08-27-2005

By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun

On a two-week leave from his duties in Iraq, 1st Sgt. Eddie Pridemore is home with his wife, Valorie, and other family members.

But it was clear during a Thursday interview that he remained focused on the 90 other members of the Morristown-based 190th Engineer Company who remain on duty in Iraq.

During a Wednesday afternoon conversation with a Greeneville Sun reporter, 1st Sgt. Pridemore, a 43-year-old Greeneville resident who is a project inspector with the Greeneville-based Vaughn & Melton engineering company in civilian life, said he must return to Iraq on Aug. 30.

Pridemore returned home on Aug. 15, the day after his 11th wedding anniversary, he said.

Valorie Pridemore, who accompanied her husband on Wednesday, said she didn�t mind that he was unable to make it home in time for their anniversary as they had hoped.

"I'm just glad he got home safe and sound," she said.

Mrs. Pridemore noted that she had been active in the Family Readiness Group when her husband was a platoon sergeant in Greeneville-based Troop G prior to becoming the 1st Sgt. of the 190th Engineers about three years ago.

"I knew what to expect, but living it is different," she said of the experience of having her husband and his fellow National Guardsmen deployed to Iraq.

"Don't Get Complacent"

1st Sgt. Pridemore said one of his primary concerns once he returns to Iraq will be ensuring that members of his unit "don't get complacent" about the dangers there while waiting for their year-long tour of duty to end.

"We don�t want to lose anyone else," he said. "One was too many."

Since early December 2004, he said, his Tennessee Army National Guard Company has been attached to the 2nd Squadron of the Army National Guard�s 278th Regimental Combat Team (2/278th RCT) at Forward Operating Base Bernstein in northeastern Iraq.

Pridemore said he hopes the entire 2/278th will be home before Thanksgiving, but said he did not yet know what the unit�s return date might be.

He noted that the 2/278th arrived in Kuwait on Nov. 21, 2004, and moved into Iraq in early December.

Many former members of the 2/278th's Greeneville-based Troop G also are based at FOB Bernstein, he noted.

Pridemore, who has completed "almost 25 years" in the National Guard, said he was part of a six-day convoy that brought the initial elements of the 2/278th to FOB Bernstein from Kuwait during the first week of December last year.

He also is among the last members of his company to come home on leave from Iraq. "I wanted to make sure my men got to take leave first," he said.

1st Sgt. Pridemore said the 190th Engineers have been busy doing everything from 'route clearing' (the military term for scouting roads for hidden bombs) to building a hospital for an Iraqi Army unit camped adjacent to FOB Bernstein.

One construction project undertaken at FOB Bernstein by the 190th Engineers even took on a humorous bent, 1st Sgt. Pridemore said.

"One of our shower facilities burned down," he said. "So we built a new one." But in building the new shower facility, he said, the engineers turned for inspiration to the 'See Rock City' advertisements many of the engineers had grown up seeing.

He noted that one member of the unit had a bird house that featured the red and black Rock City color scheme.

Using the bird house as a model, he said, the 190th Engineers built a plywood shower building that featured bright red exterior walls and a black roof.

Guard Duty Required

In addition to their construction tasks, he said, the engineers also shared the duty of 'pulling guard' around the perimeter of FOB Bernstein and in training the Iraqi Army unit that, hopefully, will take over responsibility for security in that portion of Iraq in coming years.

"We've done a lot of good things in Iraq," he said, noting that the engineers, and other 2/278th guardsmen, worked on a number of projects designed to provide water to villages in the FOB Bernstein area. Also, he said, the 190th Engineers have been busy installing security barriers around polling places for the coming Iraqi elections and constructing so-called traffic-control points, or TCPs, that are used by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers to stop and inspect vehicles.

The 190th Engineers, he said, also had invested much time in improving facilities at FOB Bernstein, including its defenses, which include a series of heavily fortified bunkers and guard towers.

1st Sgt. Pridemore noted that the soldiers of his unit earlier this year distributed to Iraqi children hundreds of shoes that had been donated by Greeneville-area residents.

He said life at FOB Bernstein, which is located on a desolate plain about six miles outside the Iraqi city of Tuz, has been spartan for 2/278th soldiers due to the base's remote location and relatively small size.

Unlike larger U.S. bases in Iraq, he said, FOB Bernstein does not have contract food-service workers. Instead, he said, food preparation is done by 2/278th soldiers led by Sgt. 1st Class Weldon Bebber, of Greeneville.

"They do a great job, especially at breakfast," Pridemore said.

He reported that 2/278th soldiers get two hot meals a day 'breakfast and supper' but must rely on Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), or snacks, for lunch. Heat A Foe

1st Sgt. Pridemore recalled it was cold when 2/278th National Guardsmen arrived in Iraq last December, but that temperatures have soared to more than 120 degrees this summer.

One day shortly before he came home on leave, he said, the temperature at the unit's Iraq location climbed to an incredible 160 degrees. "That was as high as the thermometer went," he said.

As a result of the heat, Pridemore said, he has lost about 40 pounds while in Iraq despite receiving a constant supply of goodies from home.

His wife Valorie, an employee of the Greene County Health Department, noted that 94 pounds of cookies were shipped from Greeneville to her husband's unit last Christmas. In addition, she said, Vaughn & Melton employees sent him a box filled with Reese's Cups candies.

During a Wednesday afternoon interview, 1st Sgt. Pridemore noted that he is still recovering from a leg injury suffered earlier this summer when Iraqi workers inadvertently dropped construction materials across both his legs.

The accident, which ruptured a tendon on the top of his right leg, sent him to a U.S. Air Force hospital in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar.

The Pridemores said they want to thank all those in this community and members of the couple's 'church family' from Towering Oaks Baptist Church for all they have done to support 1st Sgt. Pridemore and other local soldiers who are serving in Iraq.

Sun Photo by Bill Jones - 1st Sgt. Eddie Pridemore, right, is shown with his wife, Valorie. Pridemore, a 43-year-old Greeneville resident, is home on leave from duty in Iraq with the Tennessee Army National Guard's Morristown-based 190th Engineer Company.

Story Copyright to The Greeneville Sun