History Confab Examines Deployments

Topics ranging from the role of the media in war to whether the United States can “win” in Iraq were expressed in early November as a panel Georgia National Guardsmen convened in Macon at the 15th annual Historical Society of the Georgia National Guard Conference.

Comprising the panel were Sgt. Maj. Chuck Crews, 265th Engineer Group; Chief Warrant Officer 4 Darrel R. Partee, Joint Forces Headquarters; Chaplain (Col.) John Owings, Jr.; Lt. Col. Deborah J. Nazimiec, commander, 202nd Electronic Installation Squadron; Cpl.. Jerry M. Garner, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry; Capt. William Arp, Family Readiness coordinator; and First Lt. Selena Owens, public affairs officer, 48th BCT (now commander of the 118th Personnel Service Company).

 The panel was moderated by WAGA-TV senior investigative reporter, Dale Russell, who earlier this year spent several weeks in Iraq covering the 48th.

Asked by Russell if the United States was “winning the war in Iraq,” responses among the panelists varied. Chaplain Owings declared that “we could win,” and the Air Guard’s Lt. Col. Nazimiec said “there is some semblance that we’ve won because we’ve empowered the people – that things are possible.”

Lt. Owens agreed, saying “they (the Iraqi people) are realizing that there are certain things for which they are going to have to sacrifice . . . such as voting…in that sense we can win and we are winning.”

Corporal Garner, who patrolled “outside the wire” noted that “I think they realize that there’s ‘a wind achangin’ . . . I had people come up and tell me ‘if you leave we’re dead – Sunni and Shi’a’ and ‘we’re glad that you’re here’ – that was my experience with the average Iraqi everyday.”

On the role of the press, Lt. Owens said she believed the coverage accorded the 48th “was pretty positive.” “We got,” she said, “some of the best positive press.” Her view differed from others who, from past experience, distrusted the media.

Chaplain Owings said that as a young chaplain serving in Grenada in 1983 “we never trusted the press” but he added that coverage of the Brigade had “restored (his) faith.”

The conference was sponsored by the Historical Society of the Georgia National Guard, Inc..”