Sun Photo by Bill Jones
Capt. Wiley Hammer, commander of Greeneville-based Troop G of the National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, spoke to the Greeneville Noon Rotary Club on Tuesday.

By: By BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
06-09-2004

Capt. Wiley Hammer, commander of Greeneville-based Troop G of the National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, on Tuesday gave the Noon Rotary Club a report on plans for his unit’s impending deployment to active duty for later service in Iraq.

Speaking at the General Morgan Inn, Capt. Hammer confirmed that Troop G will be departing on Sunday, June 20, for active duty at Camp Shelby, Miss., in a first step toward service in Iraq.

“Ironically, Troop G is departing on Father’s Day,” he noted.

Its departure will mark the first time the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment has been deployed as a whole since the Korean War, when the unit was known as the 278th Regimental Combat Team, according to Capt. Hammer.

He noted that the 278th’s roots go back to the Revolutionary War. The only wars in which the present unit’s predecessor units were not directly involved were the Spanish-American War and Operation Desert Storm, the conflict in Iraq in the early 1990s, he said.

A Knoxville native and a 1996 Tusculum College graduate, Hammer, 37, is an assistant vice president for a Knoxville financial services firm.

Hammer will be leaving behind his wife, Julia, and daughter, Erin, when he and 60 other Troop G soldiers report for active duty, club program chairman Jim Pace said. During his remarks, Capt. Hammer said that only 61 of Troop G’s current 97 soldiers will be traveling to Camp Shelby, Miss., on June 20. Some soldiers, he said, are remaining behind for medical reasons, while others are being held in reserve for possible later deployment.

The number of soldiers who are being deployed was arrived at, he said, during two months of intensive medical evaluations and records checks, Capt. Hammer said. “One of my soldiers has had to have eight teeth pulled just so he can go to war,” he said.

Facing Large Pay Cuts

The commanding officer also noted that being called to active duty is coming at a high financial price for some members of Troop G.

“Some of these soldiers, because of their civilian jobs, are taking significant cuts in pay to do this,” he said. “I have one soldier in G Troop who is taking a loss of $30,000 a year just to go.

“These are soldiers who weren’t drafted,” he said. “They didn’t have to re-enlist. They didn’t have to stay in the Guard. But they chose that life, knowing full well that there was a possibility that, at some point, they could be deployed.”

But for some soldiers, being called to active duty represents their first opportunity in some time to receive a “regular paycheck.” He noted that some unit members had lost previous jobs when plants where they were employed closed or laid off workers.

“This is an opportunity for them to really get their feet back on the ground (financially),” he said. “Even thought war is a bad thing, here is a positive thing that can come out of it.”

Employer Support Crucial

Capt. Hammer also told Rotary Club members on Tuesday that employer support for the National Guardsmen being called to active duty is crucial. Without assurance that their jobs will be waiting when they return from active duty, he said, most National Guardsmen would be anguished about being deployed.

Remaining behind, he said, will be many of the unit’s “heavy vehicles.” Once the Troop G soldiers reach Camp Shelby on June 21, Capt. Hammer, said, it will receive new equipment, including the latest model Humvee four-wheel-drive vehicles. The vehicles feature 1,000 pounds more armor than earlier models.

The additional armor, he said, should enable soldiers inside the vehicles to survive if they are subjected to blasts from roadside bombs.

Also, Capt. Hammer said, Troop G soldiers already are being issued new “body armor” that is designed to “stop bullets.”

He said soldiers already in Iraq are “living to fight another day” because of similar body armor.

“We will be getting new equipment and training to go with it,” he told the club members.

In addition, Capt. Hammer said, 278th ACR soldiers will receive instruction about Iraq’s culture and the psychology of its people.

Capt. Hammer explained that the 278th is being reorganized to meet the special needs of service in Iraq, where its duties are expected to involve helping to provide security for the formation of a new civilian government as well as convoy escort activities.

Capt. Hammer told Rotary members that some Troop G soldiers will be assigned to other units, including the 278th’s Erwin-based H Company, for service in Iraq. The balance of the unit, which will remain under his command, will be attached to the 278th’s Kingsport-based 2nd Squadron headquarters unit while serving in Iraq.

Going To Fort Irwin

Capt. Hammer said that after spending most of the summer at Camp Shelby, Miss., the 278th’s troops will move to the U.S. Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., in late September or early October.

Located in the Mohave Desert, Capt. Hammer said, Fort Irwin features a climate somewhat similar to that of Iraq.

While there, he said, the 278th will be “validated” by Army leaders for service in Iraq. When the unit will actually move to Iraq, after it achieves validation, will depend on the availability of the ships and aircraft necessary to transport the 278th and its equipment, Hammer said.

Once the 278th reaches Iraq, he said, its soldiers are expected to remain there “for at least 12 months,” Capt. Hammer said.

Hammer added that the 278th could have its tour of duty in Iraq extended beyond a year.

He reminded the Rotary Club members that Capt. Robbie Morgan, a former member of Troop G, has already completed a year of service in Iraq, but has had his tour of duty extended for another 90 days.

Capt. Morgan, who is serving with a Tennessee National Guard military police unit in Iraq, is a Greene County deputy sheriff.

Family Readiness Group

Capt. Hammer told the members of the Noon Rotary Club that Troop G has established a “Family Readiness Group” made up of spouses and other family members of departing soldiers.

“It is an organization made up of family members of National Guardsmen here in the community that support each other,” he said. “Once we are deployed, they also will provide information to the community, and, from time to time, will make requests where they have someone (family members of deployed soldiers) who has needs.

“They may have someone who needs plumbing work done or automotive work done or something of that nature. And from what I’ve seen of Greeneville and Greene County since I’ve been around this community, the outpouring of support has been incredible.”

In closing, Capt. Hammer said he wished to thank the Rotary Club for inviting him. “The leadership that this organization (Rotary) provides this community is tremendous,” he said. “From all the work that you have done in years past, I am confident that once we are deployed that the families who are left behind will be in very good hands.”