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March 19, 2003
Loved ones cope as troops deploy for war
By DONNA CALLEA | News-Journal Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH — Theresa Moore is counting on her faith and her family to sustain her while her husband, Sgt. Rickey Moore, serves his country.
She has to stay strong, she knows, for their children, 5-year-old Rickey Jr., and baby Timothy, who's just 5 months old.
So she tried very hard not to cry Tuesday morning at the Florida Army National Guard armory here and later at Daytona Beach International Airport, as her 29-year-old husband and more than 400 other citizen-soldiers from Volusia, Flagler and surrounding counties prepared to go to war.
"I'll miss him," said the 26-year-old Port Orange woman. "But I know he's coming home."
Her sentiments were echoed by countless other spouses, mothers, fathers, grown children and other family members of the men and women of the 1st Battalion, 265th Air Defense Artillery.
After gathering at the marina-based armory with their families, the soldiers headed convoy-style in six big, white buses to the airport where, after a parting ceremony, they boarded a 747 Northwest Airlines plane bound for Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
En route to the airport they were cheered by throngs of well-wishers on Beach Street and International Speedway Boulevard, who waved flags and held up home-made signs that said, "God Bless You," "God Bless America" and "We Love You."
The local troops will train in Texas, probably for 15 to 45 days, and then be sent where they're needed, said Niket Saraf, commander of the headquarters battery, as he held his own small son, Nalin, 2 1/2, in his arms before it was time to leave.
The soldiers – whose orders are for one year – know they have "a job to do," says Saraf, who has 160 under his command. They serve as medics, cooks, technicians and provide other support services. But the 265th also includes three other batteries of soldiers who could end up on the front lines of the war, shooting down the enemy with anti-aircraft missile systems.
This is only the second time in its history that the local unit has been activated for war.
The first time was in 1941, during World War II, said Brig. Gen. Jimmy Watson, the assistant adjutant general of Florida. At a ceremony in a crowded hangar at the airport, he told the troops and their loved ones that they should be proud. The soldiers of World War II have been called "the greatest generation," said the general. But this is the "greatest generation," too.
As he and other dignitaries spoke, babies cried in the background, and loved ones bravely attempted to keep their own tears at bay.
"We're trying to hold up," said Jamie Franzini, 24, of Port Orange. But the separation won't be easy, she knows. She's made videos of her husband Al, a 26-year-old computer programmer in civilian life, reading storybooks to their son, Nicolas, who is not yet 2. They don't want him to forget his dad.
Some of the soldiers in the 265th are very young.
Ryan Bennett of St. Augustine is 18.
"He just came home from training," says his mother, Debbie Bennett, and he's had to drop out of college.
Jean Mulraney, 71, on the other hand, said she's been prepared for this day for a long time. Her son, Staff Sgt. Mark Warga of Orange City, has been "a soldier all his life," even when he was a little boy.
Warga has been in the guard for 20 years and served in the Navy before that.
Warga kissed his wife, Gwen, 43, who, like him, works for Seminole County Schools. "You're my girl," he told her.
Harold Parsons, a 30-year-old Daytona Beach native, spent four years on active duty before joining the guard. The Mainland High School graduate previously served in Korea for six months, and he's also served in Saudi Arabia.
He has no qualms about going now.
"I'm confident," he said. "It's something we've got to do, no doubt about it."
But his girlfriend, Tammy Mellette, didn't say much. "I'm scared," she admitted.
William Moore, 6, clamped his arms securely around the waist of his uncle, Jim McCleary, 26, of Oviedo.
Most of McCleary's family had come to bid him farewell. But it was William who seemed most reluctant to let go. Asked if he knows where his Uncle Jim is going, the little boy replied: "He's going to a big war in the desert. He's going to shoot bad guys."
"I'll be back," his uncle assured him.