October 19, 2005

By RAIN SMITH

After nearly a year of fighting insurgents, training police, establishing utilities and reopening schools, more than 3,000 Tennessee citizen soldiers are scheduled to return stateside from Northeastern Iraq.

Gov. Phil Bredesen announced that units of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Regimental Combat Team are scheduled to arrive from Southwest Asia beginning Monday.

The 278th RCT's Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Squadron, is based in Kingsport. The 2/278th's 271 soldiers were mobilized in June 2004 and deployed from Camp Shelby, Miss., last November.

"I am so very proud of the soldiers of the 278th RCT," Bredesen said. "Their outstanding performance while in Iraq continues the tradition of excellence by generations of Tennessee Volunteers. I look forward to visiting with them soon as they return home and reunite with their families."

Exact details of when families will reunite with soldiers have yet to be released. The return of Tennessee troops to the United States will be staged in increments, with the first group arriving in Mississippi on Monday. Other units will continue to arrive almost daily through mid-November.

"They'll come in increments of 300 (troops) or so," said Sgt. Fred Steadman, coordinator of the 278th's Family Assistance Center in the Kingsport Armory. "The rotation with the rest of them, they're kind of keeping a lid on that for a while, because heaven forbid anything happen to them on the way (out of Iraq)."

The more than 3,000 Tennessee troops will arrive at the Air National Guard Combat Readiness Training Center in Gulfport, then be transported to Camp Shelby for processing.

Bredesen plans to join Tennessee's Maj. Gen. Hargett in Mississippi to greet the troops as they return. But many soldiers' loved ones are likely to miss out on the initial welcome home.

Steadman said local families will not travel to Mississippi, as the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have left motels filled by Gulf Coast evacuees. However, events to welcome soldiers home to Northeast Tennessee are being planned, he said.

Steadman can personally relate to the anxious nerves of soldiers' families, as both his son and brother are serving with the 278th's 2nd Squadron. On Wednesday, he got a call from his son.

"He was pretty excited, said the guys were getting a little antsy over there," Steadman relayed. "I told him, ‘Don't get careless in your last few days over there,' and he said everybody's kind of staying behind the wire."

According to a press release from the Tennessee National Guard, the 278th RCT was instrumental in providing security for the first Iraqi elections in January. They also supported the Iraqi Army during the vote on the new Iraqi Constitution on Oct. 15.

Locally, returning soldiers of the 278th RCT represent units from Kingsport, Bristol, Rogersville, Greeneville and Tazewell.

Story Copyright to Kingsport Times News