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Capt. Mohandas Martin, the commander of the 319th Transportation Company, plans for possible deployment.
ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF |
Twenty members of the Army Reserve's Augusta-based 319th Transportation Company are already in Kuwait, and the rest of the unit may be about to join them.
The unit will be mobilized Thursday as part of Operations Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle and will report to Fort Stewart, near Savannah, according to Army public affairs Maj. Bill Nutter.
Although the Army has not disclosed the unit's exact place of deployment, Capt. Mohandas Martin, the commander of the 319th, said he believes it will go to the Persian Gulf region as part of a massive buildup of U.S. troops.
About 150,000 American soldiers are currently stationed in or en route to the gulf for a possible conflict with Iraq. The Pentagon has said total forces could eventually reach 250,000.
Capt. Martin said between 100 and 110 members of the 319th will be mobilized this week and likely will leave for Savannah this weekend. In civilian life, they are truck drivers, teachers, correctional officers, college students, photographers and stay-at-home mothers, among others. The unit is trained to haul petroleum in tanker trucks to support ground and air forces.
"We support whatever the president of the United States calls us to do," said Capt. Martin, 33, who will leave behind a wife, a 5-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son.
Capt. Martin has summoned unit members to the reserve center on Wrightsboro Road at 8 a.m. today to prepare for mobilization.
This will be the second time Staff Sgt. Bobbie Farrell, 32, a single mother, has left her daughter to head to the gulf. The gulf war veteran has a 15-year-old daughter who will stay with church members while she is gone.
Staff Sgt. Farrell said she had prayed that the showdown with Iraq would have been over by now. She told her daughter Sunday night that she was leaving.
"She cried a little bit," Staff Sgt. Farrell said, "but she had already been prepared for the day."
Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.
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