
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 15, 1991                   TAG: 9103150585
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GALAX UNIT ISN'T EXPECTED SOON

The "first in, first out" policy for sending home U.S. military personnel from the Middle East probably will not apply to the Galax-based 424th Transportation Company, one of its former members said Thursday.

Much equipment was taken to the Persian Gulf by the 424th and other transportation units and "they've got to haul it all out," said Emmett Bowers, who retired from the Galax Reserve unit Aug. 1, one day before Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Bowers, who spent 12 years in the Army and 10 more in the Reserve, said no one really knows how soon the 424th can be sent home. He said he is trying to get information on that for families of some of its members.

The former commander of the 7th Transportation Group, based at Fort Eustis, has said roughly the same thing.

"The transportation folks will be there until the job is complete," said Lt. Col. Thomas C. Brown Jr., who was commander of the group when the Army began sending its personnel to Saudi Arabia.

The Army unit from Fort Eustis and Fort Story in Virginia Beach had up to 3,000 people in the Persian Gulf region. Up to 60 percent of them are still there.

Thirty members of the 7th Transportation Group were the first to be deployed. They planned the elaborate transportation network that was used for the buildup of U.S. forces in the region.

"We cut on the light, and we'll cut it out," said Lt. Col. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., commander of the 11th Transportation Battalion at Fort Story.

Kennedy called the effort to move equipment and personnel the thousands of miles from the United States to the Middle East "the Super Bowl of transportation. Everything had to be brought in. We moved what they were going to eat, drink and fire."

"We moved more personnel and equipment in a shorter period of time than has ever been done in history," said Brown, now commander of Fort Story.

Now, he said, "what they are doing is preparing to do everything in reverse."

Some members of the group may not be home in time for the big homecoming celebrations of July 4. "We know we are among the first, and we are fairly certain that we will be among the last pulling out of there, " Brown said.

by CNB