(Columbia) March 4, 2003 - More members of the South
Carolina National Guard are expected to deploy Wednesday
for the Persian Gulf region. On Monday South Carolina's
Army National Guard had its largest single day of
deployment since World War II.
About 125 Guardsmen from McEntire Air National Guard
Station are expected to leave at an undisclosed time
Wednesday. It is WIS News 10 policy not to report
information of specific troop movements or other
sensitive information.
An estimated 4500 South Carolina troops on active
duty. More than 200,000 US military personnel are in the
Gulf region.
About 500 troops from the 122nd Engineer Battalion
from Graniteville, Edgefield, McCormick, Batesburg and
Barnwell headed to southwest Asia Monday as part of the
US military build-up in the Middle East.
The 122nd has never been called to war, but has been
deployed. Personnel from the will first go to
Georgia for an undisclosed amount of time before heading
to Southwest Asia.
Adjutant General Stan Spears and other military
officials visited armories in Barnwell, Batesburg,
Edgefield, Graniteville and McCormick to bid farewell to
those men and women being deployed for a possible war
with Iraq. WIS News 10 went with them.
General Spears delivered a final pep talk in
Edgefield as members of the 122nd Battalion stood at
attention, "To all of you - take care of yourself. I
want to see you all come home safe and sound."
Specialist Lester's boys used their last chance to
try on daddy's uniform, while Lester is prepared to wear
it proudly, "We're going over there because this is
something we have to do. We've got to stop terrorism and
go over and support our country." Lester spoke about his
leaving home, "Most of all I'm going to miss my kids and
my wife and just being able to do what you want to do.
It's going to be a big change for us."
The top Guard brass then made a stop in Batesburg.
Cpl. James will not only will miss his two daughters,
but also the one who couldn't be there, "The first thing
I'm going to miss is the birth of our third child being
born."
Daisy brought her stepson flags to take overseas and
a little parental worry, "We just ask that he be safe,
as in Forrest Gump, they told him to run. So we ask him,
if he gets in a bind to run."
Spears says war may start by mid-March, "I was in
Washington. It was all the highpowered people. It looks
like we are definitely going to war with Iraq."
By and Megan
Hughes
updated 12:03pm by Chris
Rees
