For waiting troops, time is a torment
Guardsmen activated in January but not deployed are itching to head overseas.

By KEVIN DENNEHY STAFF WRITER

FORT DRUM, N.Y. - They pack. Then unpack. They pack again. Then unpack. Some of them have said goodbye to their families so many times they told them not to make the trip from the Cape anymore.


Earle Eldridge, left, of Cotuit and Tim Badach of Yarmouthport look through letters sent from Osterville Bay Elementary students. Both men are with the 379th at Fort Drum.
(Staff photo by STEVE HEASLIP)
 

It was too painful, over and over.

After 81/2 weeks, the 180 members of the National Guard's Bourne-based 379th Engineer Company are itching to get started on the job they know needs to be done.

Cape members of the 379th Engineering Division out of Bourne spend way more time than they'd choose just waiting to be deployed. Here, they gather in an office building at Fort Drum in Watertown, N.Y., where they've been training - and packing, unpacking and packing yet again - for 8 1/2 weeks.
(Staff photo by STEVE HEASLIP)

Called into active military service in January with less than a week's notice, they left their jobs and families for what may be more than a year. Their equipment was sent somewhere overseas. They were sent to Fort Drum, a massive post in upstate New York being used as an Army staging area.

Where they began waiting, their bags packed by the edges of their bunks.

"We came here to deploy, not to sit around and wait," says Earle Eldridge, a staff sergeant from Cotuit who left a wife, seven children and a new grandchild on Cape Cod. "If we're going to be separated from our work and our families, we want to do our job."

For several months, that job will likely include building and maintaining roadways and airfields somewhere overseas, in support of American forces in the Gulf region or Afghanistan.

Since they left Cape Cod, the soldiers have spent much of their time preparing for the threats of an enemy that can be tough to identify, and weapons that no American force has ever before faced.

While some Cape soldiers say the long wait has made the anxiety tough to bear, they quickly add that it won't be too tough to shift to a higher gear when the call comes.

In a pair of crowded World War II-era barracks, where soldiers sleep 35 to a room, they're watching this war on television, too. They've seen images of American soldiers killed or taken hostage, including members of an Army maintenance crew.

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HEADING OVERSEAS

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The 379th Engineers is based in Bourne. The unit will construct and maintain roadways and airfields in the Persian Gulf or Afghanistan. They include operators of heavy-construction equipment, crane and forklift operators, mechanics and truck drivers.

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In one of the fort's enormous dining halls, a hush fell over the crowd when footage of the American POWs was broadcast, soldiers say.

It has served as a reminder of the way their training - including drills on how to handle a prisoner of war, follow maps and navigate - could mean the difference between life and death.

"It's hard to maintain focus for two months, but because of the training ideas my platoon leaders and second-in-command developed, they've been able to do it," says Capt. James Crowley, commander of the 379th. "We're training for construction in a very hazardous environment. And in a sense, you can never have enough training for that."



The coldest spot in the U.S.
It was in the last week of January that members of the 379th arrived at Fort Drum, an 85,000-acre post outside Watertown, N.Y., about 30 miles from the Canadian border.
When they arrived, 6-foot snow drifts reached the windows of their new barracks. On their first day on the firing ranges, where they had to qualify with their weapons, temperatures reached 40 degrees below zero.

Some soldiers were outside, belly down in the snow, firing in those conditions for the better part of two days.

"We saw (on the news) that this was the coldest place in the country that day," recalls Michael Cahill, a 42-year-old staff sergeant from Falmouth, who typically works as a mechanic on Camp Edwards.

Since then, they've followed a busy routine that begins with 8 a.m. formation, followed by training drills and classroom exercises.

A van takes them to a nearby chow hall three times a day. Right now, they can't leave the post, so they spend their time at one of the Fort Drum social halls, listen to the news or watch DVDs. They call family on their cell phones, surf the Internet at the fort's library.

In the barracks, two-story buildings covered in corrugated steel and painted various bright colors, soldiers sleep in bunk beds. They keep all their possessions in tall metal cabinets about 2 feet from their mattresses.

Among the men is Mike McGuirck, a 55-year-old Vietnam veteran from Cotuit.

A few months ago, the father of three was working as a telecommunications specialist for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Boston. Now, he's sharing a barracks with men nearly 30 years his junior.

He's usually the first one up in the morning. He takes the company's one van to a nearby Dunkin' Donuts and buys coffee by the boxload.

As for the younger guys, he jokes that all they talk about is women. "I've been there before," he says of Army life.


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"Yeah, he's teaching us about the birds and the bees," says another soldier.

In the months before he was deployed, Steven Fernandes, a specialist from Hyannis, was beginning a criminal justice program at Cape Cod Community College. It's been put on hold for a year, he says, while he serves his country.

He's looking forward to getting overseas. "We planned on being there when it started. We just want to go."

In the meantime, he says, he's seen "Band of Brothers" several times. The same goes for "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Saving Private Ryan." "We've watched every war movie so many times," he says. "It gets old."



Too many goodbyes
When the 379th arrived at Fort Drum in January, following an emotional send-off at Camp Edwards, most of the members thought they'd stick around for only a few days.
On a couple of occasions they were put on alert, and expected to depart. Family members made the eight-hour drive from eastern Massachusetts for another sad farewell.

Then, the unit stayed.

"It's been, 'We're going,' 'We're not going.' 'Pack, unpack.' 'Check, uncheck,'" says Master Sgt. Wayne Rosario from Buzzards Bay.

Soldiers say focus has been sharp since the ground war started more than a week ago.

They've recently gotten TVs in the barracks, where they huddle around and watch cable news coverage from Iraq.

Some worry that their families back home are watching the same coverage, maybe too much.

After the footage of the American POWs was first shown Sunday, Staff Sgt. David Dixon of South Plymouth says his wife, Susan, called him in tears.

"She said, 'You guys aren't going there, are you?'" Dixon says. "I told her, 'I don't know where we're going.' I'm getting used to her calling crying because of something she's watched on TV."

Dixon married last fall, exactly three months to the day before his Guard deployment. Since he's been in New York, his wife has visited twice. On one weekend, they were able to drive to an inn overlooking Lake Ontario in the town of Sauciest Harbor.

Members of the unit have been told to be ready to leave at any time. Some say loved ones will drive to New York once more before they go. Dixon says his wife won't.

"After the second time, I said, 'We can't do that any more.' It's tough. It makes it harder on all of us."

(Published: March 28, 2003)