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Chattanooga: Local Army Reserve unit en route to Iraq

By: Lauren Gregory
(Contact)

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Pat Canerdy

The Army Reserve’s 591st Transportation Company is in Indiana today preparing for its second Iraq War deployment.

But it might as well be the first time this Chattanooga-based unit has headed to the Middle East, because only three of its 23 members were part of the group the last time around.

“Most of the unit has been in (the Army) less than a year and a half,” said retired Sgt. Maj. Pat Canerdy, who deployed with the 591st in 2004 but now is its civilian unit administrator. “Their stomachs are in knots. It’s the anticipation of the unknown.”

Members of the relatively young, inexperienced unit said their last goodbyes to family and friends Tuesday morning at the Army Reserve Center off Hickory Valley Road. They boarded a bus to Camp Atterbury, Ind., where they expect to train for about a month before shipping off to the Middle East for a yearlong tour, Ms. Canerdy said.

For Pvt. Stephanie Patterson, a 20-year-old from Dalton, Ga., and the unit’s only deploying female, this will be the first time away from home.

She’s “a little bit nervous,” she said just before getting on the bus. “I just got out of training in November.”

The unit, which is one of only 15 trailer-transport units in all of the Army and Army Reserve, will be tasked with coordinating the logistics of supply movement by ground and air.

Pvt. Montez Martin, a 19-year-old from Rome, Ga., figured he’s as ready as he’ll ever be.

“You can’t prepare enough for it, but I guess I’m prepared as much as I can be,” Pvt. Martin said.

His mother, Schinice Wright, also of Rome, stood by, wracked with nerves.

“I’ve got butterflies this morning,” she said as she waited for her final hug.

Those “butterflies” turned into tears as the bus pulled out of the parking lot — not surprising to Ms. Canerdy, who said deployments usually are harder on the families than on the beloved soldiers they are sending abroad.

She predicted the soldiers will adjust fairly easily to conditions in Iraq.

“Once you get over there and get over that initial anxiety, you’re just doing a job, and it becomes mundane,” Ms. Canerdy said.

Pvt. John Michael Hall, 19, of Dalton, Ga., predicted that all the hard work and hot weather probably will make him long for the not-so-exciting tasks at home — even changing his 3-month-old daughter’s diapers.

“I’ll miss everything,” he said.

While Pvt. Hall and his fellow soldiers deploy, community members will be cheering him on from home, said Don and Ima Stewart of Signal Mountain. The Stewarts said they do not know any members of the 591st personally, but that didn’t stop them from coming out to send the unit off Tuesday.

“We needed to give them our support,” Mr. Stewart said as the flag he was holding flapped in the morning breeze. “I’m kind of emotional. I’m so proud of these guys. I know some of them may not come back, but they’re doing it for us.”

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