LA National Guard Troops Returning From Iraq to to Devestation At Home.

[DistressedAmerican]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9131097/site/newsweek/

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Hastings
Newsweek

Updated: 12:48 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2005



Louisiana National Guard troops
during happier times: a recent
Mardi Gras in New Orleans

Aug. 30, 2005 - Three soldiers from the Louisiana National Guard sat Monday in one of the many chow halls on Camp Liberty, eyes glued to the widescreen television in the corner that bears witness to Hurricane Katrina’s battering of their home state. “The eye of the storm went over my parish,” said Staff Sergeant Chris Nappier, 28, from New Orleans. “It’s passing over the hospital where my mom works. She’s a nurse. She’s still there with her patients.” Spc. John Basco, also in his 20s, shook his head. “I had to get emergency leave on the last squall to go home to fix the flooding in my basement. I can’t imagine what this is going to do.” On TV, a Fox News reporter gets blown across the screen; the weather map keeps up a nasty white swirl. Staff Sergeant Ken Carrigee, 26, leaned back in his chair, grinning. “People back home constantly worry about us,” he said. “Now we get the chance to worry about them.”

With only eight days left before their tours' end, the biggest worry on these soldiers’ minds is 10,000 miles away. “We were going to have a homecoming,” said Carrigee. “Now we don’t know if we’ll have homes to go home to.”

The men are with the 1st Battalion, 141st Field Artillery unit based out of Jackson Barracks in New Orleans. The unit has been in Baghdad since October 2004, part of the 256th Brigade of the Louisiana National Guard. The 256th has been deployed for close to 17 months, running missions outside of Camp Liberty, including patrols on the hazardous Airport Road. It’s been a year of steady harassment and seven-day work weeks. On the 141st’s first day in Iraq, their convoy was attacked by mortars. In June, a rocket slammed into the trailer next to their barracks, killing a civilian contractor and injuring a number of troops.

A quarter mile away, about a dozen other soldiers in the unit spent the black, dusty evening behind the 141st’s Tactical Operations Center waiting for news. The makeshift headquarters has a few rows of picnic tables out back under a canopy. The unit’s nickname, “The Baghdad Headhunters,” is on a sign out front. They talked amongst themselves Monday, trying to piece together from the Internet, broken cell-phone chats and cable news what’s going on. “It’s the perfect f--ked-up ending to a perfect f--ked-up war,” said one soldier.

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[leftchick]

1. my sentiments exactly soldier

fucked up indeed. :(

[DistressedAmerican]

2. Kick

[DistressedAmerican]

3. ...