Austintown Guard unit prepares to go to Iraq

Some members say they haven't been convinced that the war was needed.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- When Sgt. Quintin Flanagan of Austintown signed up for the Ohio National Guard 22 years ago, he doubted he would ever be deployed to the Middle East.
But that was before Sept. 11 and the war on terror.
Now, Flanagan, 41, is preparing to leave his wife and 16-year-old son for 18 months while he is deployed in Iraq.
"I didn't wait 22 years to go to Iraq," he said.
Flanagan and his fellow members of Charlie Company from the Ohio Army National Guard's 216th Engineering Battalion, based in Austintown, are expected to be building camps for American soldiers in Iraq by March. They will leave Sunday for training at Camp Atterbury in Indiana.
A farewell ceremony for the company will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at Fitch High School.
"Most of us don't want to go, but we're prepared to go to be there for each other," said Sgt. 1st Class Abraham Johnson, 34, of Cleveland.
Usual role
The 216th Engineering Battalion is one of several National Guard units that have been deployed overseas to serve alongside regular armed forces units in the past few years. Before Sept. 11, the Guard's role primarily was to assist communities dealing with natural disasters, and men and women like Flanagan signed up for the Guard believing they most likely would not be called to serve in a conflict.
Now, however, as the Guard is called to Iraq, Guard members are having to deal with some of the same emotions and concerns as regular soldiers stationed overseas.
For the members of Charlie Company, that will mean missing loved ones in the United States while worrying about the threat from anti-American forces that aren't easily identified.
"The unknown of being in that situation, you're just apprehensive," Johnson said, adding that anti-American Iraqis "don't stand in front of you and take shots at you."
"You don't know who you're fighting," said Pvt. James Sheridan, 19, of Berlin Center.
Sgt. Andy Rowe, 34, of Garrettsville, in Portage County, noted that Americans in Iraq face threats from women who have little fear and act as suicide bombers.
"Their lives don't mean anything" to them, said Specialist Scott Sherill, 33, of Youngstown.
Reason for war
Some Guard members added that they hadn't been given a convincing reason for having American troops in Iraq. When asked why his unit was being deployed to Iraq, Sherill responded, "because we're ordered to."
"We made a mess over there, and now we've got to go clean it up," said Sgt. Robert Miller, 23, of East Liverpool.
Spc. Aaron Lloyd, 20, of Bowerston, in east central Ohio, said he thinks terrorism was used as an excuse to start the war so that American companies could benefit from Iraq's reconstruction.
"I don't know what I'm fighting for. I'd be happy to be given a reason," he said.
Lloyd also noted that his deployment will be "immeasurably harder" because he will leave behind his wife, who is pregnant with the couple's first child.
"By the time I get back, my kid will be talking. And the first word out of his mouth definitely won't be daddy," he said.
Family hardship
Many other Charlie Company members also said that the deployment has affected their families. Rowe and Spc. Tricia McMillin, 24, of Poland, both said they had to hold their weddings earlier than expected because they were going overseas.
McMillin added that after learning she would be deployed, she had more appreciation for the time she spent with her family during the holidays.
"It made you appreciate everything," she said.
hill@vindy.com