Randy Harris

If redeployed, members of the Tennessee National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment know they will provide base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait.

But soldiers say they still aren’t sure when to expect to go back.

“I’m not going to get excited until I get the word for sure,” said Staff Sgt. Kenneth Bottoms, a McMinnville, Tenn., resident who served during the Knoxville-based unit’s last Iraq deployment from 2004 to 2005.

After issuing a generalized readiness alert for the unit late last week, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday that, starting next spring, the 278th would be among four National Guard units providing base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait.

The announcement indicates that the department has identified the unit as capable of performing that mission, said unit commander Col. Jeff Holmes, but specifics are still up in the air.

“This is something we’ve anticipated,” he said. “This notifies us to begin certain administrative processes and make sure we fulfill specific training requirements in order to participate in a possible mission. As we get closer to our mobilization date, they will assign us our (specific) mission.”

The unit — with nearly 4,000 soldiers, the largest in the Tennessee Guard — likely will be deployed as a whole, Col. Holmes said.

In addition to monthly drills already under way, he said, members will travel to Camp Shelby, Miss., for three weeks in August for gunnery training with new tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.

The unit had to leave $157 million worth of equipment in Iraq following its last deployment, according to Tennessee National Guard spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Randy Harris, but most of it already has been replaced.

“Truck-wise, they are better off than they were,” he said, explaining that the Department of Defense will provide the unit with the humvees and night vision equipment it is still lacking prior to any deployment.

The Department of Defense tends to maintain a five-year rotation for individual units, Sgt. 1st Class Harris explained. Since the 278th was last deployed in 2004, he said, a 2009 deployment would fall right into that schedule.

Though deployment time and mission specifics are still up in the air, Sgt. 1st Class Harris said federal officials felt it was important to go ahead and give unit members an idea of the plan in the works. It’s part of a new, nationwide initiative to help soldiers and their families make arrangements for departure, he said.

“DOD is alerting these units earlier than they used to, to give them a little more time to get ready, and to give them a little head start with families and employers and things like that,” Sgt. 1st Class Harris said. “They’re doing that both with the Guard and with the regular Army.”

Denise Bottoms, Staff Sgt. Bottoms’ wife, said she appreciates the extra warning, although she already has a successful deployment plan in place after her husband’s first deployment.

“I know I’ve got everything in line, and I can hold everything together until he gets back,” Mrs. Bottoms said.

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