Originally published October 2, 2005

By BYRON HENSLEY
hensley@dnj.com

If all goes according to plan, members of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment should be home from service in Iraq in about a month, a Guard spokesman said.

"They are scheduled to come home, around the last of October or first of November," said Randy Harris, public information officer for the Tennessee National Guard.

"We try not to put a date out until we're actually sure when they're going to come in, but that's when they're scheduled," he said. "And we don't see anything that will change that. We hope they'll be home by Thanksgiving."

Once they get here, "I doubt they'll redeploy once they get home," he said. "We don't see that at all."

The 278th, headquartered in Knoxville, was deployed for service in Iraq in August of last year, passing through Fort Bragg, N.C., on the way.

Since then, "They've built a little over 30 schools, they're working with the coalition training the Iraqi army, they're doing border security, they're doing a little bit of everything," Harris said. "There's just a myriad of different tasks they're doing over there."

However, the 278th's N-Troop and T-Troop, which are based in Smyrna, have been working separately from the rest of the 278th, flying Blackhawk helicopters and maintaining Blackhawk and Apaches, respectively, around Mosul, Harris said.

The news of the 278th's return is good news for Dorothy Russell of Smyrna, wife of N-Troop's Staff Sgt. Mike Russell.

After her husband was deployed last August, it was nearly a year before she saw him again.

"He had R-and-R in the last two weeks of July," she said. "It was a long stretch till July. From August of last year until this July was a long stretch."

As for their plans once he returns, "We will settle back into the family routine first before we do anything," she said.

"We do plan a trip to Gatlinburg, just he and I," she said. "The children will have had him for a little while, then it's just me and him.

"I'm looking at this first year home almost like our first year of marriage," she said. "There will be getting to know each other, squeezing the wrong end of the toothpaste, all over again."

While waiting on the home front, Russell has served as N-Troop's Family Readiness Group Leader, and is now the regional volunteer coordinator for the Family Readiness Group for Region 6, which spans essentially from Clarksville to Murfreesboro, from Dixon to Gordsonsville, taking in Lafayette and Livingston.

In that capacity, she has had the opportunity to meet with many families anxiously awaiting the return of their loved ones. She has also experienced overwhelming support from her fellow Tennesseans, she said.

"I really would like to thank Tennesseans for the support they have shown," she said. "We are in a wonderful state. They have been so supportive."

And, she added, "I am proud of the 278th, and I am proud of my soldier for fighting for the liberties we have here at home."

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