News Article

By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
01-15-2005

About 60 more National Guardsmen in Tennessee Army National Guard 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment units in Northeast Tennessee are departing for active duty on Sunday.

Nate Crawford, a spokesman for the Tennessee Army National Guard, said on Friday that the National Guardsmen, some of whom will be leaving Greeneville by bus, are to begin a journey that will eventually take them to Iraq, where several thousand other Tennessee National Guardsmen are already serving.

Crawford, speaking by telephone from Nashville, said the citizen-soldiers who are leaving on Sunday had been unable, for a variety of reasons, to leave their homes when the main body of 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment troops left Northeast Tennessee last June for training at Camp Shelby, Miss., and Fort Irwin, Calif.

Crawford confirmed that one bus that will be carrrying National Guardsmen will stop at the Greeneville National Guard Armory on Hal Henard Road to pick up departing soldiers.

The bus — and possibly others — will travel to other armories across the state before stopping for the night at the Tennessee Army National Guard’s Grubbs-Kyle Training Center in Smyrna, Crawford said.

On Monday, the buses will carry the National Guardsmen to Camp Shelby, Miss., where they will spend “two to three weeks” in training before being sent to Kuwait and, eventually, to Iraq, where they will join units of the 278th Regimental Combat Team.

The main body of 278th troops spent about four months in training at Camp Shelby and Fort Irwin before being sent to Kuwait, then Iraq.

Mission In Iraq

In a letter to the families of 278th RCT soldiers earlier this month, Col. Dennis Adams wrote that the 278th’s area of operations in Iraq covers approximately 4,500 square miles, which he said is about the size of the state of West Virginia.

“Troopers of the regiment are out performing tasks throughout the area of operations to help make a difference in this country,” he wrote.

“Everyday, our troopers are out on dangerous missions and do a superb job. They are escorting military convoys, arresting local criminals, building schools, delivering supplies and medical equipment, opening hospitals, and assisting Iraqi leaders in how to run a democratic government.”

Col. Adams said that the 278th is working jointly with the Iraqi Security Forces and helping to train the Iraqi police, border patrol, Iraqi National Guard, and the Iraqi Army.

“As part of the training, we also go on joint missions with these units and assist them in patrolling the border with Iran,” the colonel wrote.

Story Copyright to The Greeneville Sun