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March 17, 2003
Military ships out in droves
By MARK I. JOHNSON | News-Journal Staff Writer
NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Waiting in the shade amid her fellow soldiers in camouflage uniforms and black berets, Ligia Savoguet tended to blend into the crowd.
Just yards away, the Humvees, trucks and Avenger anti-aircraft missile systems of the 1st Battalion of the 265th Air Defense Artillery lined up waiting to be loaded in the first of 59 Florida East Coast Railway flatcars Friday morning.
Savoguet and two batteries of the unit rolled into town shortly after 9 a.m. on the first leg of their trip to Fort Bliss, Texas, and parts unknown.
Friday's activity is a first for the FEC's New Smyrna Beach rail depot, but not for the company.
"We have loaded (military units) in Fort Pierce and Miami in the past," said FEC national sales manager Jim Thomas.
The New Smyrna complex was for Friday's load up because it is close to the unit armories and has the staging space needed to meet the military's demands.
As she watched the effort, Savoguet acknowledged a little fear when she got word last week her unit had been called up for a possible war with Iraq.
"I was scared about leaving my mother," the community college student said.
But like many of her 4,500 fellow Florida National Guard citizen/soldiers across the state, Savoguet has put her life on hold, donned the uniform and gathered her personal belongings. It was something she knew might happen when she signed up almost two years ago.
"I am prepared," she said. "I knew if anything happened, I knew we could be called up."
That was not the case with everyone, even though battery commander, Capt. Nikel Saraf, said he told his soldiers this day might come as far back as December.
"They can't say they weren't warned," the Orlando resident said.
Saraf said the reaction among his men and women has been mixed. Some are reluctant, while others, like himself, are ready.
"This is my first time going to the show," he said. "It is time to see if I wasted the last 18 years of my life (as a member of the National Guard). Time to see if I can do it or see if the government wasted all this time and money on me."
Sgt. 1st Class Greg Goss of Port Orange said as an active duty Guard member, deployment is just another day at the office.
"This is like our annual training," he said.
But that does not mean he doesn't realize the seriousness of where he might be headed. Even so, Goss said, he is a soldier and when the president says go, he goes.
Although, he said his 6-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son aren't particularly happy about daddy going away for what could be as long as a year.
The loading will continue through much of today before the DeLand and Daytona Beach-based unit's 165 pieces of equipment begin their trip to Texas. The soldiers will follow by charter airplane, possibly as soon as Tuesday.
The activity is part of the largest deployment of the National Guard since World War II, according to Lt. Col. Joey Oliver, state headquarters logistics management officer.