Families of some GI's seethe, doubt Bush

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0310290213oct29,1,557608.story?coll=chi-printnews-hed

By Judith Graham
Tribune national correspondent
Published October 29, 2003

DENVER -- They are angry and disillusioned, frustrated and full of doubt. This war is not going the way they hoped it would. They are wives and husbands of the 129th Army Reserves Combat Transportation Company, stationed in Kansas, and they are terrified for spouses who are conducting missions in Iraq. A month ago, these family members launched a "bring our soldiers home" petition drive when the 129th Company's tour of duty was extended with no advance notice.

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Cherie Block, 29, could barely contain herself while watching President Bush's press conference Tuesday from her home in Sac City, Iowa, especially when Bush insisted the vast majority of Iraqis are with Americans, not against them.

"Look at everything that's going on there this week," Block said, "And still has this perfect picture in his head that they want us there. To me, they're already against us. "Either he doesn't really understand what's going on, or he's not telling it the way it really is," said Block, whose husband Wallace is a sergeant with the 129th Company.

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... reservists like those in the 129th Company, which operates trucks that haul tanks and other heavy equipment into Iraq, are in an especially tough position. Planning for their service in the Iraq war has been particularly chaotic, families charge, insisting the military has given them inadequate information and assistance. Initially, most of the 129th Company reservists believed their tour of duty would be three to six months. Then they were told it would be a year from the time they arrived in Iraq, not including the three months they spent on duty while waitingto be deployed. Then, last month they were told the 270-member 129th Company might not come home before 2005. That's when Rachel Trueblood, 42, of Lees Summit, Mo., a mother of three whose husband is a staff sergeant with the company, went from "sucking it up," as she puts it, to getting mad.

Her bottom line: No National Guard or reservist should be deployed for more than 12 months. Trueblood mounted a petition drive (www.129bringthemhome.com) that has gathered almost 13,000 signatures.