I have some friends in the 149th, woulda volunteered but they didn't need no medical people.

Kentucky guardsmen prepare to close U.S. chapter in Iraq | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

Camp Atterbury, Ind. — When Kentucky National Guard Sgt. Jeremy Serdenis first went to Iraq in 2003, he was part of the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and fueled a violent insurgency.

Now, Serdenis' unit is returning to Iraq — this time to help the U.S. withdraw troops, close bases and bring back millions of pieces of equipment as the eight-year, $800 billion war draws to a close.

On Wednesday, he was among more than 1,300 Kentucky guardsmen in the 149th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade who were training in advance of the guard’s largest overseas deployment since World War II. “It's a full circle for some of us … and I really hope it’s the last time,” said Serdenis, of Louisville, who was preparing for his third tour to Iraq as a group of Kentucky employers visited to see their departing workers train in live-fire and close-combat drills.

They will leave next month to help close out a war that has claimed 4,466 U.S. troops.

Once in Iraq, the soldiers — from towns including Louisville, Harlan and Benton — will be based in Baghdad but workaround the country, helping decommission hundreds of bases, guarding troop and weapons convoys, and handling security and overseeing services such as electricity and water at U.S. bases.

Col. Scott Campbell, the 149th's commander, said it’s a historic deployment because the unit will be one of the last to leave Iraq.

Exactly when that will be isn’t clear. While the remaining 45,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are slated to be out of the country by Dec. 31, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in May that he hoped the Iraqi government would ask that U.S. soldiers stay beyond that to preserve the relative peace.

Most soldiers said they told families it could be a year, and Campbell said it will be plenty perilous. A spate of mortar attacks on U.S. bases and other violence ranked June as the worst month for U.S. casualties in more than two years.

"I tell my guys all the time, ‘it's still dangerous,’ " he said. "I think the insurgents want people to think they're running us off."

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The troops have spent nearly a month training at the 33,000-acre Camp Atterbury, which opened during World War II and once home to a camp for German and Italian prisoners of war.

On Wednesday, the Kentucky Guardsmen were involved in a range of exercises, including a live-fire drill at a simulated U.S. camp complete with earthen berms and guard towers.

When machine-gun fire erupted and simulated mortars exploded, a dozen soldiers scrambled to don vests, grab weapons and run to the berm to shoot at targets that resembled insurgents.

“Incoming!” a commander yelled as a fake bomb exploded and spent shells spilled around prone guardsmen.

Elsewhere, soldiers practiced close-combat shooting, since "most of our engagements happen at close range," said Capt. Daniel Mays, withrifle fire cracking behind him.

At a simulated U.S. base entrance, more than a dozen soldiers practiced checking papers, doing pat-downs and using mirrors to check under a van for bombs as soldiers posing as Iraqis sought to enter the base. Guardsmen manning those gates in Iraq will have to deal with as many as 350 such entries a day.

Spec. Josh Liford said the training would help him “know how to react” as he works alongside troops from Virginia and Utah to form a 2,600-member force.

Richard Skaggs, 41, who is leaving his truck-driving job at American Wood Fibers in Lebanon, Ky., to serve in Iraq, said he’ll be overseas at the same time his Marine son is serving in Afghanistan. While it’s a “tough time for my wife,” he said, “it feels like an important mission … closing down a theater of war.”

His boss, David Ballard, who was at Camp Atterbury with others employers, shared a chemically heated combat ration meal with Skaggs and assured him that “his job will be there” when he returns.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 14,000 Kentucky National Guard soldiers and airmen have been mobilizedfor deployment. The Kentucky National Guard, which has nearly 8,500 Air and Army guardsmen, currently has more than 1,500 troops deployed worldwide.

It’s still a challenge for those leaving families for a year: Spec. Jerry Bishop, 34, of Louisville, for example, said he will be leaving his wife Ashley and their 7-month-old child when he heads to Iraq next month. Serdenis has a child and a second on the way.

The troops will leave sometime in late July but not before getting a four-day pass to see family.

On Wednesday as Campbell watched employers inspect transport carriers designed to withstand roadside bomb blasts, he said he hopes the end of the war in Iraq — and President Barack Obama’s intention to start drawing down troops in Afghanistan — will soon begin to ease the burden on the guard.

While the guard eventually “may not mobilize as frequently as we close out Iraq and downsize in Afghanistan, we’ll probably never go back to pre-9-11,” he said. “We’ll still have to be able to deploy at any time.”

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