News Article

By Janet Braswell, jbraswell@hattiesb.gannett.com
American Senior Writer

About 900 soldiers of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment rolled into Camp Shelby on Tuesday to begin training for eventual deployment to Iraq.

The regiment, a unit of the Tennessee National Guard, will spend about four months at Camp Shelby, practicing everything from firing rifles to large-scale maneuvers and, in the process, transforming civilians into soldiers.

"We're breaking away from our civilian life," said Col. Dennis Adams, 48, of Knoxville, regimental commander. "We have bank officers, Ph.Ds, and their whole way of life is changing. When you're going to war, everything's a bit more serious."

The 278th fights with M1A1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles but holds sacred the memory of Old Bill, the last known scout from the cavalry's Indian battles, and his horse Scout.

"Old Bill is the embodiment of the cavalry spirit," said Maj. Bobbie Sprouse of Savannah, Ga.

An armored cavalry regiment is organized for reconnaissance, surveillance and security and must be prepared for one or simultaneous missions, according to the regiment's Web site.

"The same mission that was done in the 1880s is what we do," Adams said.

The 278th was last mobilized for the Korean War in 1951, before most of its current soldiers were born.

Cpl. Renee Bush, 32, of Kodak, Tenn., and Sgt. Jimmie Stovall, 45, of Jackson, Tenn., are typical and left families behind to fulfill their military mission.

"I've been in the National Guard for 7 1/2 years," she said. "I did six years active duty in the Marine Corps before that. I think we're ready for it, to do what we're trained for."

A heavy equipment transport driver, Bush has two sons and a daughter, who turned 4 years old today.

"We had a party for her before I left," she said.

Her sons, who are 8 and 11 years-old, are impressed with her job. "They like it that mommy drives a big truck," she said.

Stovall, a supply sergeant, has 18 years National Guard service and also served in the Marine Corps.

"It's a job I have to do," he said.

Stovall works in a factory that builds locomotive radiators and has two sons, ages 22 and 28.

"They didn't want dad to leave, I know that," he said.

About 3,000 Tennessee soldiers will be at Camp Shelby by the end of the month with almost 1,000 added from Wisconsin and Texas to fill specialty slots.

Small contingents from the New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont National Guards also will train at Camp Shelby and deploy with the 278th.

The troops will have little time to settle in before beginning what the military calls common task training - skills each individual soldier must have - before moving into small unit training.

Up to 650 soldiers at a time will spend several days training at a forward operating base under the supervision of the 3rd (Training Support) Brigade/87th Division.

"I'm just very excited about the help they're providing at Mob Center Shelby," Adams said. "They're just bending over backwards. It's a tremendous responsibility and task to get the regiment ready to help the Iraqi people establish their infrastructure and a way of life that will be prosperous."

Adams, a former high school football and basketball coach, has been a full-time National Guard employee for 15 years. He spent time years ago at Camp Shelby for M60-A3 tank training and attended Army staff college at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Adams travled to Camp Shelby in a Humvee with a stuffed figure of Spongebob Squarepants riding on the dashboard. A child handed driver Spc. Michael Earles of Kingsport, TN., the toy when the headquarters unit left Tennessee.

"You can't turn a little kid down," Earles said. "We put him up there and drove out the gate."

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