Families bid farewell to GIs bound for Iraq

PETALUMA -- It took a war to separate single dad Leroy Keading of Rio Nido from his 8-year-old only child, Ashley.

"He's never missed my birthday before," said Ashley, wearing a long red dress Sunday at the California National Guard Armory in Petaluma.

But her father, wearing Army fatigues and a black beret, will miss Ashley's ninth birthday Jan. 8 and probably her 10th birthday as well.

Spc. Keading is one of the 11 soldiers from Petaluma-based A Company of the 579th Engineer Battalion who will board a bus today for San Bernardino, the first leg of an 18-month deployment including a year of infantry duty in Iraq.

The 579th has called more than 125 citizen-soldiers to active duty, but the 11 men who brought their families to the Armory on Sunday morning for an orientation meeting are the first group bound for combat, amid a mix of emotions ranging from pride to political dissent.

"I'm scared for my daughter," Keading said. "I definitely want to come home and see her grow up."

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http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/17guard_b1empireb.html


Well, now I know someone who'll be in Iraq. I am sick, sick, sick!

the figures here are just astounding. we have lost more soldiers than in the first 3 years of vietnam???
my sister is heading to iraq real soon and she has to leave her 1 year old boy and 4 year old girl with who? she is stationed in germeny right now.
it is disgusting that we are bombing them with this toxic stuff that is causing such major health problems, yet, nobody seems to care.
i am so sad for these poor soldiers that are scared out of their minds. i am sad they are over there and sad at the problems they will have for the rest of their lives. i am sad for us as a society that we will have so many wounded hearts when the war is over. i am sad for the iraqis who have to fear every moment of their lives.
i wish the purpose of this was for something more than to make a few people a billion dollars richer.

The Iraqi citizens, the soldiers on both sides, an established government in trade for chaos, anarchy and a billion dollars in the repugnet pockets of * and co.