2,500 from Ohio Guard set to deploy

[unhappycamper]

2,500 from Ohio Guard set to deploy
By Todd Jones - The Columbus Dispatch via AP
Posted : Monday Mar 24, 2008 6:21:40 EDT

FORT HOOD, Texas — A call to duty shields the Ohio Army National Guard’s 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from the rhetoric in a presidential election year and makes moot for them the debate about bringing troops home.

Right after the Iraq war’s fifth anniversary, all that the 37th cares about is leaving central Texas and going to the Middle East to fulfill its mission — as soon as possible.

“We’re really ready to go,” said Capt. Tony McCarty, a Columbus resident. “It’s kind of a running joke: You’ve never been so anxious to leave your own country before.”

The brigade, based in Columbus, will fulfill its collective desire soon after a deployment ceremony Thursday at Fort Hood, where the 2,500 troops just completed more than 80 days of training to prepare for nine months in Kuwait and Iraq.

The deployment is the largest Ohio troop mobilization abroad since World War II, when the 37th went to the South Pacific. It represents a transformation in the way the U.S. military uses the Guard, from a strictly reserve force to more of a regular component of the active-duty Army.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_ohiodeployment_032308/

[Lady President]

1. A Friend of Mine is in the 37th

A friend of mine is part of this brigade. He was promised that if he volunteered to spend 6 mo. in Afghanistan in 2005, then he wouldn't be deployed again. Needless to say, that promise wasn't worth much.

The men and women of the 37th are in my thoughts, and I hope they all make it home safely. It seems like the people of Ohio have lost more than our share of soldiers already. :(

[peace13]

2. Too sad.

I only wish that our dear Governor Strickland could take as much time sending our troops off as he spent with Hill on the election trail. This is so wrong on so many levels. To the troops, I apologize. We are working here in Ohio to get this war stopped. Obviously we have more work to do.

[w8liftinglady]

3. I couldn't tell from the article-is this their first deployment?