Springfield State Journal-Register March 18, 2004 Ready to come home Guard unit will never forget its darkest day By MARCUS STERN COPLEY NEWS SERVICE BALAD, Iraq - A long, tough year in Kuwait and Iraq is coming to a close for the Bartonville-based Illinois-Iowa National Guard Chinook helicopter unit. Last July, 205 soldiers arrived here at Camp Anaconda, 40 miles north of Baghdad. They slept on a bomb-cratered runway with their Chinooks, fighting off sand mites and sandstorms while braving 140-degree heat. Today, with their number down to 185 for various reasons, they are preparing to leave Iraq next month. After spending a couple of weeks in Kuwait and a week at Fort Campbell, Ky., they hope for a May 15 homecoming in Peoria. The roughest moment for F Company of the 106th Aviation Battalion came Nov. 2, when one of its 14 helicopters was shot out of the sky, killing three crew members and 13 passengers from other units headed home on leave. It became a defining moment for F Company, casting a pall over the remainder of their time here. Now, as they begin scrubbing down their equipment in anticipation of a late April departure, the 185 remaining members of the unit carry a piece of emotional baggage that might haunt them forever - the loss of the aircraft they respectfully call “203” - the number on its nose. “It was hard,” said Staff Sgt. Joshua Naven, 30, of Peoria, a maintenance squad leader. Sitting in a jauntily decorated lounge in an old Iraqi concrete hangar that once housed MiGs, next to the runway that has been the center of their lives for the past eight months, Naven recalled the dark day. The unit commander called the company together and jumped up on a vehicle. He told them one of their helicopters was down. Details were sketchy, and news of who had survived and who had died trickled in slowly in the hours ahead. "It makes you re-evaluate a lot of things," said Naven. Even though acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee in November ordered "the most effective defensive systems" available be placed on the helicopters, only five of the 13 Chinooks on the flight line here have been modified with the advanced ALE-47 system for fending off missile attacks. "The ALE-47 has a higher survivability rate, and so I think everybody here would prefer to have it," said one member of the company. "It would be foolish not to." In honor of the lost crew, the lounge has been named Club 203. It has the feel of a sports bar, with a TV mounted above the hand-made plywood bar. Behind the bar is a microwave oven, a blender and a pizza oven. In front of it are bar stools made from two-by-fours and plywood. The partitioned section of the hanger is decorated with racy beer posters and strings of Christmas lights. In the fridge are sodas and non-alcoholic beer. But the emotional centerpiece of Club 203 is a dramatic hand-painted mural on the concrete wall behind the bar. It shows a silhouette of 203 against a setting sun. An American flag hangs directly above it. "When you come in here, you're no longer in Iraq," Naven said. The Guard unit was activated Feb. 2, 2003. The soldiers loaded up their equipment and sent it to Corpus Christi, Texas. The blades of their 14 Chinooks were removed and placed inside before the birds were shrink-wrapped for their long boat journey to Kuwait. The troops themselves went to Fort Campbell Feb. 9 for training before flying to Kuwait April 13. For two months, they flew missions into Iraq from Kuwait before flying and convoying up to Camp Anaconda. The unit has been a workhorse, hauling cargo and passengers throughout the dangerous Sunni Triangle for the Army. "It's been rough here," said Staff Sgt. Tony Stickelmaier, 36, who lives in Cantrall. He's an aircraft mechanic in Springfield and a flight engineer here. "When we got here, we lived out in the open," he said. "The only water we had was the water we brought. The only food we had was the food we brought." The runway was still cratered from American bombs when they arrived, and the airfield was littered with destroyed Iraqi tanks. In August, temperatures soared beyond the ability of the helicopters to measure them. It was so hot they couldn't touch the airframes of their Chinooks or their tools with bare hands without risking blistered finger. They had to carry masks and goggles for protection from the sandstorms, said Stickelmaier, who has five years in the regular Army and 13 years in the Guard. Until recently, they relied on primitive bathrooms they built themselves, burning their own waste in trenches on a weekly basis. They ran electricity to their tents. They pooled their money and created a wireless Internet system that allows them to surf the Web and e-mail their families on laptops from their cots. Their "Internet cartel" started in October, with 50 people who each chipped in $100 and bought a satellite dish and wireless router. "Since we got it, morale has gone up substantially," said Naven. F Company also improvised a three-hole golf course and a driving range. They have marked off a field for flag football and one for softball. "Everything you see here was either built, bartered or stolen by us," said Stickelmaier. Despite the hardships they faced in converting a dry patch of finely powdered dirt into an aviation compound, monotony and privacy have become issues during the months they've been away from friends and family. "The hardest part is not having time to myself," said Sgt. Kenneth Welsh, 39, of Galesburg. "I live out in the country, and I like my space. Here, you're always surrounded by the same people. "We definitely feel like it's (the movie) 'Groundhog Day.' Every day is the same," he said. Video games, TV, Internet and DVD movies have become popular pastimes. "I came here with three or four DVDs and now I have 60 or 70," said Welsh, who serves as an avionics tech inspector. "It's been interesting," he added. "It's given me a new perspective on life, that we have it pretty good in the United States. I've seen a lot of houses here without running water, electricity and bathrooms. "Now, would I like to come back? No," he said. Sgt. Bradley Baerwaldt, 24, of Pekin and Spc. Richie Garcia, 21, of DePue, both electricians, were out on the flight line doing maintenance on one of the 13 remaining Chinooks. They bantered as they switched out what they called a defective power turbine inlet temperature harness. Garcia swung the device as he talked about how close the group has become during the year they've spent together. They've become a family, he said. "We all keep an eye on each other," he said. Baerwaldt was two courses short of his degree in aviation technology at Southern Illinois University when he got activated. Because the courses won't be offered again until next spring, he will lose two years finishing his degree. "I kind of got shafted on that," he said. Sgt. Nick Bockler, 24, of Pekin serves as a refueler and door gunner. "I'm ready to go home. I'm going to take the jet-ski down to the dock at Hooter's and get some hot wings," he said. Like other soldiers, he praised friends, family and community in Illinois for supporting the troops during the difficult year of deployment. They've received care packages and letters from F Company's family support group back home, schools and even strangers. "It's nice knowing the community back home is supporting us," he said.