Illinois families press for troops’ return

A push to get troops home

Families press U.S. over longer duties

By Bill Glauber Tribune staff reporter

Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0404250374apr25,1,5525447.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed

FREEPORT, Ill. — A determined band of Illinois
families is appealing to the Pentagon to bring home the
333rd MP National Guard Company, a unit that was headed
to the U.S. before being ordered back to Iraq.

The unit’s citizen-soldiers—activated in February 2003
and dispatched to Iraq last May—had already sent home
much of their gear before arriving in Kuwait on Easter.

They had expected to head home from Kuwait within days.

Instead, the unit’s troops were among 20,000 soldiers
whose deployments were extended 90 days by the Pentagon
as violence surged in Iraq.

A captain in the unit said the soldiers themselves are
"rightfully upset" but prepared to fulfill their
mission.

On the homefront, though, families have mounted a
letter-writing and petition campaign to get the unit’s
remaining troops—about 150—airlifted to the U.S.
immediately.

"I want them home," said Sue Warneke, who heads the
unit’s Family Readiness Group. "They have done their
tour of duty."

The bid to bring home the 333rd MP Company, based in
Freeport, is an extraordinary tale of citizens
respectfully standing up to the government. It’s also a
sign of the mounting strain endured by troops in the
field and by families at home as the U.S.-led
occupation of Iraq enters a dangerous phase near the
June 30 deadline to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqi
people.

Deployments for three other Illinois National Guard
units also were extended—the 933rd MP Company based in
Chicago, the 1244th Transportation Company based in
North Riverside, and Company F, 106th Aviation, based
in Peoria.

The Family Readiness Group of the 333rd MP unit has
taken its grievances to the top, sending a letter to
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld requesting that the
troops return home as soon as possible.

They’ve also gathered more than 1,000 signatures on a
petition.

"Their tour in Iraq has already been extended once, and
the strain of another tour of duty in Iraq is becoming
a health concern for these soldiers," the petition
said.

The office of U.S. Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.)
delivered the letter to Rumsfeld and will forward the
petitions, a spokesman said, adding that the
congressman urged the defense secretary to send home
the unit "sooner rather than later."

"If you get enough support and enough pushing, you
might get something accomplished," said Warneke, mother
of 23-year-old Army Spec. Jeremy Warneke. "I know they
have a job to do, but they have already done their
job."

Members of the 333rd MP Company, who have left jobs and
families for an extended tour overseas, were in Kuwait
last week preparing to head back to Iraq, back to war.

The unit initially arrived in Kuwait last April and
moved into Iraq on May 9. They had anticipated that
they fulfilled their duty of serving a year in Iraq.
Family members said they were due home the last week of
April.

Connie Wescott, 52, has two children serving with the
unit, Army Spec. Kirk Bausman and Army Spec. Erin
Bausman. Wescott, vice president of the Family
Readiness Group, was among those who signed the letter
to Rumsfeld, though she did not sign the petition.
While she wants her children to return home quickly,
she recognizes they have a job to fulfill.

"I’m as scared as hell as the next person," said
Wescott, a nurse whose uniform is adorned with American
flag pins. "I know these kids are in the National
Guard, and whoever expected this when they signed up.
They are military. We have a lot of soldiers over there
and everyone wants them home."

Others want their loved ones out, immediately.

Ramona Richter hasn’t seen her live-in boyfriend, Sgt.
Enzo DeCristafaro, since a Christmas leave.

"It’s hard to support something that has taken someone
you love away from you for so long," said Richter, 24,
a special-education teacher who lives in DeKalb.

Father-son journey delayed

Matt Holst, 23, keeps postponing the motorcycle trip he
plans to take with his father, Sgt. 1st Class Patrick
Holst, 49, a trucker.

Gathering petition signatures and trying to rally
support to bring the troops home gives him a purpose in
life as he waits for his dad.

"My dad has already sent half his stuff home, three
footlockers full of clothes," said Holst, a student at
Northern Illinois University.

Susan Bo-nesz, 32, a mortgage underwriter, canceled a
July vacation to Las Vegas she had planned to take with
her husband, Capt. Ronald Bonesz, who leads the unit.
She said she forfeited $1,488.37.

But she said she would gladly give that up and more to
see her husband reunited with their 2 1/2-year-old
daughter.

"They need a break, all of the Guard, all of the
soldiers," she said. "There are American soldiers all
over the world who would love to serve their country
like these soldiers. These soldiers are tired and
exhausted."

So are the family members.

Katie Reifsteck of Lanark, Ill., is a former member of
the National Guard unit married to Staff Sgt. Dan
Reifsteck, who is overseas.

She has experienced an eventful year that included the
birth of a daughter by emergency Caesarean section, a
car accident that injured her back, and a storm that
caved in the roof of her home.

An area veterans group paid for half the $3,000 bill to
rebuild the roof, she said. Family members have helped
her care for her children, Natalie, 7 months, and
Stephen, 2.

She said that when the news hit of the extended
deployment, her son "tore a picture of my husband up
and said, No more.'" Reifsteck said she was left "with a lump in my throat and a lump in my heart." The troops, themselves, are coping with the extended deployment. "Most of the soldiers are rightfully upset," said Capt. Bonesz, 32, in an e-mail correspondence with the Tribune. "After being told that soldiers would be in Iraq for only one year, any extension is a hard pill to swallow, but we will all get through this and we will complete our mission," he wrote. The unit--which was based south of Baghdad--trained its replacements and left them armored vehicles, radios and weapons systems, items that the Army worked to replace to make the troops "combat ready." Troops also left behind toiletries, water coolers, fans and DVD players for their replacements, according to family members, and have spent "in excess of $200" each to replace the items, Bonesz said.They are also human’

Bonesz said "it is easy to say that this is OK or the
soldier will get over [the disappointment of the
extended deployment], but until someone has had to go
through it, it is not the same. The soldiers here are
strong, but they are also human and have emotions."

He concluded his note by stating the soldiers are the
best he has worked with. "Deep down [they] know they
have a job to do," and whether they know it or not,
they "are making history."

"This company will get through this deployment and get
home to their loved ones," said Bonesz, an engineer.

Army Spec. Amy Popurella, said in an e-mail that there
was "anger and sadness" in the unit, adding that when
she left Iraq in the "rear-view mirror," she had a
feeling the experience "wasn’t over yet."

"I know people may think we sound like whiners but we
are real soldiers that have done our time and are ready
to go home," she wrote. "The government asked for 365
[days], we gave them 365, now please just let us go
home and get some rest. All of us know we will be back
here one day to do it again. But right now to win this
war they need fresh troops in, not tired ones."