A soldier's story.

I like the Army. I like being a Soldier. I like the people I work with and serving my country. It's a lot different than my normal life of being an attorney. I think that's the main reason I'm in the Army National Guard: it's something different.

Although I've never actually deployed before, this is the second time I've been mobilized. The first time was in March 2003 and my battery was assigned to 1-181 FA of the Tennessee Army National Guard at Fort Campbell [Kentucky], training to deploy to Iraq. But after two months, they demobilized us ... I guess major combat operations were over before we could get there. So this is our second mobilization in a year.

Our first mobilization was a big deal. This mobilization started in December and is a lot easier because we've already gone through the mobilization process.

The biggest challenge for me is family separation. Somehow, it was harder to leave this time than the last, which surprised me. It was bad enough the first time around, so I didn't think the second time would be worse. One of my children is in college and the other is almost 17--it would be even harder to leave if they were toddlers, like some Soldiers have.

I not really nervous about going to Iraq--it is just part of what you do as a Soldier in the National Guard. I just hope we all come back--that's my main concern, that we all come back. But the odds are pretty good. The rough areas of some our big US cities are more dangerous than Iraq. We had many more casualties in Vietnam and World War II. The casualty hype is just the media conducting its business.

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I have a good job with a good section chief and platoon sergeant. I think we have the best section in the battery, a real team, which makes my job even better. I like going to the field--even though I'm not actually one of the gun crewmen, I get to go to the field.

I'm 40 years old, one of the oldest in the battery, and a lawyer, so the younger Soldiers come to me for advice and counseling, which is a good opportunity to do some team building. People always seem to come to me with their problems. I think my maturity reassures a lot of the young Soldiers.

The question I'm asked most frequently is why I'm not a JAG [Judge Advocate General] officer. But I don't want to do in the Army what I do in my civilian job. That would be boring. I want to go to the field with the younger Soldiers because they make me feel young. I don't want to work with a bunch of stuffy lawyers.

We've been training at Fort Sill for about one month now, mainly training on small arms and qualifying on different weapons. We've trained convoy operations over and over and over and over and over ... first aid over and over and over and over. So we feel pretty confident we'll be able to accomplish the mission when we get to Iraq.

I've "been around the block" a lot in my life, but some members of the battalion are paranoid. They don't want to miss any training they might need or forget anything so there are no problems when we get to Iraq. But I think once we get in country, a lot of the tension will go away. We are just dealing with the unknown and getting ready to do a mission we normally wouldn't do.

I don't mind going to Iraq. We're well trained, and I trust everyone I'm going over with, so that solves most of my problems.

SGT Jamie Hare, AFATDS Operator

C/2-147 FA (MLRS), SDARNG, Deploying to Iraq

Sergeant (SGT) James (Jamie) I. Hare from Northville, South Dakota (population 124), is a 13P Multiple-Launch Rocket System Operational Fire Direction Specialist operating the advanced FA tactical data system (AFATDS) in the Fire Direction Center of C Battery, 2d Battalion, 147th Field Artillery (2-147 FA), Redfield, South Dakota. He was active duty Air Force for seven years and has been in the South Dakota Army National Guard (SDARNG) and FA for seven years, assigned to 2-147 FA for three of those years. In his civilian job, he is an Attorney in Redfield. He will deploy to Iraq with his battalion on 29 January 2004 for one year. His battalion's mission is to capture enemy ammunition/equipment and conduct security operations under the 197th FA Brigade, New Hampshire ARNG. This is his story.