Posted on 01/07/2007 5:34:03 PM PST by SandRat
PHOENIX -- A National Guard Brigade from Arizona is headed for its first combat tour since World War II.
More than 600 members of the Arizona National Guard's 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment left their families Saturday. They will train at Fort Bragg, N.C. before shipping off for more than a year in Afghanistan, where insurgents continue to battle with U.S. and NATO forces.
"I expect the worst and hope for the best," said Pvt. Jose Flores, a Glendale resident who looked both exhausted and excited as he shared some final moments with his wife and three sons Saturday.
Flores went overseas once before, to Egypt, as part of a mission to guard the Suez Canal, but this assignment to Afghanistan will be his first combat operation.
"I didn't sleep well at all last night," he said. "I kept waking up, looking at the clock thinking I didn't want to be late."
Suicide bombings are on the rise in Afghanistan, according to NATO. Militants launched 117 suicide attacks in 2006, a six-fold increase since 2005.
The 158th Infantry Regiment's last wartime deployment overseas was to the Philippines in 1941 when it was known as the 158th Regimental Combat Team. The team was given the nickname "Bushmasters" after the deadly Bushmaster snake in Panama.
The soldiers are expected to join nearly 450 Arizona National Guard troops from a Marana-based Apache helicopter unit in Afghanistan. That unit left for Fort Hood, Texas on Tuesday.
The troops will make up a contingent of nearly 1,100 Arizona Guard soldiers in Afghanistan. As many as 1,600 are currently stationed in Iraq.
Many of the infantry-trained 158th Regiment soldiers are expected to handle security detail in Afghanistan, though their missions have not yet been released, said Maj. Paul Aguirre, a spokesman for the Arizona National Guard.
Cathy Tanori, 47, came to Saturday's event to see her son, 20-year-old Pvt. Brian Tanori, leave for war just weeks after he finished boot camp.
Flanked by her two young daughters inside the ASU arena, the Nogales woman wept and said her family was happy their own soldier wasn't being sent to Iraq.
"When Brian said `Afghanistan,' I was a little more relieved, but it's still scary," she said.
How is this possible? I thought the army was exhausted, and every unit had been deployed about a dozen times to the war Zone.
Good hunting.
May God watch over them and protect them and their families. Thank you, dear soldiers for your service. In our prayers forever.
Liberals LIE!
I feel certain that this generaton of patriots, having seen what real need is like in the third world will not be as self-centered as the drama queen bee who just hit the marble ceiling and needs her head examined, now.
Godspeed and happy hunting, men.
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