News Article

By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
01-11-2005

On March 21, 1966, Greene Countians Darwin Jones and Sammy E. Anderson left Greeneville for induction into the U.S. Army.

Jones subsequently served in Vietnam while Anderson served in Germany.

Both men returned to civilian life after their initial military service, but later joined the Tennessee Army National Guard.

Now, well past the age at which most soldiers retire from active duty, Anderson and Jones are serving in Iraq with the Army National Guard’s 278th Regimental Combat Team.

Nearly 39 years have passed since the two first entered military service.

Jones, who holds the rank of sergeant first class, turned 58 on Jan. 1, his wife, Peggy, said.

Anderson, who is a sergeant, will turn 58 on Jan. 13, she noted.

They Are Not Unique

Despite being 58 years old, Jones and Anderson are not unique in terms of their age among the National Guardsmen from Greene County now serving with the 278th RCT in Iraq.

Bob Purgason, who retired last month as Troop G’s “retention non-commissioned officer” at age 60, said Staff Sgt. Larry Henderson, 1st Sgt. Everett Ottinger and Sgt. 1st Class Weldon Bebber are all about the same age as Jones and Anderson.

“From everything I’ve heard, they’re all doing fine over there,” said Purgason, who is Limestone’s postmaster.

Purgason said he also would have gone to Iraq with the 278th, but reached the National Guard’s mandatory retirement age of 60 last month.

“They wouldn’t let me go,” he said.

Purgason said he is trying to assist Troop G’s Family Readiness Group, which is composed of spouses of the local National Guardsmen who are serving in Iraq.

Jones is based at Camp Caldwell in Iraq, while Anderson is based at Forward Operating Base Bernstein in northeastern Iraq, Peggy Jones said during an interview this week.

In a response to an electronic mail message sent to him by a Greeneville Sun reporter, Sgt. 1st Class Jones said that because he and Anderson are based at different locations, they had seen each other only once since their units moved from Kuwait to Iraq last month.

Mrs. Jones said that after finding her husband’s 1966 Army induction notice, she realized that Darwin Jones and Anderson, who left Camp Shelby, Miss., on the same day last fall for duty in Kuwait and Iraq, also had departed for induction into the Army in 1966 on the same day.

1966 Induction

That 1966 induction notice, she said, ordered Darwin Jones to report to the Peggy Ann Restaurant at 6:20 a.m. on March 21, 1966, to begin the journey that would lead him to Vietnam.

Along with her husband’s old Army induction notice, she said, she also found a letter from the military induction center in Knoxville that listed the names of all the Greene Countians who were to be inducted into the Army on March 21, 1966.

Among the names on the list, she said, were those of Darwin Jones and Sammy Anderson.

“I thought it was very interesting coincidence that they left on the same day twice,” Mrs. Jones said.

She also noted that in another coincidence, she discovered that she and Anderson share the same birth date — Jan. 13.

Mrs. Jones said her husband didn’t know Anderson at the time the two, then young men, were inducted into the U.S. Army in the spring of 1966. She also said Jones and Anderson didn’t recall until recently that they had departed for their initial military service on the same day.

After joining the National Guard, Mrs. Jones said, her husband and Anderson served together in Greeneville-based Troop G of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Their unit was called to active military duty last June.

The two then trained at Camp Shelby, Miss., and at Fort Irwin, Calif., before the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, augmented by troops from other National Guard units from states as diverse as Texas, Wisconsin and New York, left last fall for Kuwait and Iraq.

Their Civilian Lives

Mrs. Jones said that prior to his National Guard unit being called to active duty, her husband worked as a millwright at Lenzing Fibers (formerly known as Enka and now known as Liberty Fibers) in the Lowland area for many years.

“He had worked there pretty much since he came home from Vietnam,” she said.

Anderson went to work for the Greeneville Water Commission 25 years ago this month, according to Water Superintendent Ken Earl.

The water superintendent said Anderson holds a Class 4 wastewater treatment plant operator’s license and has worked the 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. shift at the Denzil Bowman Wastewater Treatment Plant for many years.

Earl said Anderson was a leading contributor to the United Way of Greene County.

“I was really concerned that we wouldn’t be able to meet our goal this year without his contribution,” Earl said of Anderson.

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