UNL
student
reserves
move out
----
Clockwise from right: A morning sun
silhouettes a soldier as he carries out
everything he’ll need for active duty.
Although the 1012th General Supply
company was issued hot climate anti
lip chap medicine, the unit hasn’t been
notified of their destiny after training at
Fort Riley, Kan.
About 150 1012th reservists stand at
attention for the last time before leav
ing for Fort Riley.
SP.4 Randy Dye checks to see if his
new protective mask will seal properly
before loading Saturday.
Photos by Al Schaben
m
By Alan Phelps
Staff Reporter_
Fremont—“What is our
goal? To win the war,” read
the blackboard inside the
room where members of the
1012th General Supply Company
of the Army Reserves readied their
equipment and themselves for
active duty at Fort Riley, Kan., and
the Middle East.
“I don’t know if it’s hit us yet. It
probably will as soon as we get to
Riley,” said Gary Tichota, a UNL
sophomore criminal justice major
and member of the 1012th. Tichota
is one of 15 to 20 University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln students in the
Fremont-based company that left
Sunday for Fort Riley.
Reservists of the 1012th began
their work Thursday morning at the
Army Reserve Center in Fremont.
The mission of a supply company
such as the 1012th is to coordinate
supplies such as food, laundry and
petroleum from behind the front
line. The 150 members of the
1012th arc capable of managing
supplies for as many as 100,000
front-line troops.
Preparations were made in a re
laxed atmosphere amid camou
flaged trucks and stacks of duffel
bags. Pamphlets about Saudi
Arabian customs, religion and
weather lay on a la^ near the
blackboard along wm an Army
produced packet with information
about the Arabian peninsula,
including “helpful phrases in Ara
bic.”
“We are in the U.S. Army right
now — not the Reserve. It’s a very
big change,” said Brian Terry, a
junior majoring in business man
agement. “It’s a real situation. It
won’t be fake rounds anymore.”
The UNL students arc among
350 Nebraska Army reservists who
reported for duty Thursday to pack
up and move out to Fort Riley.
They will receive retraining,
immunizations and desert gear in
preparation for transport to some
where in the Middle East in the next
four to six weeks.
“Nobody knows anything defi
nite. At Fort Riley, we’ll find out,”
Terry said.
“Everybody’s thinking of the
i unknown,” Tichota said. “We’ll be
active for a minimum of 90 days.
We’re thinking around six months,
but nobody knows.”
“What we do know is that we
don’t have to wail,” said John
Villwok, a junior majoring in
criminal justice. “All the stress is
over. That was the worst. It affected
grades.”Villwok said the day before
he was called in, he wrote an
English paper about the stress he
was under from not knowing if his
unit would be activated.
“I guess God heard me,” he said.
The three reservists agreed that
the biggest drawbacks about the
call-up were delaying school and
leaving family and friends.
“The hardest part is leaving my
family and girlfriend,” Tichota said.
“The goodbyes were emotional.”
“Right now, it looks like we
won’t be with our families for
Thanksgiving and Chrisunas,”
Villwok said. “That will be kind of
hard.”
Terry said, “When something
like this happens, you find out how
many friends you have. Every
body’s been really supportive.”
“The town’s been great,” Villwok
said.
Many of the troops had taken up
a Fremont hair salon on an offer of
free haircuts for reservists in the
1012th. A local bar planned to give
discounts on beer to members of the
company before they shipped out.
As the unit wailed for a forma
tion to be called, reservists joked
with one another and speculated on
what life would be like in “Saudi.”
“Our unit w ill stay together. The
friendships we have here help,”
Villwok said.
“It won’t be studying and hitting
Nebraska football games on the
weekends,” he said.
However, he said, he was excited
logo.
“It doesn't bother me. It beats
the hell out of a three-hour lab.
“I’m only 21.1 have a lot of life
left. Some of these guys have wives
or kids. That would be bad. But I
guess we’re all in the same Army.”
The other reservists seemed to
share Villwok’s enthusiasm.
“We’re trained and we’re ready,”
Terry said. “Everybody knew it was
coming.”
“I kind of wish 1 knew how long
we would be gone so we could have
something to look forward to,” Ti
chota said. “I’m not scared about
leaving. We’re trained for this.
“Wailing here is tough. As soon
as we can get there and do our jobs,
it will be better.”
Tichota said if he had a choice,
though, he’d rather stay.
“It’s a big change in life,” he
said. “I'm anticipating things will
start to get tense over there.”