Sep 26, 2008 6 min read

It was a sharp contrast to the sendoff that the unit received for their first deployment to Iraq back in 2003, but it was how the soldiers wanted it to be. Chris Clark, Company B Redieness NCO and platoon sergent, said they just wanted to keep it simple and peaceful, to give the soldiers from the Waynesburg and Canonsburg armories of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 110th Infantry time to be with their families before they got on the bus to join the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team for training.

“By the time that they go to Iraq they (the soldiers) will have meshed with each other and know what the other is thinking,” said Sergeant Robert Nelson. “I am not going this time. I was in Kosovo in ’03 and in Iraq in ’04. They can keep you as long as they want but it is supposed to be a 12- to 13-month deployment.”

Nelson, E4 Specialist Thomas Tennant, and E1 William Dietz recently took time out to speak with the Messenger about the military, the war and serving overseas.

Dietz, the youngest of the three at 21 years of age, said being deployed was something he was prepared to dowas something he was prepared to do.

“It’s why you signed up, to go over there,” he said. “It’s going to happen to everybody eventually. My mom isn’t taking it so well. She couldn’t be here today. She had to have a chemo treatment.

“My brother is 15 and he is excited that he gets my room while I am gone. The other guys who have been there (to Iraq) just told me to be aware of your surroundings and don’t act like an idiot and you’ll be okay.”

Tennant, who is employed as a corrections officer at SCI-Greene, said the hardest part for him is being away from home.

“I reenlisted in August or September of last year and we knew it was coming. I kind of missed it (being in the Guard) and the bonus was something I just couldn’t pass up,” Tennant said. “The guys are like family.”

On the homefront, Tennant’s wife Janie is a registered nurse at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh. They have three daughters, ages 15, 8 and 5.

“It’s got to be done. Eventually we can downsize over there,” Tennant said.

“We still have troops on the Egyptian border and they are observers and just watch. Hopefully we will be able to downgrade to the point that we are just watching in Iraq and are no longer involved.”

Tennant said that he had the opportunity for three weeks in June to meet up with some of the men that he will be deployed with from the 56th Stryker Brigade. He said that was a benefit, but that some of the soldiers were notified later so they did not get that advantage.

There is no such thing as a typical day for the soldiers once they are deployed. There is, however, some semblance of normalcy.

“I’d get up early in the morning and do paperwork. A patrol was either coming in or going out. Guys would come to me about not getting paid and such,” Nelson said, recalling his previous deployments. “As the first sergeant it was my job to let the military know what was going on and that everybody was okay. We would get to watch movies, there were organized sports, and we’d try to call home when we could.”

It may surprise some to know that calls from home could be made on a daily basis via a satellite connection that bounces the signal from Iraq into another country and then into the states. This, of course, prevents someone from detecting the exact location of from where a soldier is calling.

Employers for the most part are accommodating to the soldiers upon their return, according to Nelson and Tennant.

“The government has put in a lot of buffers so guys don’t have a financial problem when they come home from a deployment,” Tennant said. “Most employers are very supportive.”

He said that SCI-Greene was a very good employer to work for when it comes to military service.

“Some employers will pay the difference in your military pay to match your salary,” Tennant said. “But that’s not every employer.”

As the soldiers leave behind their jobs, families and guard unit, there is an immediate need to find ways to acclimate them.

When they leave their unit to meet up with the company that they will serve their tour of duty with, Sergeant Nelson said that it is important for the soldiers to be paired up with someone.

“You have to have a buddy and if you didn’t have one, I’d pick one for you,” he said of his own tour.

“The more you work together the more the cohesiveness is there. Sometimes you get a guy who doesn’t mesh well but it all works itself out. There is always a job for everybody somewhere. It is a challenge for a leader to find what that is for ‘that’ guy and lead him in the right direction.”

Tennant agreed with Sergeant Nelson.

“It is just like a family. There are going to be guys who irritate and annoy you and tick you off but you can still depend on them when you need to,” he said. “In the good times and the bad times you don’t have to think or talk about it, you just know because it is second nature when we start working together.”

Tennant said that he understands why it is that the United States military is still deploying soldiers to Iraq. Both he and Nelson have the knowledge of veterans of this war to put things into perspective.

“In Kosovo and Iraq we talked to the people every day when we were out there and they were glad we were there. They would invite us into their homes and want to give us drinks and food,” Nelson said. “We usually didn’t take anything because they were all so poor. It was really hard for them.”

“They just don’t seem to grasp the concept right away when the person in power is gone,” Tennant said.

“You take away that dictatorship and they become free people and they don’t know what to do. And that is part of the reason we are still there. Until they sort it out and realize that they are free we have to guard against another dictator rising up and taking over.”

For the young Dietz, he was just taking it all in and listening to the veteran soldiers.

“My grandfather, Bernie Dietz the First, was in the New Jersey National Guard and he was a prisoner of war in WWII,” he said. “All of my family in New Jersey said he’d be really proud of me right now. “

William got out of basic training in April and this tour of duty will be the first time he has been out of the country.

“First time I am going out of the country and I’m going to war,” he said.