Area Guard unit preps for duty in Iraq

CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Despite pouring rain, nearly 1,000 family members and friends filled the bleachers at Bradley Central High School on Tuesday to bid farewell to local Tennessee Army National Guard soldiers.

The 252nd Military Police Company leaves today for final training at Fort Dix, N.J., before heading to a yearlong deployment in Iraq.

"I am just so impressed with the turnout for this," Col. Patricia Jones told the audience as she talked to the soldiers and their families, many preparing for their first combat deployment.

Col. Jones is the brigade commander of the 30th Troop Command, which oversees the 252nd Military Police Company out of Cleveland.

Company commander Capt. Darrel Hull told the audience that over the last year of training, the unit has become a family. He said that family extends beyond spouses and children to neighbors, employers and anyone in the web of support that has helped the unit prepare for this mission.

The 170 soldiers of the 252nd come from across Tennessee and Georgia. The unit's mission in Iraq is to help train and advise Iraqi police units, from the provisional level to local stations.

"We're talking about places that have had no police units before," Capt. Hull said. "We're trying to put an Iraqi face on the police force."

As part of the larger, long-term Army mission in Iraq, the company will work mostly as advisers to the Iraqi police. Members will help with equipment and training and will troubleshoot police practices for the fledgling forces.

Soldiers still will accompany Iraqis on patrols, but Iraqis will do more of the police work and community interaction than Americans, Capt. Hull said.

While the 252nd's soldiers have prepared for this deployment with multiple training operations, their families also have had work to do.

Though Andrea Dillivan's husband deployed once before, this separation will be different.

Last time, she and her husband, Staff Sgt. David Dillivan, didn't have Alyssa, their daughter who turns 2 in September.

"I just hope she remembers her daddy when he comes back in a year," Mrs. Dillivan said.

She's already uploaded Skype, an Internet-based phone service, to her home computer to help keep in touch, she said.

At the ceremony, Tennessee Highway Patrol Col. Mike Walker gave out his personal cell phone number just in case any family needs help while their relative is away. A Vietnam veteran, Col. Walker told the troops he came down to "tell you to be safe."