Ryan Seals Tennessee National Guard

EDITORS’ NOTE: Ryan Seals is with the 278th Regimental Combat Team’s 190th Engineer Company. The Times Free Press runs an occasional column from Spc. Seals.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE BERNSTEIN, Iraq — Soldiers here battled the heat of a humid Mississippi summer, the extremes of the Mojave Desert in early autumn and the excruciating winds of a cold Kuwaiti winter.

After nearly nine months in the rugged terrain and scorching heat of northeastern Iraq, most are on the verge of leaving those areas behind to head back to the hills of Te nnessee. They are the more-than-4,000-member force of the 278 th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard, expected to return home this fall.

About two dozen of those men make up the 2 nd platoon of the 190 th Engineer Company of Morristown and Monteagle in Tennessee. As an attachment to H Company of 2 nd Squadron, 278 th, they help keep the area around the city of Tuz free of insurgents and allow Iraqis to begin to learn to live in a democratic society.

"I think the 278 th as a whole has done a lot to combat the insurgency," Staff Sgt. Robby Johnson, of Morristown, said. "(But) I don't think that our efforts alone will make a huge impact in the long run. It will take more troops and getting the Iraqi army and police trained to get these people ready to take over their own country."

Staff Sgt. Jim Joplin, of Un ionville, Te n n ., said the work of For ward Oper ating Base B ern stein troops has hurt insurgent operations, but the number of insurgents hasn't been affected much.

"They know that solders at Bernstein will come after them," he said. "We'll do the raids, the patrols, the traffic points, whatever it might take." The soldiers said they have had their biggest effect on Iraq's future through the country's children.

"I hope they'll see the good the American forces have done over here, and they'll take that with them as they grow up in Iraq's future," Spc. Jason Hill, of Whitwell, Tenn., said.

The children show no fear, approaching the soldiers to ask for things.

"It is amazing how a few notebooks and pens can make a difference to people," Spc. Terrance Fogler, of Salem, Ky., said. "It goes to show just how we take such small things for granted back home."

According to most soldiers, the most difficult part of being deployed to Iraq is the thought of their families back home, who worry and wait for their return. "I'd rather be the one over here than the one back home," said Sgt. Maurice Ivy, of Newport, Tenn.

Sgt. Ivy's son Drew left for basic training in the Air Force on the same day Sgt. Ivy left home for deployment. His daughter Heather had just married and left home to start her new life. Sgt. Ivy said that having everyone gone has been especially difficult on his wife, Sissy.

"It is hard to give my family moral support over here," he said. "It isn't like we can let them lay their heads on your shoulders and let them cry at night. Looking at my wife in a web cam just isn't the same."

Staff Sgt. Johnson said the family atmosphere in being deployed with a National Guard unit will be one of his most cherished memories.

"There are just several instances, the brotherhood we have, the laughing, and the joking and even the hard times; we are like a family now," he said. As close as they are to leaving Iraq, the soldiers said it is hard to fight off thoughts of home when they know that their work here isn't quite done. "The insurgents are always coming up with new ways to do things, and sometimes it is hard for us to keep our minds on the task at hand because we are going home," Staff Sgt. Joplin said.

By the time they get home, the soldiers will have spent close to a year in Iraq. Doing one of the most difficult jobs in the world has changed them forever, they said.

"I think a lot of us will take back the sense of honor and duty," Staff Sgt. Johnson said. "We have seen our comrades fall, and we know the cost of what we do."

E-mail Ryan Seals at ryan.seals@us.army.mil

From: Chattanooga Times Free Press Link