East Tennessee Heartland

5:49:00 PM EDT
Guard unit to return through Camp Shelby
By Ashley Rowland
Staff Writer

Members of the 278th Regimental Combat Team will begin returning from Iraq to a Mississippi military base this month, even though many of their families can't find vacant hotel rooms there.

The 278th is scheduled to return to Camp Shelby, 26 miles from Hattiesburg, Miss. However, Hurricane Katrina evacuees and emergency and construction workers have filled the South Mississippi city's hotel rooms and campgrounds and set up tent cities there.

Tennessee National Guard spokesman Randy Harris said Fort Bliss, Texas, was the only other military base that could have accepted the 278th. Officials decided it was too far away, and Camp Shelby was prepared to handle the group's paperwork, medical examinations and the return of sensitive equipment, he said.

"It's just the logical thing to do," he said.

Mr. Harris said the group's 4,000 soldiers will return in phases, probably over a 20-day period. The Army has not released the return dates, but family members say soldiers have told them some will begin leaving Iraq in mid-October.

Matt Lehigh, spokesman for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said it would take five to seven days for the soldiers to process out of Camp Shelby.

That same process would take 14-21 days if the 278th returned to Fort Campbell, Ky., a site suggested by family members because of its proximity to Tennessee, he said.

Mr. Lehigh said another group is deploying out of Fort Campbell, making it unlikely that the 278th could return there. The soldiers could have returned to Wyoming, but "obviously, Wyoming is a great distance from Tennessee," he said.

Lisa Nyholm-Richmond, whose husband is scheduled to leave Iraq on Oct. 22, said she's "frustrated and disappointed" by the decision.

"It'll be harder knowing he's near and I can't see him than knowing he's thousands of miles away and Ican't see him," she said.

She said it was even more upsetting that none of the Army officials or Tennessee congressmen who promised to look into the matter called her back.

"All I wanted was the Army to call me back and say, 'I'm sorry. We tried. We can't,'" said Mrs. Nyholm-Richmond, whose husband just signed up for six more years of National Guard duty. "They just ignored me."

E-mail Ashley Rowland at arowland@timesfreepress.com

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8:29:59 AM EDT
  Local soldier killed in Iraq

    By: TOMMY MILLSAPS
Source: The Monroe County Advocate
08-23-2005

Three families’ and a community’s worst fears were realized Monday when it was learned a local National Guard Soldier was killed and two other local guard troops were injured in Iraq on Sunday.

Joseph (Joey) D. Hunt, 27, a 1996 Sweetwater High School graduate, was killed a family member confirmed.

Hunt, the son of Tim and Marsha Hunt, had been a guardsmen since 2000, according to previous information submitted to The Advocate & Democrat.

’He was very proud of what he was doing,’ a family member said.

The family said Hunt served with the Sweetwater-based guard unit.

He had two sons, Caleb and Joshua.

Hunt’s grandparents are Bernie and Suella Cantrell and Ruben and Joyce Hunt, all of Sweetwater.

Sources told The Advocate & Democrat that Hunt’s parents learned of their son’s death late Monday evening.

The family of Hunt would appreciate those seeking information about Hunt’s death in Iraq continue to respect the family’s desire and need to grieve in private. They simply do not know many details of the incident and do not wish to speculate on such matters at this time.

Sources said he was killed by a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) that went off as the convoy he was part of passed by, but no official information had been released by National Guard officials as of late Tuesday afternoon.

Also injured in the Sunday attack was 25-year-old Charles Andrew (Andy) Newman.

Newman had gotten married while on leave from Iraq in July.

He suffered four broken vertebrae and road burns when he was ejected from the vehicle, said his wife, Stephanie. Stephanie and Newman’s mother, Lisha Gibson, both work at the same Madisonville car lot and spoke with The Advocate & Democrat on Tuesday.

’He was lucky,’ Stephanie Newman said.

She had spoken with her husband on the phone and said doctors were checking his liver function and said her husband could eventually be flown to Germany for treatment.

Newman’s stepmother, Beth, and his father, Scott, live in Athens.

She said the newlyweds had not had time to set up a residence due to Andy’s tour of duty in Iraq.

Another Monroe County native serving with the National Guard in Iraq, David Allen Thomas, was also injured in the same bombing that killed Hunt and injured Newman.

His employer, National Seating in Vonore, confirmed his injury and said he had been sent to Germany for surgery but no further information was available at press time Tuesday.

More than 3,000 members of the Tennessee National Guard have been serving in Iraq since late 2004.

Tommy Millsaps can be reached at 337-7101 or mcanews4@xtn.net.

 

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7:12:18 AM EDT
DISPATCH Iraq : Troops unwind with music, sports
By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs

CAMP CALDWELL, Iraq — On an orange "I-Rocky Top" stage shaped like a giant T, country singer Charlie Daniels and his band saluted 278th Regimental Combat Team soldiers by playing some of their favorite songs with a twist.
   The crowd of mostly Tennessee guardsmen roared when "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" became "The Devil Went Down to Iraq."
   During the nearly hourlong performance, the Charlie Daniels Band gave the soldiers a slice of Tennessee and an update on football recruiting for the Tennessee Volunteers. After the concert, soldiers lined up as Mr. Daniels autographed everything from guitars to Kevlar helmets.
   Staged entertainment is just one of the ways soldiers pass the time on a military base they can leave only during missions. Nearing their fifth month overseas and fourth month in Iraq, the soldiers are finding ways to enjoy themselves despite being thousands of miles from home.
   Maj. Jack Coleman, who oversees morale, welfare and recreational activities from the regiment’s personnel office, said planners try to give soldiers a chance to participate in activities they normally do at home. "We want them to be themselves," he said. "They are getting a little closer to home when they get to take off this uniform."
   Maj. Coleman said the camaraderie that develops when soldiers have fun together also pays off on the battlefield.
   FROM BOXING TO BASKETBALL At Forward Operating Base Cobra, the regiment’s 3rd Squadron masses around a makeshift ring once a month for the popular Friday night fights.
   Soldiers put on headgear and boxing gloves and give themselves nicknames such as "The Boston Bonebreaker" or "The Ragin’ Cajun" before taking turns pummeling one another for three rounds. Sometimes the more unequal matches do not last long, and bloody noses are a common sight. But the unit’s medics stay ringside, and each match is refereed by Staff Sgt. Melvin Brown, a licensed boxing official from Nashville.
   "That is the first time I’ve seen some of my guys smile," said Sgt. Maj. Jim Kyle, the squadron’s top enlisted soldier, on a recent fight night. "I saw stress relief today."
   Forward Operating Base Bernstein, where the regiment’s 2nd Squadron resides, offers a driving range for golfers. But the 278th camp offering by far the most recreation is Camp Caldwell, home of 1 st Squadron, Support Squadron and Regimental headquarters. Its organized activities calendar rivals that of a cruise ship, a summer camp or a retirement home.
   Soldiers here can participate in leagues for basketball and in volleyball, softball, horseshoes and dodgeball tournaments. At least two organized activities and countless spontaneous card games, board games or video games are available each night.
   Sgt. Rick Poore, 40, of Ta zewell, Tenn., stood on crutches one night this week and watched his basketball team warm up for the evening’s game.
   "This gives you something to look forward to every night instead of just sitting around and watching television," said Sgt. Poore, who sprained an ankle in a game and now must be satisfied in his role as coach and cheerleader. Spc. Christopher Kain, 25, of Nashville, who plays dodgeball, volleyball, softball and basketball, said that without the sports options his days here would seem much longer.
   "The real games don’t come on the TV until late at night here, so you can’t watch them," he said. "So you might as well play. There isn’t anything else to do."
   By the time the basketball game began, about a dozen spectators had gathered around the chain-link fence to watch the action. The basketball league runs from 6-10 p.m. two nights a week and includes a 14-game schedule. As players shuffle up and down the court, it is clear that military rank and protocol are tossed aside.
   At the other end of Camp Caldwell on the same night a smaller group of soldiers gathered around a pool table to watch a billiards tournament. PLEASANT DISTRACTIONS Waiting for his next billiards game in the winner’s bracket, Spc. Chucky Jones, 45, of Henderson, Tenn., said the activity takes his mind off the dangers of the job.
   "If we had nothing to do, you’d see a lot of soldiers getting mad at each other for nothing," he said.
   Winners of various competitions get their individual or team pictures displayed in camp. But that is not as important as getting bragging rights, according to Sgt. Jeff Stephens, 37, of Franklin County, also a billiards competition participant.
   The games are good for relations with their Iraqi counterparts, as well. A group of Iraqis who work at CampCaldwell competed against several soldiers from the regiment’s support squadron during a beach volleyball game.
   The activities are planned and supplied by civilian contract employees with Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton that maintains much of camp life here including cleaning bathrooms, preparing meals and washing clothes.
   The company also oversees the two massive gyms housed in aluminum barns at Camp Caldwell that stay open 24 hours a day. The gyms offer rows and rows of exercise bikes, treadmills and stair climbers as well as dumbbells, bars and benches for weight lifting.
   Staff Sgt. Edgar Shiver, 41, of Dalton, Ga., puts on a gray Army T-shirt and black Army shorts six days a week to work out.
   "I’m in better shape than I have been in awhile," said Staff Sgt. Shiver, who said he exercised only three times a week at home where there were more demands on his time. "If we didn’t have this, we’d go nuts."
   For the less athletically inclined, the camp offers ongoing tournaments for chess and card players.
   In addition, every Friday night at Camp Caldwell is salsa night. Soldiers put aside their weapons as they learn the moves, but military uniforms, including boots, still are a requirement. On Saturdays, a disc jockey spins records for country, rhythm and blues, hip hop or karaoke lovers.
   Soldiers with the 278th here recently formed their own band, which opened with a few songs this week before the Charlie Daniels Band took the stage.
   ANGELS IN IRAQ Charlie Daniels’ appearance was not the first staged entertainment here this year. Earlier a group of dancing cheerleaders calling themselves the "Perfect Angels" performed synchronized moves that had some soldiers whooping and yelling and others exclaiming the performance wasn’t a typical Bob Hope-style USO tour. Soldiers lucky enough not to be out on missions that night crowded the stage by the hundreds, most armed with digital cameras.
   But the most envied soldiers of the night were those assigned to guard the dancers, many of whom called themselves struggling actors. Iraqi employees stood around as well to take in the taste of American pop culture.
   "No more combat fatigue," said Spc. Caleb Martin, 20, of Englewood, Tenn., as he cradled an autographed group photo of the "Perfect Angels."
   E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

This story was published Thursday, April 14, 2005

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8:27:08 AM EDT
DISPATCH Iraq : Deadly four-hour firefight
278 th member killed in ambush
By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs © Chattanooga Times Free Press

CAMP CALDWELL, Iraq — One 278th Regimental Combat Team member and another U.S. soldier were killed by insurgents in a close-quarters firefight after an ambush south of Balad Ruz.
   As many as 17 insurgents were killed in the Monday afternoon fighting, officials said.
   "The whole gunfight lasted a little more than four hours, and in the realm of gunfights that’s an extremely long time," said Lt. Dave Tiedeman, the 278th platoon leader of the attacked unit. "They knew we were coming."
   The slain U.S. soldiers’ names are being withheld pending notification of immediate family.
   Two Iraqi army soldiers also died in the attack, while two more soldiers in the Tennesseebased 278th and 15 Iraqi army soldiers were wounded, according to initial reports. The wounded were taken by helicopter to a combat support hospital in Baghdad.
   Lt. Col. Mark Hart, commander of the 278 th’s 1 st Squadron, said the amount of weapons and types of documents recovered suggest the area was an anti-Iraqi forces base camp and training center. It likely was used for planning and arming insurgent attacks in the nearby cities of Baghdad, Baqubah and Balad Ruz, he said.
   Acting on intelligence reports of a possible weapons cache about 40 kilometers east of Baghdad, a joint patrol of 278th soldiers from 1 st Squadron, U.S. Special Forces and elements of the Iraqi army drove into an ambush by insurgents among rows of mostly dried-up canal beds and irrigation ditches.
   The insurgents attacked from multiple positions with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small-arms fire at about 3:30 p.m. Iraqi time, officials said.
   "They’d been there for a while and had a plan of how to defend it," said Maj. Martin Basham, the squadron’s executive officer. "That is very unusual for insurgents. Most of the time they hit and run, but this time they stood and fought. They were trying to protect their supply source."
   About 20 minutes after the fight began, 278th Humvees, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and tanks stormed out of Camp Caldwell to join the fight.
   The pinned-down unit received air support from both fighter jets and attack helicopters. Several enemy vehicles stashed with weapons and ammunition were wiped out in multiple air strikes, officials said.
   Commanders later moved artillery into firing positions near the battle, but shells never were fired. By the time the battle was over, nearly 200 278th soldiers had been involved in supporting and supplying the operation, officials said.
   The fiercest combat took place between the insurgents and the initial patrol group of about 24 U.S. and about 200 Iraqi army soldiers.
   Lt. Tiedeman said his unit was on its third mission assisting and evaluating the Iraqi army company as part of a countrywide effort begun this month to strengthen Iraqi security forces.
   The joint patrol and the insurgents fought close enough to lob hand grenades at one another from four-to-six-foot-deep irrigation ditches that both the insurgents and soldiers used as trenches.
   "It was very hard to see them or see where the fire was coming from," said a 278th soldier who asked not to be identified. "It was a barrage. It was a freefor-all. It was chaos with bullets flying above your head and beside your head, cracking and popping. These were not your average run-of-the-mill insurgents."
   Sgt. 1 st Class Richard Stooksbury, who was in the initial group of about a dozen U.S. soldiers attacked, said the insurgents had placed weapons along each line of trenches so they could toss aside a weapon, fall back to the next trench and pick up a new one.
   "The amount of (rocket-propelled grenades) fired at us was amazing," said Sgt. 1 st Class Stooksbury, 48, who credited the constant.50-caliber machine gun fire from the Humvee gunners with preventing the insurgents from getting off aimed shots. "We drove into a shooters’ alley. The explosions knocked you to the ground."
   Commanders said U.S. and Iraqi forces took fire from three sides while establishing a defensive position. After the initial insurgent ambush, Lt. Tiedeman said, the coalition forces fell back, regrouped and overran two of the insurgent-held ditches. "We made a plan and then went back at them," said Lt. Tiedeman, 38, of Watkins, Colo.
   The soldiers then waited for reinforcements, exchanging gunfire intermittently with the remaining insurgents. Some of the insurgents had retreated into a nearby grove of trees the Iraqi army attempted to assault. Aircraft later bombed the grove.
   Sgt. 1 st Class Stooksbury, of Seymour, Tenn., said he went through 30 rounds of ammunition for his nine millimeter pistol. He said soldiers overrunning the trenches reloaded their weapons with ammunition the insurgents left behind.
   Lt. Tiedeman, who was pinned down in open ground by an insurgent sniper while trying to bring a wounded soldier to safety, said he was saved when a U.S. Humvee appeared out of nowhere and its driver stopped in front of the sniper so the gunner could open up with his machine gun at close range.
   The U.S. and Iraqi forces spent the night at the battlefield. The U.S. soldiers’ night-vision goggles, along with thermal imaging provided by hovering aircraft, gave them the advantage in the darkness. U.S. aircraft on a late-night bombing run cleared the area of insurgent holdouts, soldiers said.
   "With all our technology, we felt pretty safe," Sgt. 1 st Class Stooksbury said.
   No insurgents were found alive during a Tuesday morning sweep of the area. According to witnesses, several of the dead insurgents were foreign fighters whose bodies some Iraqi army soldiers spat upon.
   "We owned that ground," Sgt. 1 st Class Stooksbury said. "It was a fight to own it, and we didn’t leave it."
   Before U.S.-led coalition forces finally left the field by mid-morning Tuesday, military attack helicopters had destroyed what was left of a sizable weapons cache, commanders said.
   E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

This story was published Wednesday, April 06, 2005

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9:09:47 AM EST
278 th takes over authority
By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs

CAMP CALDWELL, Iraq — During a Christmas Eve ceremony one Southern flag replaced another Southern flag when the 30th Brigade Combat Te am on Friday handed over the authority of Iraq’s Eastern Diyala region to the 278th Regimental Combat Team.
   "Today we honor and bid farewell to the Old Hickory of North Carolina and welcome the volunteers of Tennessee," said Maj. Gen. John Batiste, the commander of the 1 st Infantry Division, to assembled elements of the Tennessee-based 278th Regimental Combat Team and the remnants from the 30th of North Carolina.
   The 278th is attached to the 1 st Infantry Division until the 42nd Infantry Division arrives in Iraq early next year.
   At the brief transfer ceremony, the commanders of the two units faced one another at attention in front of a U.S. color guard. A soldier marched off the field carrying the 30 th’s flag, and the 278th colors took a position beside the U.S. flag in the color guard.
   "We have the responsibility to ensure that we practice the warrior ethos," 278th commander Col. Dennis Adams told his assembled troops. "There is only one sort of discipline in combat — perfect discipline."
   Col. Adams said he is satisfied with the regiment’s performance so far in Iraq. The regiment completed its convoys from Kuwait to the three bases it commands here without losing a soldier or suffering a major injury.
   "The most important resources we have are our Tennessee soldiers, our Texas soldiers and our Wisconsin soldiers," said Col. Adams referring to the elements from different states that are attached to the regiment for this mission.
   The 30 th, the first National Guard brigade to be deployed in support of the war on terror, leaves after arriving in Kuwait last February. They leave the 278th to patrol nearly 150 miles of Iraq’s border with Iran.
   During their time here, the 30th found 251 improvised explosive devices and 369 caches of weapons. The brigade killed 17, wounded three and captured more than 450 insurgents during 110 ambushes, 36 raids and 3,000 traffic checkpoints.
   The brigade drank more than 2 million bottles of water and used 3 million gallons of fuel. The 30th medics treated more than 9,000 patients.
  Maj. Gen. Batiste praised the brigade for building relationships with Iraqis that helped break down cultural barriers. He said these friendships would make the 278 th’s job easier.
   "To the volunteers of Tennessee — buckle your chin straps. We will give the good people of Iraq alternatives to the insurgency," Maj. Gen. Batiste said. "The people of Iraq need your help so they can help themselves."
   A large contingent of Iraqis also attended the ceremony. Iraqi National Guard soldiers embraced and posed for pictures with the departing officers of the 30th Brigade.
   "We love the Americans," said Lt. Col. Ali Kaki of the Iraqi National Guard. "Thank God they are here. If they didn’t come to free Iraq, we would have died, I’m afraid."
   Brig. Gen. Danny Hickman, the 30 th’s commander, said the 278th needs to learn the nuances of an ethnically diverse region with 150-160 political parties. The sector is made up of Kurds and Sunni Muslims.
   "You have to understand the dozens of different factions and the factions within factions that make up the social, religious and political environment," Gen. Hickman said. "When you deal with a politician or a leader you have to really understand where they are coming from."
   Gen. Hickman spent the evening eating dinner at the home of a Kurdish commander whom he said "treated me like a brother."
   Col. Adams said Friday’s ceremony was not the first time the 278th and the 30th have crossed paths in a combat zone on Christmas Eve. The two units were preparing to cross the Delaware in the freezing rain with George Washington during the Revolutionary War on Dec. 22, 1776. During World War II the 30th and the 278th spent the night before Christmas surviving the Belgian winter during the Battle of the Bulge, he said.
   Col. Bill Rochelle, who is preparing to enter Iraq as part of the 42nd Infantry Division, said the 278th is the perfect replacement for their Southern brethren in the 30 th.
   "They are the only ones who understand each other," he said, joking about the Southern accents. "When these guys get together it starts getting a little thicker."
   E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

This story was published Saturday, December 25, 2004

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7:24:05 AM EST

By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs

CAMP CALDWELL, Iraq — Blowing up hidden weapons in the morning and providing security at the opening of a new U.S.- funded school in the afternoon are all in a day’s work for the 278th Regimental Combat Te a m ’s Deacon Company.
   "A n hour ago I had dirt thrown on me from a bunch of mortar shells blowing up, and now I am at a ribbon-cutting at a school," Lt. Joseph Minarick, 29, of Oak Ridge, Tenn., said Thursday, soon after shaking hands with a long line of dignitaries at the opening of the primary school in the town of Hamilathania. Earlier in the day, in the nearby town of Mandaly, his platoon, conducting foot patrols, discovered a cache of buried mortar shells, which guardsmen destroyed using a hand grenade.
   The day ended with a tour of the sparse new nine-room school where U.S. forces and Iraqi adults and children mingled with ease.
   "If you have to be in Iraq right now as an American, then this is the place to be," said Lt. Minarick, who already has conducted three foot patrols in one week in the area soon to be under the 278 th’s control. "I’m not relaxed, but I am not uncomfortable, either. The people just want to live their lives."
   The 278th soldiers are being told this week by their predecessors here, the 30th Brigade Combat Team, that for every homemade bomb blast and hidden weapons cache there is a school opening, a road expansion, or other civil improvement in this impoverished land near the Iranian border.
   Lt. Col. Mark W. Hart, the commander of 278 th’s first squadron, used Thursday’s grand opening as a chance to meet the leaders he will be dealing with for the next year. As he shook their hands and listened to their concerns, he toured the school rooms with wooden desks and one blackboard. Children played in the school’s large courtyard.
   "For Iraq’s long-term prosperity, their greatest asset is their children," Col. Hart said.
   Two children proudly held up a red ribbon across the blue double doorway to the one-story white school building.
   The rest of the village’s children, many barefoot, eagerly lined up to receive school supplies brought by U.S. troops. Most children say "thank you" in English. And they point to their chests and say "My name is …." repeatedly to any one in uniform.
   One child called himself a "pupil" and demonstrated what he already has learned by repeating the English alphabet with only a few misplaced letters.
   "This is the key to us winning here," said Maj. Tim Cleveland as he watched Col. Hart begin relationships with the tribal leaders while troops posed for pictures with the throngs of children. "Superior firepower will not win this."
   The winning of hearts and minds falls to units such as Capt. Chris Chang’s 426 Civil Affairs battalion based out of California. Capt. Chang said most area improvement projects average about $50,000 with a cap of $250,000. Local contractors are hired to help pump up the local economy, according to Capt. Chang.
   But this sometimes leads to unreliable results.
   On the way to the school opening, Capt. Chang’s convoy stopped at a $175,000 water pumping station construction project that had stalled. He discussed withholding payment until the contractor finishes the job. When the station opens, four instead of one village will get water from the muddy canal nearby.
   "We are the first people in hundreds of years to work to improve the economy here," Capt. Chang said. "But if OSHA came here, they would have a heart attack. Engineers here are not what we think of as engineers back home."
   On the way to the school opening, the convoy passed through a nearby town with an Iraqi-built school that was little more than a mud and straw hut. The convoy’s travel continued on a gravel road for which the United States paid $50,000. Capt. Chang said the U.S. Army gave area officials just 48 hours notice about the school ceremony to reduce the chance of the festivities being disrupted by insurgents.
   With two colonels attending, U.S. forces overran the small town with tight security led by about 12 military vehicles.
   Area mayors, City Council members and Iraqi national guard officers attended the event, but Capt. Chang said he was most pleased that the local tribal religious elders also came to shake the hands of the new officers in town with the 278 th.
   "If you have support of the sheik, you have support of the town," Capt. Chang said. "I am happy because we got the key people we needed."
   The local sheik, through an interpreter, said the American coalition forces are like a "bridge" between an old, impoverished Iraq and a new beginning.
   "We don’t want to waste our people away," the sheik said. "We will continue to build this country and this society just like this school."
   The Arabic sign at the front door announces that the primary school is for both males and females, although no women were present at the ceremony. Several young girls watched the activities from behind a mud and brick home about 100 yards away.
   "We are out here with coats and gloves on, and they are out here barefooted," said the 278 th’s Maj. Eddie Robbins, of Memphis, who is part of the regiment’s civil affairs unit. "So I am going to have to respond with e-mails home asking to send children’s shoes."
   Maj. Robbins shook his head as he looked around at the modest buildings and the mud shack outhouse next to a creek running with sewage.
   "These are wide-open, desolate living conditions," he said. "You can’t imagine it until you see it firsthand."
   E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

This story was published Sunday, December 19, 2004

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10:21:02 AM EST

Pentagon expects to provide protection for 98 percent of Humvees by March ’05
By Andy Sher Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Army officials on Wednesday said the military is spending $4.1 billion on armor in the next six to eight months to make sure vehicles used in Iraq have protective armor.
   "By March, we will have 98 percent of the light tactical vehicles — in other words, the Humvees — armored," Army Brig. Gen. Jeff Sorenson told reporters during a Pentagon briefing, according to a transcript. "And we’re also going to have the heavy truck fleet."
   Other vehicles should have armor by summer, he said.
   U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R- Tenn., said he thinks "
   everything will be accelerated."
   "I think the Congress, if it were in session, would already be meeting on this,"
   he said.
   Gen. Sorenson and Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Speakes also said the Army has created a task force that will look at production of factory-armored vehicles as well as kits.
   They said armor was added to all of the 278th Regimental Combat Team’s vehicles before the unit traveled into Iraq last week.
   Spc. Thomas "Jerry" Wilson, a 278th member from Ringgold, Ga., last week in Kuwait asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld why soldiers were having to "dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles." The soldier posed the question after discussing it with Chattanooga Times Free Press military affairs reporter Edward Lee Pitts. Before heading from Kuwait into Iraq, some 278th members crafted their own armor, which they called "hillbilly armor," primarily using steel taken off vehicles being sent home from the Middle East.
   In a makeshift armoring factory at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, soldiers hammered metal to be fitted onto the sides and underbellies of trucks, Humvees and other military vehicles. They also took used ballistic windshields out of trash bins and installed them on some vehicles.
   Gen. Speakes said at the time of Spc. Wilson’s question that 20 vehicles remained to be uparmored.
   "We completed those 20 vehicles in the next day," he said We dnesday. "And so over 800 vehicles from the 278 th... were up-armored, and they are a part now oftheir total force that is operating up in Iraq."
   By the time the 278th headed into Iraq, Gen. Speakes said the unit had 252 vehicles with bolt-on armor produced in the United States and shipped to Kuwait for installation by soldiers. He said another 459 vehicles had less protective, "level three" armor — the homemade armor to which Spc. Wilson referred.
   "Level one" armor is built into the vehicle at the time it is manufactured, according to military officials. "Level two" armor is factory-made but installed on vehicles at a later date.
   The general said the 278th also picked up 119 armored Humvees in Iraq that were left behind by departing units.
   Gen. Speakes was critical of Tennessee soldiers’ characterization of the armor they installed as "hillbilly armor."
   "I think that it’s very, very unfair to characterize this as an issue that pits the active Army against, for example, Army guardsmen," he said.
   But he conceded that "when we first went to the war, there was a clear differentiation between the equipping of Guard units, for example, and the equipping of what were activecomponent units."
   The general said that has changed.
   A number of experts and lawmakers including Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., since have said the lack of adequate armor was emblematic of the Pentagon’s poor planning for the post-invasion situation in Iraq. The Senate Armed Services Committee has announced it plans a hear- ing on the armor and similar issues.
   But the generals said it took time for officials to develop, test and manufacture armor once it became clear insurgents posed an increasing threat.
   "This is not Wal-Mart," Gen Sorenson said. "As we’ve gone through, this is a very detailed process in terms of trying to get this capability."
   Te nnessee lawmakers, who have written letters to Mr. Rumsfeld seeking answers about the armor supply, had mixed reac tions to the Pentagon statements on Wednesday.
   A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., said the Pentagon had yet to respond to a letter sent last week to Mr. Rumsfeld.
   "We certainly are anxious to hear back from them," Amy Call said. But she said it "is a positive thing" that the Pentagon is moving ahead on the issue.
   "Sen. Frist wants to get these soldiers outfitted as soon as possible," Ms. Call said.
   Sen. Lamar Alexander, RTe nn., is "encouraged by actions the Department of Defense is taking to make sure that our troops have the resources they need and the safest environment possible to do their job," spokeswoman Alexia Poe said.
   However, U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., was critical.
   "They’ve not shot us straight," Rep. Ford said of previous Pentagon explanations about problems in Iraq. "I won’t believe this until I actually hear from the men and the women on the ground."
   The generals also discussed efforts to speed production of factory-armored vehicles and add-on kits.
   One company will boost its monthly production from 450 armored Humvees to 550 by February or March, officials said.
   Army spokeswoman Nancy Ray said officials can do that without worry about caps in the Department of Defense authorization bill because it simply means accelerating the contract and not increasing the total number of vehicles to be armored.
   E-mail Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com

This story was published Thursday, December 16, 2004

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10:19:08 AM EST

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.
   It has been four long months since members of Morristown and Monteagle’s 190th Engineer Company first left their families and livelihoods behind to begin training for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
   The journey has included three months of battling the humidity of a Mississippi summer and a month in the Mojave Desert at Fort Irwin, Calif. Now, with training over, the 278th Regimental Combat Team has departed for Kuwait for final preparations before heading into Iraq.
   Through this time, I have reflected on our training and this daunting mission. One thing is for sure — so far it hasn’t been easy. From the tears we shed when we left our families to the sweat we poured on the training grounds, life already has been rough for our soldiers.
   When we arrived at Camp Shelby, Miss., in June, we adjusted from the life of weekend warriors to that of full-time soldiers. For some it was easy — they just continued the active duty life they had known before leaving the service years ago. For others, including myself, it was a bit more difficult.
   My life as I had known it was changed completely.
   Some of it was a given — like being away from family and not having access to luxuries such as having a vehicle or being able to grab a bite to eat whenever I wanted.
   But what I didn’t expect was the difficulty of getting used to spending every minute of every day with the guys I previously had learned to put up with for two days a month. It was never hard getting along with them, but doing it all the time was difficult at first.
   I also went from having my own bedroom at home to sharing a building with more than 30 other guys. The concept of having privacy disappeared.
   Our new leadership from outside the 278th was another adjustment.
   For Operation Iraqi Freedom III, the regiment had welcomed the 386th Engineer Battalion from the Te x as Army National Guard. As the only engineer company originally in the 278 th, the 190th was attached to the 386 th.
   It was quite awkward at first. Their operations were different from those we were used to. Eventually we blended in, but we’ve kept a friendly Tennessee-Te x as rivalry throughout our four-month deployment.
   These adjustments were a side note to the overall mission to become combat ready at Camp Shelby. We spent three months practicing and learning different skills, from convoy operations to urban warfare and medical training.
   The training also molded us into a family.
   We we re tasked in a mock scenario similar to one we could face in Iraq. We provided security on a route leading to the Iraqi town of Medina Ma’akl, allowing civilians to register and vote in the country’s elections over a span of two weeks.
   In that training, the biggest enemy we faced was exhaustion, being tasked with back-toback missions multiple times.
   In that training, the biggest lesson we learned was to be aware of our surroundings at all times. With so many soldiers being killed by improvised explosive devices in Iraq, it is a lesson that will help keep us safe.
   We returned to Tennessee for 11 days of leave time with our families. The time I spent with my family was truly a blessing, but the good time was shadowed with the cloud of upcoming deployment.
   When I first left home for training, I thought about the danger of our mission often. But training and the constant media coverage of the Iraq situation helped me develop a numbness.
   I’m not as scared as I thought I would be. I’ve got more of a desire to go and accomplish the mission so we can come home.
   E-mail Spc. Ryan Seals at news@timesfreepress.com

This story was published Sunday, November 28, 2004

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10:18:24 AM EST

By Edward Lee Pitts
Military Affairs

Many of the 278th Regimental Combat Unit soldiers are too busy preparing for their mission in Iraq to be aware of the national attention their unit is getting.

But some have caught word of the discussion sparked by Spc. Thomas "Jerry" Wilson asking U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday about the team's lack of armor for its vehicles.

Some said they support Spc. Wilson's question, while others said they are worried that the incident needlessly upset their families or has endangered their convoy into Iraq.

"I love it," said Sgt. Ken Kay, 42, of Red Bank. "If I could, I'd buy him a beer. Something like that needs to be told."

But Spc. Norman Lettieri, 30, from Cleveland, Tenn., said his wife was "frantic" about it when he called home.

"I don't need to know if there's a water heater broken in the house, and she doesn't need to know what's happening over here," he said. "It is a military, and there's going to be problems. We knew that when we joined."

He also expressed concern about publicizing the team's lack of protection on its vehicles.

"You don't need the whole world knowing we are coming up here in hillbilly armor," Spc. Lettieri said.

Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts spoke to a 278th soldier about a question the soldier asked Mr. Rumsfeld about the team's unarmored vehicles. Reporters with the soldiers in Iraq were told they couldn't ask questions of the defense secretary.

Tom Griscom, publisher and executive editor of the newspaper, defended Mr. Pitts' actions, saying he used the tools available to him to report a story that is important to members of the 278th and their families.

Mr. Pitts has written several stories for the Times Free Press detailing how soldiers were welding scrap metal onto their vehicles in preparation for a convoy from Kuwait into Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Foster Young, 34, of Sparta, Tenn., said Spc. Wilson's question could save lives.

"I'm all for it," he said. "Do you want (troops) to travel down the road with nothing on? I would feel better off if we had that heavy armor instead of what we've got."

E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

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7:54:33 AM EST
Senate plans hearing on armor concerns
By Andy Sher Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The adequacy of protective armor for U.S. troops will be a key focus of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing early next year, according to a spokesman for panel chairman U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va. "The committee plans to hold an oversight hearing on the Iraq mission early in the new Congress, and the subject of armor will play a major part of that hearing," said spokesman John Ullyot in a statement.
   Sen. Warner and lawmakers of both parties will "gather further information on the armor situation on scheduled oversight trips to the region in the coming weeks," Mr. Ullyot said.
   Carrie Sloan, a spokeswoman for the House Armed Services Committee, said in an e-mail Monday that while the 2005 committee schedule has not been set yet, "We held a number of hearings on this issue in the 108th Congress and anticipate that we would continue that in the new year."
   Questions about whether the Defense Department is doing all it can to protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq reignited last week when Tennessee National Guard Spc. Thomas "Jerry" Wilson raised concerns with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session in Kuwait. Spc. Wilson, who is with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, asked why soldiers were having to "dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles."
   Many soldiers in the audience of more than 2,000 soldiers cheered.
   The secretary responded that "you have to go to war with the Army you have." He said providing more of the up-armored vehicles was a "matter of physics, not a matter of money."
   Rachel Carter, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said Monday the Chattanooga congressman "supports the call for congressional hearings early next year on the equipment provided to the National Guard, including Tennessee’s 278 th, and the issue of up-armored humvees."
   Staff members for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., were unavailable for comment. They are attending a retreat this week.
   Defense officials defended the armor situation with Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, commander of the 3rd Army, saying last week that 22,000 of 30,000 vehicles in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Central Command bases have additional armor.
   Six thousand are Humvees that were "up-armored" in factories. That is about 2,100 short of what the military would like. Some 10,000 Humvees have been outfitted with armor kits. Officials said no Humvees will be deployed in combat situations unless they are armored.
   Still, House Armed Services Committee figures showed that earlier this year, only 479 of 4,814 medium trucks in the Central Command Theater were armored while 663 of 4,314 trucks were armored.
   A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., said the armor issue has come up before the House Armed Services Committee in "at least 15 different hearings" and "we’re told constantly we’re going as fast as we can."
   He said Congress has appropriated around $1.3 billion to address problems.
   While factory production of armored Humvees has increased from some 30 a month to 450, contractor Armor Holdings officials said last week they could boost their output to 550 a month. The statements prompted apparently startled Army officials to begin discussions to boost production.
   E-mail Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com

This story was published Tuesday, December 14, 2004

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