HEADLINE: Unexpected deployment to Iraq was 'like a punch in the gut'

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Spc. Ryan Seals is deployed with the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment's 190th Engineer Company. Today the Times Free Press begins a monthly column from Spc. Seals.

Feb. 8, 2004 -- It was the day my world changed forever -- that peaceful Sunday morning that I awoke in my dorm room at the University of Tennessee to a call from my father.

"Ryan, son, I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but your platoon sergeant just called to say that your unit was being placed on alert for deployment," he said.

I thought it might have been just a cruel joke. My dad has always been a prankster, and as bad as the punch line might have been, I hoped that he was pulling my leg.

The shock led me to argue with him for a minute or two to determine if he was serious. Then it hit me like a punch in the gut -- he wasn't joking, and life as I knew it could be changing forever.

The next day it was announced in the media that thousands of men and women of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment could deploy for active duty.

The news was disappointing to me because three days earlier I had been given an offer for my first big break in the journalism field. After a spending about two months writing cover letters, copying news articles and resumes and sending them to several major newspapers in the region, my first choice for an internship was going to give me a chance.

The Times Free Press had contacted me about a six-month internship, which I couldn't accept immediately because I had promised to clear the time the job would require with my platoon sergeant first.

A few days later I found out that possibility was most likely to become reality.

As a result, I had to turn the internship down. I began to wait for my orders to report for active duty.

That is just my story, and there are similar tales that thousands of other soldiers from the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment from across the state, including the Chattanooga area, probably could tell about the day they realized their call to active duty was pending.

Most never expected activation to take place upon enlisting. With a sales pitch of only having to serve one weekend a month, two weeks a year with 75 percent college tuition assistance, the Guard benefits almost seem too good to be true.

And when I joined Morristown's 190th Engineer Company, the 278th hadn't been activated since the Korean War more than 50 years ago. I figured that by joining for six years, the odds of keeping out of a hostile situation were in my favor.

But this isn't the National Guard of old, when the toughest thing most soldiers expected to encounter was basic training and maybe a few calls to assist with riot controls or natural disasters.

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, more than 315,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists have reported for active duty. Today there are more than 160,000 serving, many of them in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The transformation for these soldiers into active duty is especially hard, because they aren't used to being in a full-time military state of mind.

Saying goodbye to loved ones, taking leave from work and withdrawing from school are just a portion of what they encounter.

But through a unique opportunity given to me by the Times Free Press and the Tennessee National Guard, I will tell you what it's like from beginning to end, while proudly serving in the United States and other parts of the world.

Starting today and running once a month throughout the 18-month to two-year deployment of the 190th, I will document our journey -- a journey that will take us to Mississippi, California, Kuwait, Iraq and possibly many other unfamiliar places far from the hills of East Tennessee.

The stories detail the heroic men and women sacrificing so that Iraqis can have the freedom that many of us take for granted.

It will be about how the men of the 190th are dealing with the struggles of wartime and on the good things that are happening in Iraq. It is a chance to tell about the emotions, struggles and heroics of the 190th firsthand.

While every unit's story is bound to be different, I hope by sharing our experiences, it will give others a chance to relate to what their loved ones may be going through in similar circumstances.

From: Chattanooga Times Free Press Link

1. Back to Ryan's Experience

2. Training life brings change, challenge Link

3. Training simulates Iraq combat Link