This story originally ran in the Aug. 1, 2005 issue of the News-Miner.
Small groups of soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team lingered outside the Joint Mobility Complex on Eielson Air Force Base on Sunday night. Some were smoking cigarettes, joking about the last fish they caught. Others were talking on cell phones, making one last call to family and friends before they boarded the airplane waiting for them.
Next stop, Iraq.
The 130 brigade soldiers, and 70 from Fort Richardson who left earlier in the day, were the first of the 3,800-member brigade team to leave for their estimated yearlong deployment in the Iraqi theater. The advance team leaves first to make sure lodging, transportation, food and equipment are ready for the main body of soldiers, who will deploy throughout August.
Few soldiers seemed visibly nervous. Mostly, there was an air of relief that the time had finally come to get to the job at hand.
“Let’s get it over with,” Sgt. 1st Class Jason Hall said when asked to describe his mindset. “Let’s just get our turn over with.”
Lt. Col. Greg Parrish, deputy commanding officer of the brigade said the time spent manning, equipping and training the brigade has culminated to this deployment. He said morale was good among the soldiers because they felt confident in their skills and equipment.
“I think we’ve honed about as good of an edge as we’re going to get on this brigade,” Parrish said.
Parrish said the soldiers are also ready to rejoin what will be the brigade’s closest companions for the next year, their Stryker vehicles. The Strykers were shipped to the Middle East earlier this summer and over the last few months have been equipped with additional weapons, systems and perhaps most importantly, slat armor.
“They won’t recognize them when they see them,” Parrish said.
A few hours earlier, the soldiers said goodbye to family and friends at their battalion areas on Fort Wainwright. Some family members were crying, but they were also laughing, hugging and giving out high-fives, having known for a year and a half this moment was coming.
Christie Webb was on hand to see her husband off, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kenneth Webb. She said all the preparations have been made for her husband’s absence and she and her two children are ready to start counting down the time until he comes home. Christie Webb said she and her children are going to North Carolina for the year, to be close to family. She said she plans to keep herself and the kids busy for the next year.
“Just stay active,” she said. “That’s all you can do.”
She said her 5-year-old son is especially worried about his father, old enough to understand he is leaving, but still too young to understand why.
“He asks, ‘Why does daddy have to go over there? Who are the bad guys? Why are they doing this?’” she said. “And you just try not to cry when you try to tell him.”
Christie Webb said she plans on keeping in touch with her husband as much as she can through e-mail and by sending twice-monthly care packages with his favorites magazines, goodies and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. She’s made individual mailboxes for her son and daughter where she will put their letters from their father when they arrive.
As the soldiers arrived at Eielson for processing and a briefing, their thoughts also turned to their families. Webb had a family photo, taken just days ago, tucked inside his hat. Hall, who already has been on five overseas missions but was leaving for his first deployment as a married man, said he was carrying wedding photos, family pictures and mementos with him.
The plane was not scheduled to leave Eielson until late Sunday night, taking an undisclosed route to what officials will only refer to as the troops’ area of responsibility.