Fla. National Guard leaves day jobs for war
FORT LAUDERDALE (AP) – Six hundred men and women – accountants and roofers, paramedics, computer specialists and bartenders – are again preparing for war.
The Florida National Guard’s 124th Infantry Regiment is readying for its second deployment to Iraq. Some have combat experience dating to Panama, and some are going to battle for the first time.
One is Sgt. Allan Caballero, a 39-year-old accountant who enlisted four years ago, to the dismay of his wife Cristy.
“My friends and family tell me I am crazy,” said Caballero, the father of three. “But I want to experience this, to know what it is about. And to be a good example for my children.”
Cristy Caballero knows her husband wants to serve, but she worries about their family. More than that, she worries about her husband.
“To be honest,” she said, “What concerns me most, after his safety, is how he’s going to be when he comes home. What changes is he going to go through when he’s there?”
Sgt. David Burdge approaches this redeployment with some enthusiasm for the adrenaline rush of combat.
But he wasn’t the same when he came back before, after knocking down doors and trading gunfire with insurgents in Ramadi. He saw buddies wounded, and returned with “just a little bit of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).”
“I’m very watchful, observant. I avoid crowds where everything going on can overwhelm you,” he said.
Burdge is now separated from his wife, who will take care of their 3-year-old son.
“Our son needs his father,” Tracy Burdge said. “But I did not oppose his re-enlistment. Knowing David, his head is very in the military. To him, he’s fulfilling his duty as a citizen.
“So I pray for the best, and prepare for the worst.”
More than 50 were injured and awarded purple hearts on the first tour in 2004, but the regiment hasn’t lost a soldier in this Gulf War.
Their leader, 44-year-old Lt. Col. George Rosser, is a single parent who’ll have to leave his 12-year-old daughter with family in the Tampa area.
The 124th will provide security in armored trucks and Humvees for convoys of troops and supplies traveling desert highways. From a base in Kuwait, soldiers will drive across Iraq in operations lasting three days to three weeks.
“We don’t typically do that kind of mission, but as we back out of a combat role, missions change,” Rosser said. “The first time, the danger was getting shot while walking. Now it’s getting blown up by (improvised explosive devices).”