping containers of food, water and other supplies.

Taber said some of the unit’s convoys lasted only five to six hours, but others took much longer.

"One trip back to Kuwait took nine days," he said. "You were basically living in your truck."

Once in Kuwait, he said, he saw two other members of Greeneville-based Company C of the 844th Engineer Battalion at a base in Kuwait.

"They were doing well," he said.

He noted that he also saw Aaron Eatmon and Alan Castle, two Greene County members of the Army National Guard’s 278th Regimental Combat Team, while he was in Iraq.

He noted that convoy vehicles generally moved from one base to another and remained in the relative safety of a U.S. base until they could be escorted to the next base in convoys.

Some Vehicles Armored

Some of the unit’s 48 large trucks, he said, had had armor plating and bullet-proof glass added to protect the driver and assistant driver, but some did not have the extra protection.

He said that armor was being added to the unit’s large trucks in Iraq, but that the process to "up-armor" a single truck could take as long as three weeks.

After his unit had been in Iraq for some time, he said, members of the company drove the 500 miles (one way) back to Kuwait to pick up Jeep-like HUMVEE vehicles that were equipped with additional armor plating and 2-inch-thick bullet-proof glass.

The "up-armored" HUMVEEs then were brought back to Iraq for use in escorting convoys of trucks, he recalled.

Sgt. 1st Class Taber said only one member of the 850th Transportation Company was wounded by enemy fire in Iraq. That soldier, who was struck by a fragment of a mortar round, was able to return to duty, he said.

Taber noted that members of the unit took great pains to vary the routes they took while participating in supply convoys to other military bases around Iraq in an effort to avoid attacks by insurgent forces.

"The enemy knew where we were and that let us know we weren’t welcome from time to time," he said.

Most Iraqis Supportive

But Taber said the vast majority of the Iraqis with whom he came in contact during his tour of duty supported the American presence in Iraq.

"It’s just a small percentage of the population that is opposed to us," he said.

He also said that he appreciated the prayers, letters and packages he received from Greene County residents while he was in Iraq.

"It really made you feel good to get something, " he said.

Late in the 850th Transportation Company’s tour of duty last December, Taber said, the soldiers feared that their scheduled year-long tour of duty in Iraq might be extended because of the Iraqi elections, which were scheduled for Jan. 30, 2005.

"We were scared to death we would get extended," he said. "But, fortunately, we weren’t."

When the 850th Transportation Company was ordered back to Kuwait in February, he said, the unit left its vehicles behind in Iraq to be used by the unit that was replacing it.

"We flew on a (U.S. Air Force) C-130 (transport aircraft) from Baghdad to Kuwait," he said. "Then, we flew commercial airlines back to the United States."

Story Copyright to Chattanooga Times Free press