Reservists prepare to leave families

Army reservists training at Fairchild Air Force Base for deployment to Iraq say it’s hard leaving family for a war zone, but they take heart from being able to do their duty for their country.

Some volunteered. Some were called up. One of them got married three weeks ago.

Spc. Benjamin Inglish, 22, of Draper, Utah, left his wife, Chelsea, to join his new unit, the 659th Engineer Company, for their last few weeks of training at Fairchild. “It’s hard, but she supports my decision,” Inglish said.

The couple met in middle school and were planning to marry within the coming year, he said, but they speeded up their plans when Inglish was transferred from his previous assignment to the 321st Engineer Battalion in the Army Reserve to the 659th. Both units are organized under the 70th Regional Support Command at Fort Lawton, Wash.

Inglish is one of 150 reserve soldiers in the 659th who are getting ready for a yearlong deployment in Iraq. Their mission will be to build roads in the impoverished war zone. On Wednesday, they were practicing asphalt paving techniques and learning to operate their road equipment. The company is living in tents, aligned in typical Army fashion, within sight of the huge refueling air tankers at Fairchild.

They are training as if they were already in the war zone – with weapons at hand, their bodies protected by helmets and bulky vests. They expect to be shipped to Fort Lewis by Oct. 15 and then to Iraq sometime after the first of next year. In Iraq, they will work at night to minimize the triple threat of heat from the desert, asphalt and heavy protective gear.

Capt. John St. John, of Spokane, is leaving behind a 7-year-old son, Vincent, who lives with his mother. “He knows I am leaving and that’s troubling to him,” said St. John, the commander of the company. He grew up in Tekoa.

St. John said he assures his son that he will be in touch with him by e-mail, and doesn’t let his son dwell on the danger of a war. “I try not to talk about that portion of it,” St. John said. “I reassure him I’ll be back.”

St. John tells his son he is doing his duty, he said, and he must be making an impression. “This is what he wants to do when he grows up,” said St. John, who sold cell phones before taking command of the reserve company in May.

Sgt. Rob Wood, 25, of Rexburg, Idaho, left his wife and 13-month-old son to join the 659th. He said he volunteered to go to Iraq because “I’m proud to serve my country.” Wood recently graduated from college with a degree in geology.

Cpl. Bill Sparks, 31, of Salt Lake City, had been serving in the 321st Engineer Battalion.

“They asked for volunteers. I raised my hand,” said Sparks, who was working as a security officer. He has a wife and three children.

“It’s tough,” he said about leaving them behind. “We talked about it a lot.”

He said he tells his children that his training has prepared him for the mission. “Don’t lie to them. Tell them it’s going to be all right,” he said of his approach to their concerns about danger in Iraq.

Spc. Juston Ellis, 22, of Salt Lake City, was working as a counselor in a youth corrections center when he volunteered for reassignment from the 321st Engineer Battalion to the 659th. “I want to do something to help,” he said. “I have a lot of friends over there.”

He said he had been thinking about his friends and how “they were fighting to defend our country, and I was sitting home watching TV. It wasn’t right.”

Ellis said, “It’s a good cause, and I believe in it. I believe in our president as well.”