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Spc. John Brueske picks up his duffel bag and drops it on the concrete floor, compacting the gear he’ll bring to training in January.
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Sgt. Gregory Geary drills soldiers on the PMCS or Preventive Maintenance Checks Service on a Humvee at the Onalaska Armory.
Erik Daily
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Spc. Adam Keeling holds up his checklist.
“Hey, didn’t we turn in our mittens already?” he asks Sgt. Chance Inderberg.
“What mittens?”
“Thank you,” he says, marking off another item.
There are questions about coveralls. A soldier walks down the row of lockers at the Onalaska Armory holding up a jumpsuit.
“If you don’t have this, don’t pack it,” he hollers in standard-issue deadpan humor.
The men of Alpha Company are getting ready to go to war.
Some 3,500 Wisconsin National Guard troops will head to Iraq next year in the largest combat deployment since the men of the 32nd Division fought through the jungles of New Guinea in World War II.
Among them will be about 75 from the Onalaska-based Company A of the 32nd Brigade’s Special Troops Battalion. For many, it will be the second time. About 200 soldiers from the
Coulee Region will be part of the deployment.
The soldiers don’t yet know where they will go or what they will do in Iraq, only that it will involve “security operations” — which could mean anything from manning guard towers to protecting convoys.
Although rumors are swirling, they won’t know until shortly before leaving, said Lt. Jonathan Barnett.
“If you think you do, you don’t,” he said.
Now the men are honing their basic soldiering skills.
On Saturday, Humvee drivers got a briefing on the basic maintenance checks they’ll be expected to do every time they fire up one of the vehicles.
Others tended to paperwork and other housekeeping. Then they packed their bags.
Their weekend drills now last three days, and they had an extra week tacked on to the annual two-week training in July. In January, they will head to Fort Blanding, Fla., for another three-week training.
The extra training has payback though.
Unlike previous deployments, which often lasted 15, 16, even 18 months, this one will be only a year — two months of intensive training in Texas and 10 in Iraq.
Most agree it’s a good trade. It will be nice after four-and-a-half months in Iraq to realize he’s halfway done, said Inderberg.
Combat-seasoned
Barnett wears the 32nd Brigade’s “Red Arrow” patch below the U.S. flag on his right sleeve, an honor reserved for those who’ve served overseas. Barnett, who is 29 and joined the Guard 10 years ago, was in Kuwait in 2005 and 2006.
More than half the soldiers in the Red Arrow have already served on active duty. That experience should make this deployment smoother and safer, the Guard’s top commanders say.
Sgt. Tom Eggen wears the Red Arrow on his left sleeve. On his right is the patch of the 82nd Airborne, the division he served with in Grenada — before a lot of the men in his company were even born.
A La Crosse native and a farmer by trade, the 45-year-old Eggen served in the Army from 1981 to 1989. He joined the Guard in 2006 because he missed it.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t hurt recruiting, according to Wisconsin Guard leaders. More than 1,300 joined so far this year, said Lt. Col. Tim Donovan.
Keeling, a 23-year-old correctional officer from Green Bay, joined about two years ago, knowing he’d likely be sent overseas. He’s not worried about going to war.
“The biggest thing is just missing life here,” he said.
Inderberg, a 24-year-old Stevens Point native, re-enlisted this year because he figured he’d be called up again and wanted to make sure he went with his own company.
A self-described prankster, he said, “I’d rather go with people I know, people who know me.”
Coming Tuesday
When the Wisconsin National Guard deploys 3,500 troops to Iraq in February, it will be the biggest combat deployment since World War II. On Tuesday, the Tribune will look back at the role the 32nd “Red Arrow” Division played — and the price its soldiers paid — to win the war in the Pacific.
