Waynesboro artillerymen honored at Fort Stewart Ceremony

By Staff Sgt. Roy Henry
Georgia National Guard
Public Affairs Office

FORT STEWART – More than 130 Soldiers of Waynesboro’s Battery C, 1st Battalion, 214th Field Artillery, were honored, Monday, June 2, 2008, during a Freedom Award ceremony at the post’s main chapel. The unit recently returned from a year supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After spending about four days processing off active-duty at the Georgia National Guard Training Center, the battery is about to return to home station; and its members back into their roles as traditional Guardsmen.

Specialist Eliecer Amaya (left) of Btry C, 1st Bn, 214th FA, receives an encased American flag and thanks for a job “well done” from Maj. Gen. Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General, during the Waynesboro unit’s Freedom Award ceremony at Fort Stewart’s main chapel. (Georgia National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Roy Henry)

An estimated 300 family members, unit supporters and fellow Soldiers showered the returning Guardsmen with praise and applause as they crossed the chapel stage to receive encased American flags and other honors. Major Gen. Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General, enthusiastically shook their hands and thanked each one personally for their service.  

“As artilleryman doing the job of military police, you took up a difficult mission and pulled it off with great success,” Nesbitt told Capt. Jeremy Johnson, Battery C’s commander, and his troops. “Your professionalism and dedication toward getting the mission done, and then getting home again, is a testament to who you are and the uniform you wear. 

“We’re all proud of you. God bless you, and welcome home,” he added.  

During its deployment, Battery C had the mission of dealing with detainees held at the detention and rehabilitation facility at military’s Camp Bucca in Southern Iraq. The unit, the first unit Guard wise to take on such a mission, according to Nesbitt, moved from its traditional wartime mission of providing artillery fire support to becoming MPs during train-up at Fort Bliss, Texas.  

Once at the Bucca facility, they worked 6 days-a-week, 12 hours-a-day, Johnson said. Long, hard days that could try anyone’s patience, he explained. But despite constant harassment from outside, as well as inside the facility walls, his Soldiers brought their deployment to a successful conclusion. 

“Like all artillerymen, our guys found it difficult, at first, not to be carrying out their usual mission,” Johnson said. “But as the training progressed, they made the change and took up the new mission with enthusiasm. And they carried that entusiasm through into the actual task. 

“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of Soldiers to command,” he continued. “I’m really proud of each and everyone.” 

The best thing about having “been there and back,” though, Johnson said, is that every Soldier came home.   

For, at least 58 of Battery C’s Soldiers, this was their first deployment. For the other 74, it was their second or even third. All seemed to agree that, as much as they were glad to have gone, it is good to be home again. 

Some, like Spc. Rasheeda Barringer of Columbus, it’s the opportunity to pick up where she left off in raising her now 18-month-old daughter. Barringer, a supply specialist with the Guard’s 82nd Maintenance Company at Fort Benning, volunteered to go with Battery C.  

“I didn’t have to leave, and I hated leaving my little girl,” she said, “but I’m a Soldier, and it’s my job to go where the need is; no matter what.” 

Others, like Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Crew, a platoon sergeant for the Waynesboro battery, go back, not only to pickup where they left off with their families, but also their civilian careers. Crew, for example, left behind his lawn-care business to answer the call to duty. 

He now has to step back into that business, and just as he has must get reacquainted with his wife, Jackie, and their four daughters, has to re-familiarize himself with his business and employees.

No, he said, it won’t be easy, but like the training it took to do the mission, it will take time, and he will be successful.