CAMP ATTERBURY | Bittersweet moments played out within tan and taupe cement block walls Thursday afternoon as some 180 soldiers from 54 Indiana counties prepared to depart on the first leg of a trip that will land them in Iraq.
Mothers cried. Fathers hugged. Wives, husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends held tight for the final few moments before members of the Indiana National Guard 384th Military Police Company headquartered in Bloomington began their journey to take them overseas for the next year.
For Staff Sgt. Joseph Gallagher, a Portage resident and Gary police officer, it was especially bittersweet. He had just married his wife, Tiffany, Jan. 2. The same day they learned they were expecting a child in the fall.
"It's what I signed up for. I'd rather fight them there than over here," said Gallagher, who is heading out for this second deployment. In 2005 he served as a body guard for the 3rd Army commanding general in Kuwait.
Gallagher and others in the 384th will be training Iraqi police.
"We want to teach them how to be like American police, to be more proactive," he said.
Tiffany Gallagher wasn't sure how she was feeling.
"I'm hoping we'll spend plenty of time together with the webcam," she said. "We are just going to make it work."
Some 600 family members and friends squeezed into the National Guard Armory gym at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Ind., to spend some time with their loved ones. A 20-minute ceremony marked their departure.
Major Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, Indiana's adjutant general, tried to reassured family members.
He told them the troops would be under the command of "two very experienced company commanders."
"Rest assured your soldiers will be very well led," he said, telling them that the role of the MPs is very important in the mission in Iraq.
"We are not kicking down doors so much anymore as winning the hearts and minds of the country," he said.
After the ceremony, the group spent a few last moments with family and before reporting back to Camp Atterbury. From there they would take a long bus ride to Fort Dix, N.J., for about two months of additional training before being sent to Iraq.
