Last night, I assisted an American Red Cross team in seeing off a group of 1st BCT, 3rd ID soldiers from Fort Stewart off on their deployment to Iraq. Guy McDonald, K4GTM picked me up around 8 PM and we went over to the Truscott terminal at Hunter AAF. The team served coffee, hot chocolate, and tea for the soldiers as they ate a meal, manifested, and prepared for departure. As they boarded the aircraft, the Red Cross team and the USO saw them off with good words of thanks. It was cold and windy last night, but it was a good way to spend an evening.I brought along my my BC396 and an earphone; it was helpful to be able to listen to Hunter Tower and Base Ops, Hunter Trans Alert, and the DOL folks. Keeping an ear on their radio traffic helped us keep up with what was going on and when things would be happening. I think we were better prepared as a result.
Two things struck me last night. First I was struck by how young many of the these soldiers are. No doubt many of these were on their first deployment (assumed from the lack of unit patches on many left shoulders). I'm not exactly old, but many of these men and women seemed to be just kids. Second, I was struck by just how many female soldiers there were. One of the units on last night's flight was an MP unit and I'll bet the ratio of female to male soliders was close to 50/50. I would be really interested in seeing figures on how the Iraq and Afghanistan wars compare to previous wars and confilicts in the overall ratio of females to males serving.
Godspeed and Best Wishes to all of the Service People that are deployed or are deploying to our many committments overseas.
Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
