3,000 Ind. Guardsmen set for Iraq deployment

[unhappycamper]

3,000 Ind. Guardsmen set for Iraq deployment
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Mar 1, 2008 17:27:36 EST

FORT STEWART, Ga. — Many family members and friends shed tears Saturday during the departure ceremony for more than 3,000 Indiana National Guard soldiers about to leave for Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of First Army Division East, told members of the Indiana Guard’s 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team they have received realistic and challenging training since arriving at Fort Stewart at the beginning of January.

“The soldiers standing on this field exemplify all that is good about our Army and our nation,” Hood said. “They are the patriots who stepped forward who answered the call to service.”

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels spoke of his visit on Friday to Warriors Walk — which has 386 Eastern Redbud trees, each one representing a fallen soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division based at Fort Stewart — and about the pictures taken in Iraq he found wrapped in a plastic shield under one of the trees.

They were left there by a soldier who took them from his fighting position with a note written on the back of one of them that read, “I rather fight them here.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_indianaguarddeploy_030108/