THOSE WHO SERVE (via Tom Roberts):

Rumor of war overshadows Fort Stewart deployment: On the day President Bush calls for action against Iraq, local troops head for a training mission in Kuwait. (Noelle Phillips, 9/13/02, Savannah Morning News)

As President Bush explained his position on Iraq to the United Nations on Thursday, thousands of 3rd Infantry Division soldiers prepared for a deployment to Kuwait.

Although the deployment is a regularly scheduled training exercise, the troops held a departure ceremony with heavy possibilities hanging in their minds.

They know they'll be in country for six months, and possibly longer if Bush decides an invasion is the only answer in dealing with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. [...]

[T]roops like Pfc. Michael Brooks of 1st Battalion, 64th Armor, say they're ready.

"I've done a lot of training to go and I'm prepared to do whatever," said Brooks, 21. "I'll be all right."

The unfortunate truth is that when we send troops into battle many will not come out "all right", yet still they go. In a country which, to its enduring shame, has an all volunteer military--even in times of war at this point--their willingness to fight for and defend our freedoms is even more humbling. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 16, 2002 5:48 PM