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News Article
Troop G National Guardsmen Served ‘Appreciation Dinner’

Sun Photo by Phil Gentry
Members of Troop G of the 2nd Squadron of the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry regiment stand in formation shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday outside their armory on Hal Henard Road prior to an “appreciation dinner” sponsored by the unit’s Family Readiness Group.

By: By BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
05-03-2004

"I'm horribly worried, but I have to keep my faith," Amanda Thomason, wife of Troop G National Guardsman Pfc. Paul Thomason said prior to an “appreciation dinner” Saturday evening for Troop G soldiers at the National Guard armory on Hal Henard Road.

Mrs. Thomason was probably speaking for many of the dozens of spouses, children and other relatives of Troop G "citizen soldiers" who had witnessed a day-ending unit formation and had heard U.S. Rep. Bill Jenkins, R-1st, of Hawkins County, praise the National Guardsmen for their service to their country.

Troop G is the Greeneville-based unit of the Second Squadron of the Tennessee Army National Guard' 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment. That entire regiment, except for its aviation units, is on alert for a possible call to active duty that could result in the reservists being sent to Iraq.

On Saturday evening, the unit was completing the second day of a scheduled three-day monthly drill.

Capt. Wiley Hammer, the unit's commanding officer, said in an interview before the dinner that, as things now stand, Troop G expects to be called to active duty in mid-June and moved with other 278th ACR units to Camp Shelby, Miss., for additional training.

But the commanding officer said that schedule is subject to change. Higher military leaders, he said, could decide not to call the unit to active duty, or could delay the call up.

Capt. Hammer said he believes his soldiers are ready to go if called upon. "The soldiers' morale is exceptionally high," he said. "And the pride they're taking in what they're doing is incredible."

Hammer said that prior to the alert order, Troop G's soldiers would have been spending the weekend at Fort Knox, Ky., where the crews of its M-1A1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles would have undergone gunnery practice by firing live ammunition on the fort's firing ranges.

In the wake of the alert order, however, Troop G's was spending what could be its next-to-last pre-deployment drill attending training classes and taking annual tests in everything from first aid to weapons procedures, Capt. Hammer said. Outdoor classrooms had been set up beneath camouflage netting at several points on the armory grounds.

And on a hill overlooking the building, a HUMVEE and a Bradley fighting vehicle, complete with a 25-mm cannon and box-like launcher for TOW missiles, were parked.

The two vehicles served as a backdrop for the day's final formation, in which the unit's platoons alternated between standing at attention and parade rest as new elements were added to a routine day-ending ceremony. What was different about Saturday's day-ending formation was that dozens of family members and a small number of dignitaries, led by Rep. Jenkins, watched. The congressman addressed the soldiers.

Other political leaders present for the formation and the covered-dish supper sponsored by Troop G's Family Readiness Group were: state Rep. David Hawk, R-5th of Greeneville; state Rep. Eddie Yokley, D-11th, of Greene County; and County Mayor Roger Jones.

Accompanying Rep. Jenkins was former Hawkins County School Superintendent Bill Snodgrass, who is the congressman's field director.

Commander Speaks

Shortly after the unit was ordered to "fall in" at 6 p.m., Capt. Hammer addressed the guardsmen, reminding them that Tennessee citizen soldiers have had a long history of answering the call to service that predates the nation itself.

"This isn't the first time Tennesseans have been called to muster," he said. In 1780, he noted, Northeast Tennessee militia had answered the call to march into the Carolinas to take part in the Battle of Kings Mountain, which became a turning point in the Revolutionary War in the southern colonies.

Again in 1814, Tennessee militia units, the forerunners of the modern National Guard, had marched to fight the British at the Battle of New Orleans.

And in 1848, Tennesseans had volunteered for service in the Mexican War, he said. "We've taken part in every conflict since," he said. "Once more, we've been called to muster, and we're ready." After the ceremonies were completed, Sgt. Darwin Walker, a Troop G tank commander who is a veteran of the Vietnam War, agreed with Capt. Hammer about the military readiness of Troop G soldiers.

Walker, who said he entered the U.S. Army in 1966 and found himself in Vietnam after only a few short months of training, said he feels Troop G's soldiers are much better prepared for war-time service than were many soldiers who took part in the Vietnam War because modern training is much better. During his remarks to the troops, Capt. Hammer also thanked the families and political leaders present for joining the unit on Saturday, and he introduced Rep. Jenkins.

Congressman Speaks

During his remarks, the congressman assured the guardsmen that he believed the people of the First Congressional District of Tennessee and the county as a whole wished them well.

"You deserve the support of every American," Jenkins said, noting that he believed they were assured of the full support of both President Bush and the U.S. Congress.

“I know that I speak for the entire Congress of the United States to say that whatever you need in the way of equipment, whatever you need in the way of support, whatever your needs are, we fully intend for them to be met.”

Jenkins told the assembled soldiers that what they would be doing if called to active duty would be following in a long tradition of American military service. “What others have done throughout our history has literally made the difference in the way we live in this country, and the way other people have had to live around the word,” he said.

“Recently, in several countries around the world and especially in Iraq, we have seen people who have lived in tyranny, who have lived in fear and have been governed by torture and rape for a long period of time.

“The reason we are different in this country is that we have always had men and women who have been willing to serve in the armed forces to ward off enemies and see that that kind of government does not come to the United States of America.”

Jenkins recalled the political unrest of the 1960s during the Vietnam War and said that he found, even then, "99 percent" of Americans were fully behind the military. But it was the 1 percent who opposed the military who were seen daily on the 6 o'clock (television) news.

“What we had literally in this country was a situation in which the tail was wagging the dog,” he said. “I know everyone in this audience feels the same way that I do, and we never want that situation to arise again in this country.”

Jenkins recalled that he had completed military duty himself before the Vietnam War and noted that he had brushed aside his mother's worries when he left home for military service.

But during the Desert Storm conflict in 1990, he said, he felt a parent's concerns because his eldest son was then serving in the Marine Corps.

“I certainly know the concerns that parents have with the prospect of deployment to Iraq of this unit, or any other unit,” he said.

Jenkins assured Troop G’s soldiers that the community and the nation would be behind them if they were called to active duty.

He added that the Troop G soldiers can be assured that all Northeast Tennesseans are, and will, continue to be proud of them.

“You must know that whether you’re here, whether you’re at Camp Shelby (Miss.), whether you’re in California or whether you’re in Iraq serving this nation, that all Americans and everyone in this crowd are proud of you,” he said.

“We're going to continue to be proud of you, and we’re going to be behind you. Everybody in this country is going to be proud of the men in this unit, and we certainly thank you for your service.”

Colors Recovered

Following Rep. Jenkins' remarks, the order to "recover the colors" was given, and a five-man detail of white-gloved soldiers led by 2nd Lt. Ryan Presnell of Elizabethton marched from the armory to lower and fold the U.S. flag, which had flown from the flag staff outside the building.

Capt. Hammer had said earlier that the recovery of the colors ceremony (also called "retreat") held no special significance on Saturday. He said the ceremony is conducted at sunset at every Army post every day.

The only sounds that could be heard despite the large crowd present during the ceremony were the chirping of birds and the murmurings of a few small children as he flag was lowered, folded and carried back into the armory.

News Article
Copyright to Greeneville Sun.

By: By BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
05-03-2004

The families and soldiers of Troop G of the Second Squadron of the Tennessee Army National Guard' 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment on Saturday evening shared a meal together.

After the troops’ were dismissed for the day, the soldiers and their family members entered the armory, where a covered-dish supper awaited them.

Diners filled all the spaces at the tables that had been set up in the armory's large drill hall. Some adjourned to other rooms inside the building or to chairs outside to dine as family groups.

Sgt. Tony Fobber, of Rogersville, was one of the outdoor diners. He sat holding his 2-month-old daughter, Haley, as he and his wife, Tonya, ate.

Fobber said he had spent 15 years in the National Guard and had volunteered for service in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm in 1990.

Currently assigned as the radio operator and "loader" (of the main gun) on a Troop G tank, Fobber said he wound up driving a truck into Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.

The Thomason family also was eating together on Saturday evening at the armory. Amanda and Paul Thomason, of the Talbott community in Hamblen County, were surrounded by their children: Cora, 2; Asher, 3; Piper, 6; and Megan, 9.

Paul Thomason, a U.S. Air Force veteran who works at the American Pad & Paper Co. plant in Morristown, said he joined the National Guard only seven months ago out of concern about the war on terrorism.

His wife noted that he joined up just short of his 36th birthday. Had his birthday passed, she said, he would have been beyond the age limit for enlisting in the National Guard.

Also during the dinner, Peggy Presnell, mother of Lt. Ryan Presnell, who had commanded the flag detail during the Saturday evening ceremonies, remarked that her son had just been commissioned as an officer.

He was commissioned the previous evening during a Reserve Officer Training Corps ceremony at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, where he had just earned a master's degree in criminal justice.

Also present on Saturday evening was Maj. Ron Strahle, the Tennessee National Guard’s statewide family readiness coordinator, and several members of his staff.

Maj. Strahle said briefings for family members of Troop G soldiers will be conducted here probably as early as next weekend.

He said his staff had been involved in training National Guard family readiness leaders in Northeast Tennessee.