National Guard unit prepares for tour in Iraq

Maj. Timothy Foor made the first of what will be several notable exits in the months ahead as he cleared the last of his belongings from a green-painted corner office at East Sixth and Parade streets on Friday.

Foor spent three years in that old Erie Armory office, handling the various duties that come with being the executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

The space became expendable in July, when the battalion moved into the newly constructed Readiness Center near Cambridge Springs.

"A lot of stuff happened here," Foor said as he gave the office one final look. "I sat in this office when we got the call that one of our soldiers from Alpha Company was killed in combat."

Foor was also sitting in the office earlier this summer when the call came in for his battalion to prepare for a trip to Iraq.


That trip, the first full movement of the 700-soldier 1st Battalion into a combat zone since World War II, began at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, when Foor and other key battalion leaders headed to Mississippi for two weeks of training.

The group will return on Sept. 15 and then gather with the soldiers at the Readiness Center on Sept. 19, which is the battalion's official mobilization date.

After several days of final preparations, the battalion will ship out on Sept. 24 or 25 for Camp Shelby, Miss., for at least two months of mobilization training. Then it's off to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., for a 21-day training cycle that should end in time for the troops to spend at least part of the December holidays at home, Foor said.

The battalion is scheduled to be in Kuwait by mid-January. Within two weeks of their arrival, the soldiers will be in Taji, a town about 12 miles north of Baghdad.

The battalion's "area of responsibility" is just east of the town, Foor said. Their duties will include patrolling, working closely with the Iraqi national police and working with the local communities on infrastructure and nation-building, he said.

The battalion is expected to stay in Iraq until September 2009.

The first battalion-level operation since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has come with many levels of responsibility and a lot of logistical details to work out, Foor said.

"I'm taking four 53-foot box trailers just of individual personal stuff -- footlockers, duffel bags -- that has to get translated into containers that go overseas. Then it has to get sorted out," he said.

It also comes with a much greater level of responsibility for the soldiers.

The sessions at Camp Shelby and Fort Polk will give the soldiers the training they'll need in areas such as self-protection and accident evacuation, Foor said.

"We focus on those key tasks we need to do in our training, like maneuvering, driver training, communications techniques and weapons qualifications. A lot of the other things we don't get to do because we don't have the time," he said.

The training will also expose the soldiers to close-to-real-life situations that have been developed based on what is currently happening on the ground in Iraq, Foor said.

"The soldiers love it," he said. "They are in and out of actual situations under live fire that brings realism right up front. It gets them focused, it gets them thinking, and it prepares them for what may happen."

The deployment, while expected for some time, has generated varying emotions among the soldiers set to head out. There are some who don't want to go but understand they have to, and others who would have liked to go six months ago, Foor said.

The majority falls somewhere in between, he added.

"Since 2001, it has become very real to everyone connected in any way to the military," Foor said. "The days of the guard 20 years ago, the 'We'll never go anywhere; they won't trust us to do anything,' those days are gone. We are a viable part of the force, and we're committed on a daily basis."

Now that the battalion has its mission, the bulk of its members are anxious to start it, Foor said.

"In many cases, the preparation is the worst part. The execution is the easy part," he said. "For me, as a leader in the battalion, all of the stuff it has taken to get to this point in time ... my fun meter's pegged. I just want to get some sand under my feet and get the job done so I can get back."

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Timeline
Key dates in the upcoming deployment of the 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard:

* Sept. 19: Mobilization date. Soldiers to gather at the Readiness Center near Cambridge Springs.

* Sept. 24 or 25: Soldiers depart for Camp Shelby, Miss., for 60 to 70 days of mobilization training.


* Mid-November: Soldiers head to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., for a 21-day training cycle.

* Mid-December: Battalion's armored vehicles to be shipped to Beaumont, Texas, and then to Kuwait. "Soft-skinned" vehicles, such as trucks and Humvees, will be shipped back to Pennsylvania.

* Late December: Soldiers are expected to head home from Fort Dix, N.J., for the holidays.

* Mid-January: Soldiers are scheduled to arrive in Kuwait from Fort Dix.

* Late January: Soldiers are expected to arrive in Iraq.


* September 2009: Battalion's yearlong deployment is scheduled to end.