[Kyobanim]

TRIAL BY FIRE by JENNIFER G. WILLIAMS (continued)

Each Special Forces Company typically is divided into six A-Teams of 12 soldiers. Each A-Team has specific, as well as SF-general training. Since Guard units recruit and train their own volunteer soldiers, they can have fewer people on each team. Capt. Paul’s team had 10 members total. After leaving Germany, the teams received their assignments in a unique Special Operations fashion.
Assignments are given during isolation time, in which each team is brought to a facility cut off from the outside world. Teams are then given information about their mission and a timetable to figure out how they will do it. They are left alone for a period of time, then are asked to present their plan, along with a list of supplies they’ll need to accomplish their mission.
“We kinda self-deployed from there,� explains Capt. Paul. “We coordinated with pilots to get to Gardez.� His team then joined British Marines in the mountains to conduct Battlefield Damage Assessments following Operation Anaconda.
“Overall, it was an ideal Guard experience,� he says. “We went down there as an A-Team and searched for bad guys on a daily basis. We were able to put into practice all that we’d been trained to do.�
But the deployment was not ideal for the 5th Battalion.
On April 15, 2002, 30-year-old SFC Daniel Romero of Amarillo, Texas, and three soldiers from the San Diego-based 710th Explosive Ordinance Detachment — SSgt. Brian Craig, SSgt. Justin Galewski and Sgt. Jamie Maugans — were killed when they set off an enemy booby trap while attempting to destroy a cache of 107mm rockets in Kandahar, says Cercy. The soldiers from the 710th lived with B Company and “were really a part of this unit,� he says.
“Three days later, we had a rocket attack at our camp,� says Cercy. Two days after that, B Company’s Lt. Greg Miller of College Station, Texas, was shot in the face and wounded while on patrol in Kandahar. “All in one week,� says Cercy. “That was really tough on a lot of people.�
In May, another 19th Group soldier, 2nd Battalion’s SSgt. Gene Vance, 38 of Morgantown, W Va., was killed in action while taking part in Operation Mountain Lion, when the vehicle in which he and other soldiers were patrolling in was struck by enemy gunfire.
The losses hit home for the guardsmen and their families, all of whom were already dealing with the company’s exceptionally long deployment.
“A lot of us have gone overseas a lot, but usually for a month or so at a time,� says Capt. Paul, who has spent 10 years with the 19th Group. “This was the longest we’d been deployed anywhere that I can remember.�
For most soldiers, the hardest part about being away is being separated from family. MSgt. Bitonel left for Afghanistan when his wife was approximately six months pregnant with their fifth child. The Red Cross woke him in the predawn hours a few weeks before his wife was due to tell him his third son had come early. MSgt. Bitonel was especially busy during that time, but was able to use a satellite phone to call his wife in the hospital two days later.
And while loved ones have to deal with the emotional pains of missing Guard soldiers, employers have to deal with the temporary loss of their employees. Most employers are supportive, and some even go the extra mile.
“I’ve been very fortunate,� says MSgt. Bitonel, whose employer called his wife to check on her and to see how he was doing overseas.
And while soldiers are always glad to get home, it does take a little time to re-acclimate to their old lives.
“We had about 16 rocket attacks, one suicide attack and mines planted for us everywhere over there,� says Capt. Paul. “It took me about a week to unwind and get used to being in the civilian world again.�
But B Company soldiers know they shouldn’t get too comfy at home. Based on the downsizing of today’s military, Guard and Reserve troops are playing a larger role in military actions all over the world, says Cercy.
Cercy adds that the B Company is currently awaiting the return of the remainder of the 5th BN from Afghanistan.
“We are always in preparation for deployment if called upon to support...any conflict that may break out in other parts of
the world.�