Local soldiers get the call

Members of the 278th participate in a send-off ceremony at Camp Shelby on Veterans Day. For most of the soldiers, it was the last time for them to see family members before deployment to Iraq.

By mid-May, what members of the 278th National Guard had suspected turned out to be true. The regiment was going off to war in Iraq.

On May 13, the local unit of the Tennessee National Guard was given its formal mobilization orders. “Within a few days of their mobilization date, they will move to their mobilization site at Camp Shelby, Mississippi,” said National Guard spokesman Randy Harris in a statement.

The announcement meant some 4,000 National Guardsmen, commonly called “weekend warriors,” would face a challenge greater than they ever imagined. But the soldiers embraced the task.

“The morale of the men is unbelievably high,” said I Troop commander Capt. Jim Reed. “These guys are excited about this and they want the community to be excited with them.”

Added Scp. Virgil Tate, “When you join the National Guard you know something like this is a possibility and you have to be ready for it. If you’re not, that’s your fault.”

Local soldiers with the 278th left for Camp Shelby June 17 and were given a touching send-off from the armory in McMinnville. Thousands of supporters lined the streets to wave flags and cheer soldiers all the way to the Warren County line.

Once in Camp Shelby, soldiers received four months of grueling training. Some members of the unit spent about a month performing drills in California.

Now the unit is off to Iraq and is expected to be stationed somewhere along the Iraq-Iran line. It has been said the 278th will be deployed about a year.