News Article

By: By BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
12-16-2004

Lt. Col. Frank McCauley, commander of the 278th Regimental Combat Team’s Second Squadron, said via electronic mail on Wednesday that the remainder of his unit will arrive at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Bernstein in northern Iraq “in the next couple of days.”

The 278th RCT’s Second Squadron, which was based in Kingsport before the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment was called to active duty earlier this year, includes a number of citizen-soldiers from Greeneville and Greene County.

Augmented by National Guard units from several other states during training at Camp Shelby, Miss., earlier this year, the 278th is now called a regimental combat team.

The unit began moving into Iraq from a base in Kuwait last weekend, driving about 450 miles to its area of operations in northeastern Iraq.

Lt. Col. McCauley reported on Wednesday about the Second Squadron’s current activities in response to an electronic mail inquiry from a Greeneville Sun reporter.

He said Second Squadron soldiers had been providing security escorting for the 278th’s heavier tracked vehicles, that are being hauled into Iraq from Kuwait on large trucks because of the distance involved.

“The convoy from Kuwait took two full days through some dangerous territory,” Lt. Col McCauley wrote. “No incidents occurred, and we were provided air escort by Apache helicopters through the most dangerous areas.”

He remarked that Second Squadron troops “are in good spirits and are currently becoming integrated with the outgoing unit,” which, he said, is the 120th Infantry Battalion, 30th Armored Brigade, of the North Carolina Army National Guard.

“A Transfer of Authority ceremony will be held at the completion of all the tasks in the transition with the 120th,” Lt. Col. McCauley wrote.

“This should occur in the next two to three weeks. That ceremony will signify that 2/278 (has) become totally responsible for our area of operations, which has a total population of about 150,000 Iraqi citizens.”

Tuz, the Iraqi city near where Forward Operating Base Bernstein is located, is in the As Sulaymaniyah province of Iraq, Lt. Col. McCauley wrote. “The provincial capital is in Tikrit,” the birthplace of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Lt. Col. McCauley also reported that the remainder of the 278th RCT is in Iraq’s Diyala province.

Story Copyright to The Greeneville Sun