Reservists ready to serve.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

ALBANY - For some young men, it would be the stuff of nightmares: You get shipped off to a war zone and, lo and behold, your platoon sergeant is none other than your mother-in-law.

But for Pvt. Duncan Schneider of Canby, it's an opportunity to serve his country alongside a new family member who understands the tradition and honor of military duty.

"I feel very good about it," Schneider said Sunday at a mobilization ceremony at the Linn County Fairgrounds for the Oregon Army National Guard 224th Engineer Company, which deploys in a week to begin training for a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq. "It's a family thing."

Despite his stoicism and optimism about the mission ahead, the 20-year-old combat engineer has as much cause as any soldier to be reluctant. He has a 2-month-old daughter, Ezra, and on Sunday - just minutes after the mobilization ceremony - he married his longtime sweetheart, Delaina Aguilera, at the nearby National Guard Armory.

"That'll be the hardest part, being away from them," said Schneider, who enlisted in the Guard less than a year ago.

After shaking Gov. Ted Kulongoski's hand after the ceremony, Schneider's new mother-in-law and soon-to-be platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Lisa Mesteth, bolted off to the armory to play mother of the bride. While Aguilera will be left without a mother or a husband to help her through her infant's first year, Mesteth said she's not worried.

"We've got great family support, a lot of people to help out," said Mesteth, a full-time reservist who also lives in Canby. "I feel secure."

This will be the second deployment to Iraq for many soldiers with the 224th Engineer Company, which was called Bravo Company of the 52nd Engineering Battalion until a reorganization and redesignation last October. The last deployment was February 2003.

The unit's chief responsibility is building and maintaining roads and other infrastructure. Soldiers will spend two months training at Fort McCoy, Wis., before deployment to Iraq, said Capt. Mike Braibish, an Army National Guard spokesman.

Ceremonies such as Sunday's trigger the formal mobilization, he said, "but also, it is an opportunity for us to support our history and our heritage."

The solemn event included a musical prelude and rendition of the national anthem by the 234th Army Band; an exchange of flags between the company and Kulongoski, who will display the company's guidon - a small flag with battalion insignia - at the state Capitol until the soldiers' safe return; and remarks by Kulongoski and Maj. Gen. Raymond Rees of the Oregon National Guard. Mo's restaurant dished up a clam chowder lunch for soldiers and their families beforehand.

Kulongoski, an early supporter of the decision to go to war who has grown disillusioned with the results, praised the 119 men and women for their courage, professionalism, selflessness and patriotism. He called them "our heroes."

"I am very proud of you, and while you are away, you will be in my heart and my mind all the time, and in my daily prayers," said the governor, who has visited Iraq twice and voiced strong opposition to President Bush's plan to boost troop levels.

If any soldiers were angry, sorrowful or frightened about the deployment, they kept it to themselves Sunday, or at least downplayed it. Spc. Brendan Bowes, one of two soldiers from Eugene, acknowledged that he would rather not go. He enlisted just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, largely to help pay his tuition to Oregon State University, where he recently earned a sociology degree. His commitment was scheduled to end in a few months but will be extended until his return next year.

"No one wants to engage in a war," said Bowes, 25, a 2000 graduate of North Eugene High School recently named his battalion's Soldier of the Year. "But it is what it is."

Bowes' parents and sister, however, were candid about their trepidations. His father, Darrell Bowes, a former guardsman, said he doesn't want his son sent off to a country "where he's not wanted."

His sister, Christal Bowes, 27, summed up sentiments that, according to recent polls, an increasing number of Americans share: "I'm not happy with him going over there, I'm not happy with the president, I'm not happy with this war, and I'm sorry that almost 4,000 soldiers have lost their lives."

But Sgt. Brandon Kittleson of Springfield, who was part of the company's first deployment, sounded eager to go.

"I'm looking forward to it, actually," he said. "I'm curious to see how the country has changed since the last time I was there."

The 224th Engineer Company draws from throughout Oregon and southern Washington, and includes several other local soldiers: Jeffrey Tomchak of Eugene; Todd Egan, Lowell Pearson, Richard Gay and Chad Walker of Springfield; Derek Fanning of Harrisburg; Matthew Shoemaker of Monroe; Crystal Adams of Coos Bay; Robert Cole of North Bend; and Joseph Whitney of Florence.

Although the troops are being sent to Iraq along with those called up as part of the president's "surge" strategy, Guard officials have said the orders for the 224th were issued before the decision was made to boost troop strength as a way of ending the four-year-old war.

No Oregon Guard units have been in Iraq since March 2006. Nearly 900 Oregon soldiers in Afghanistan are scheduled to return this month. About 200 other Oregon Guard soldiers based in Salem and Warrenton remain on alert for possible deployment to Iraq, an official said earlier this spring.