Local reservists among soldiers deployed from Morgantown unit
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The nation’s continuing war on global terrorism is hitting close to home with the mobilization of the 99th Regional Command’s 300th Chemical Company. Amid last-minute preparations Friday in anticipation of today’s departure, the soldiers showed an air of excitement and confidence, although they did not know exactly where they are going or what their part will be in the fight to eliminate terrorism throughout the world.
A Smithfield resident and Greensboro native are among the 140 soldiers serving the unit, which departs today for the unit’s designated mobilization site at Fort Dix, N.J., before they are shipped to their final deployment site. The soldiers who serve in the dual-purpose chemical company learned of their impending departure just before Christmas.
Company commander Matthew Adams of Wellsburg, W.Va., said the unit handles smoke operations and decontamination.
For the smoke operations part, large generators are mounted on Humvees to provide cover for maneuver units.
A “fog oil” made of vegetable oil is heated to a high temperature and expelled into the air to provide a thick blanket of smoke to disrupt an enemy’s ability to maneuver across a given area.
Adams said that the decontamination unit has the capacity to decontaminate soldiers affected by chemical, biological or radiological agents. Adams said he had received his third Anthrax shot Friday morning in preparation for the deployment.
Adams, 32, leaves behind his wife, Angel, and children, Abbey, 5, and Mack, 4. Saying his son thinks it’s the greatest that his father is in the Army, Adams said he doesn’t really know how long he’ll be away.
“I just worry about back home,” he said, noting that he has all the confidence in the world in his soldiers and is not worried about his safety.
Among those soldiers preparing to deploy was 24-year-old Shelby Wise. The petite Morgantown resident is a native of Greensboro and will reluctantly leave behind a 6-month-old daughter. Although she was supposed to end her service with the Army at the end of 2002, in August she learned otherwise.
Before leaving, she said, she planned to spend as much time with daughter Mackenzie Watkins and her boyfriend as possible. Unlike the rest of the unit, Wise departed Saturday for Missouri and will meet up with the rest of her colleagues in a couple weeks.
Wise, a self-proclaimed band geek in high school, said she couldn’t be going with a better unit.
“This is what we prepare for,” she said of the deployment. She said the friendships she has built with the unit in the past eight years will last a lifetime.
“This is our second family. I couldn’t ask for a better commander and chain of command.”
Mackenzie will be in the care of her father for the next year until her mother returns. Before being called to active duty, Wise worked at Valley Health Care Systems in Morgantown as a service activity logs clerk. She said the thought of getting deployed was always in the back of her mind as a reservist.
“We prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” she said.
Wise said she is a little scared and nervous, not because she is apprehensive about something happening to her but more because she doesn’t know where she’s going or how long she’ll be there.
The baby of the family has three older sisters and an older brother. Having joined the Army because everybody said she wouldn’t be able to do it, Wise said her parents are taking news of her deployment hard, but they’re proud.
Chemical operations specialist Adam Romesburg, 23, of Smithfield is also taking the news in stride.
“I would lie if I said I wasn’t scared, but I know my job, and I just want to get it done and get home,” he said.
An outbound supervisor for United Parcel Service in New Stanton as a civilian, Romesburg said he has been training all year and on Dec. 17 he was heading home from in Fort Bragg, N.C., when he found out over the telephone from his mother that he would be deployed.
Romesburg said his girlfriend is scared, but she supports him. Another person in his corner is his twin brother, who is also serving in the Army as a prison guard in Fort Knox, Ky. Romesburg said his twin brother and grandfather were his two inspirations to join the
military.
After trying just about every job, Romesburg said he wanted to try something different and joined the Reserves three years ago.
“I’ve always known that this might happen, and I knew after 9/11 it would happen regardless. It was just a matter of when,” he said.
For Adams, Wise and Romesburg, along with many others in the unit, this is their first deployment. The mobilization is a part of the global war against terrorism, and soldiers deployed under the ongoing operations may serve up to one year, at which time the mission requirement will be reassessed. If the unit’s mission is still considered to be critical, the orders may be extended.
The 300th is headquartered in Morgantown, with detachments in Beaver Falls and Johnstown.