Shipping Out - Again
An Army Reserve Unit prepares to Head to Iraq--proudly, but not without doubts
Help not wanted. Last time Moreira was in Iraq, he was based in Nasiriyah and drove fuel around the country--a job that now faces one of the highest frequencies of insurgent attacks. With an air of resignation, Helene says, "I don't think we should be over there anymore. They just keep on killing us; they obviously don't want the help." As Moreira joins his fellow soldiers for a formation, Jordyn runs after him, and Helene pulls her back. "No, no, stay with Momma," she says. "Daddy's got to go to work."
Though the military has not announced how long it intends to keep U.S. troops in Iraq, it has drawn up worst-case scenario plans that would keep forces there through 2009. With the active and Reserve Army 25,800 recruits behind its 2005 goal as of the end of July, and every active-duty soldier having served at least two tours in Iraq by the end of the year, it is clear that the Guard and Reserve will continue to play a large role in the war--and suffer its casualties. Since May 1, more than 122 Guard and Reserve forces have been killed in Iraq. This can have an effect on public opinion toward the war. With active-duty soldiers, when a unit takes casualties, they are not all from the same place. But in one week in August, 14 members of the Ohio Marine Reserve were killed by a massive roadside bomb, three Georgia National Guard troops were killed by a suicide bomber, and four soldiers from the Pennsylvania National Guard were killed in a single attack. "With Guard and Reserve units, you can end up with a lot of people from one part of the country dying in one day, and that gets people's attention," says Lawrence Korb, a defense expert at the Center for American Progress.
Specialist Derr's mother, Linda Honey, says that although she thinks the war is dragging on too long, she is 100 percent behind her son and the other soldiers. "I'm sad because he's only 19, he's my only son, and he's going to turn 21 over there, and when he comes back he's not going to be this little boy anymore," she says. "I look around the room, and it's like, wow, all these soldiers are going, and all these families will be affected, and this is just one little unit. And then you think of all the people who have gone before. Before, I had my opinions, but it wasn't in my own backyard. Now it's in my own backyard."
With Silla Brush
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