Editor’s note: As a special service for our readers, WND is running a series of dispatches from Allan Wall chronicling his transition from civilian life as he prepares to fight with his National Guard unit in Iraq. Allan will write for us as often as he is able in order to let our readers vicariously experience what people in his position are going through. We hope you will check regularly for Allan’s dispatches and encourage your friends and family to do likewise.
Fort XYZ, U.S.A. – On Aug. 29, a significant date passed without fanfare among the deployed National Guard soldiers training for Iraq duty.
What was special about Aug. 29? That date marked two weeks since the deployment began on Aug. 15. Two weeks, you see, is normally the length of the National Guard’s longest training period of the year.
In a normal training year, the National Guard has one weekend drill per month, for 11 months. Usually during the summer, guardsmen attend their “Annual Training” – or “AT” – which lasts for two weeks. AT begins on a Saturday and continues for two weeks, concluding two Saturdays later.
And then the guardsmen go home.
Now, we are on deployment, training to go to Iraq. The deployment is scheduled for a year and a half, with a year to be spent in Iraq. It’s all subject to change of course, and could be longer.
There were National Guard units deployed for the Gulf War (Desert Storm) and, more recently, units were deployed for duty in the Balkans. After 9-11, National Guard units were deployed for security duty at airports and military bases stateside. Many guardsmen in my unit have already been on that sort of deployment.
Now, with the ongoing situation in Iraq putting a strain on an already overextended military, National Guard units are being called up for tours of duty in Iraq.
That’s what my unit is here at Fort XYZ to prepare for. We’re only just beginning, of course. But we have passed the Two-Week Milestone. This is not Annual Training …
