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April 2004 |
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April 4, 2004 - New Battles To Win - Members of 1-293rd get help readjusting to life after war. In November 2002, for the first time since World War II, the members of the Fort Wayne-based 1st Battalion 293rd Infantry found themselves gearing up for combat duty. The 650 men were some of the first soldiers deployed. They were also some of the first soldiers to return home. They've been home now for six months, and during that time the soldiers have been readjusting to different family roles, new family members and changes in themselves and those around them. "Within the first six months is the challenging times," said Army Lt. Col. Rodney Merrell, assistant director of personnel at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh. An infantry battalion, the 1-293rd is a member of the 76th Infantry Brigade, Enhanced, created in 1996. Composed of National Guard battalions throughout Indiana, the brigade has all the assets - except helicopters - necessary to serve in combat, said 1st Sgt. Charlie Cox, commander of the battalion's Charlie Company. The battalion arrived in Kuwait before Operation Iraqi Freedom began. During the war, the soldiers guarded air bases, secured supply checkpoints and patrolled areas throughout southern Iraq. For soldiers such as those in the 1-293rd, they face the same readjustment issues as full-time active military personnel. "When they come back into it, they expect everything to go back to the way it was," Cox said. "It won't. It can't. It's not ever going to be." Fort Bragg, N.C., saw a string of domestic shootings in the summer of 2002 by soldiers returning home from active duty in Afghanistan. The tragedies led to greater scrutiny of soldiers' readjustment to lives outside combat zones. Now the military is extending that same focus to soldiers in the Guard and Reserves. "If you want to go back to the Vietnam era, they got off the airplane and went to a post and turned in their equipment and went home the same day," Merrell said. Now, Indiana National Guard soldiers leave for deployment and return home via Camp Atterbury, where they participate in a five-day adjustment course upon their return. Longer than the three days prescribed after the Persian Gulf War, the adjustment time includes legal and financial briefings; meetings with the battalion's chaplain; and discussion of events of the past year and possible psychological effects from stresses of the battlefield. Soldiers were also told where they could receive additional help. "(We) give them time to adjust," Merrell said. "They've been going pretty much 110 percent on maintaining life. Now they just need to slow down and relax and see the rest of the world go by for a little bit." The classes allowed soldiers to learn to re-enter their family lives, said former 1-293rd Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Ivan Denton, who was scheduled to assume a new post April 1. Your wife had to do without you for almost a year," he said. "That shouldn't surprise you that you don't need to ride in on your white horse and fix things because they're really not broken." Although he recommends soldiers let family relationships gradually return to normal, Denton said some will never be the same. "It's almost like the strong relationships become stronger, and the weak relationships crack or break," he said. "I think it accelerates departures sometimes." In Indiana, 5,400 soldiers and airmen have been deployed since Sept. 11, 2001, said Capt. Lisa Kopczynski, state public affairs officer for the Indiana National Guard. That is more troops than at any other time since World War II, she said. "It's kind of a new world in that we're relying much more heavily on Guard and Reserve units than we have in previous conflicts," said Shelley MacDermid, co-director of the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University. Guard units are under the jurisdiction of their state governments, and Reserve units are under the command of the president.
Many soldiers enlist in the National
Guard or Reserve units for the financial benefits - an average of $200 a
month plus full tuition reimbursement. But ultimately they are enlisting
in the military with the distinct possibility they might serve in combat.
When the Fort Wayne National Guard soldiers returned to their regular
lives, Cox said, they wanted to resume the relationships and the roles
they occupied before they left. But they can't. Not only has the soldier
undergone a life-changing experience, his spouse, other family members and
friends have also changed during the deployment, MacDermid said. "Every
person has their own individual capacity for dealing with the challenges
that life presents them with," she said. "Some people don't get as
stressed quite as much as others. They take things in stride, and that's
how they work." (
April 6, 2004 - Indiana National Guard units ordered to mobilize for deployment - COLUMBUS, Ind. -- Three Indiana National Guard units made up of about 1,250 members have received orders to mobilize for deployment, possibly overseas, military officials said. Units of the 76th Infantry Brigade, with 250 members and based in Indianapolis, received their orders over the weekend, said Capt. Lisa Kopczynski, state public affairs officer for the Indiana National Guard. Also, 500 soldiers from the Columbus-based 113th Support Battalion, which is part of the 76th Infantry, were preparing to mobilize, she said. A third unit, the 1st Battalion of 151st Infantry also received mobilization orders over the weekend, Kopczynski said. That unit, which is based in Darlington, some 20 miles south of Lafayette, has about 500 members and is part of the 81st Troop Command. The 1438th Transport Co., based at Camp Atterbury, recently was placed on alert that it might be deployed, Kopczynski said. The unit has about 100 members and is part of the 219th Area Support Group. Maj. Marcus Thomas said the 113th Support Battalion would be gathered by the end of April, but that he did not know where the unit was destined. The deployment order has not yet come through. "There's been some talk of Afghanistan," Thomas said. "It could be to anywhere at this point." Kopczynski said the units' missions were classified. (Associated Press)
April 20, 2004 -
Responsibility of maintaining land unclear, official location debated. By
Marla Miller, Columbus Republic
When David Dwyer became
Harrison Township’s trustee in 2001, he made it a point to find the
abandoned cemeteries in his jurisdiction. Novice fans get big game for 1st look. The Pacers tipped off against the Celtics at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The gates to Conseco Fieldhouse didn't open until 6 p.m. Sgt. Harold Chipps and nearly two dozen members of his Army Reserve unit were in attendance at Tuesday's game. Chipps said his unit, the 326th Quartermaster Detachment from New Castle, Pa., returned from Iraq this week and will begin returning to their homes today. They were among approximately 1,000 military personnel, active and reserve, and their families who attended the game courtesy of Bank One and Marsh Supermarkets. "It's great for morale," Chipps said. "There's no better morale than coming home, but this shows the public supports us and the Pacers support us, which is great." Josh Farkas, a specialist from Akron, Ohio, said the tickets were a big hit at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Ind. "I ran up and got mine as quickly as possible," he said. (IndyStar.com) 04/22/2004 PRESERVING HISTORY A project to remember the Wereth 11 - (originally written 07/02/2002) By GENE OWENS, Register Columnist You've heard of the Tuskegee Airmen. You may have heard of the Red Ball Express and the 761st Tank Battalion. But have you heard of the Wereth 11? Probably not. The Tuskegee Airmen were the crack fighter pilots who escorted American bombers during the North Africa and Italian campaigns. The Red Ball Express trucked vital fuel to Gen. George Patton's forces as they raced toward the Rhine. The 761st Tank Battalion gave fierce battle to the Germans during 183 continuous days of combat. They had one thing in common with the Wereth 11: All consisted of black Americans. The Wereth 11 died Dec. 17, 1944, in a brutal massacre in a snowy pasture in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium. Dr. Norman Lichtenfeld, an orthopedic surgeon from Mobile, numbers them among "the invisible soldiers." He has started a fund to help make sure they're remembered. At least one of them -- Pfc. George Davis -- was from Alabama. Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Forte was from Mississippi. Both now lie buried in the large American cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. Technician 4th Class James A. Stewart of West Virginia, Pfc. Due W. Turner of Arkansas and Pvt. Curtis Adams of South Carolina lie there, too. The names of the others as they appear on the monument are Nathanial Moos, George W. Mootton, Bradley Mager, Robert Green, W. M. Pritchet and Jim Leathewood. Another list, provided by Lichtenfeld's guide from Belgium, has slightly different spellings: "Mooten" instead of "Mootton," "Bradlely Meagler" instead of "Bradley Mager," "Pucket" instead of "Pritchet," and "Leatherwood" instead of "Leathewood." Lichtenfeld has heard that one of them is buried in Wilcox County, but he isn't sure who he is or where he lies. The men were part of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, servicing the 155 mm howitzers pounding the Nazis from 10 miles behind the front lines in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium. When the Germans launched the furious counterattack now known as the Battle of the Bulge, the men found themselves enveloped by Nazi troops. Unable to move their heavy artillery pieces, they fled through the woods during one of the bitterest winters of the century. The cold, hungry soldiers sought haven in Wereth, a tiny cluster of farm houses not big enough to be called a village. The family of Mathius Langer gave them shelter for the night, but a German sympathizer saw them and tipped off the SS. Next day, the SS marched the Americans up a small cow path and into the corner of a pasture. There the Nazis brutalized and murdered them. Their bodies were soon covered with snow. They remained there until the spring thaw. After the war, Langer erected a small wooden cross in memory of the murdered GIs. Later, the family replaced it with a modest granite marker bearing an inscription in German. The English translation: "Here were murdered on Dec. 17, 1944, 11 U.S. soldiers." Lichtenfeld learned of the incident when he went to Belgium in 1994 with his father, Sy Lichtenfeld, for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. The elder Lichtenfeld was captured in the Ardennes Forest on Dec. 19 and remained a prisoner until the following April. On their anniversary excursion, the Lichtenfelds engaged the services of Adda and Willi Rikken, members of a Belgian organization that guides visitors to sites in the Ardennes. The Rikkens took them to the scene of the massacre. The monument erected by the Langer family stands on the site of the massacre. The people of Wereth want to purchase the small piece of land on which the marker stands and to erect a more visible monument. The Wereth 11 probably volunteered for combat toward the end of the war, when the Army eased its policy of confining blacks to menial support roles, said Lichtenfeld, who has become a World War II buff. The number of blacks volunteering for combat exceeded the demand, he said. Why did the SS murder the Wereth 11? "Maybe it was because they were American or maybe because these men were black or perhaps simply because the SS unit could murder at will," Lichtenfeld said. "We will never know." He has been back to the Ardennes five times since 1994. The foxholes are still there, now filled in with leaves. Artifacts of war still lie just beneath the soil. Many have found their way into the surgeon's home. An old rifle and an ammunition box containing a belt of .30-caliber machine-gun bullets are among his favorites. He even bought an authentic 1945 Army Jeep, which he has immaculately restored.
The Rikkens have spent some of their own money in efforts to perpetuate the monument on the site of the massacre. Lichtenfeld hopes to raise at least $1,000 more. Those wishing to contribute may send checks to the U.S. Wereth Memorial Fund, BankTrust Inc., P.O. Box 3067, Mobile AL 36652 or in care of Lichtenfeld's office at 6791 Airport Boulevard, Mobile AL 36608. April 29, 2004 - Blackhawk down: Guard drills for Kosovo mission
By JOHN WALKER, Shelbyville News
Kosovo. A downed United
States UH 60 Alpha Blackhawk helicopter. Four dead congressmen. One dead
crew chief. Two pilots and a crew chief injured. |
Lichtenfeld said Belgian citizens
"adopt" graves of individual soldiers and keep them decorated and
maintained. Adda Rikken has adopted several, including the graves of James
Stewart and William Robinson -- an Alabamian from another unit.
