Area military personnel spanned globe since 9-11
Chattanoogans have seen action on the battlefields of Afghanistan, on carriers at sea and in various U.S. posts in support of other military operations in the year since the terrorist attacks.
“I think there is a confidence in the Army today that we can handle any mission that arises,” said 1st Lt. Andrew Exum, a Chattanooga native who is a member of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and is stationed in Fort Drum, N.Y. “Afghanistan was supposed to be impossible, and we handled that pretty well. I think the really difficult part comes after the shooting stops and nation-building begins.”
Lt. Exum led 34 regular infantrymen during five months of training and protection in Kuwait and then during Operation Anaconda in March in the Shah-e-Kot Valley, southeast of Gardiz, Afghanistan.
The McCallie School and University of Pennsylvania graduate said that while the military did its job in Afghanistan, it is tough to tell if terrorism has been conquered in the country.
“We found and destroyed the bad guys, so to speak, where we were told we might find them,’’ Lt. Exum said. But the level of success is “for the CIA and Department of State to decide.’’
Others like Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Matt Anderson, a Ringgold High School graduate, were forced to stay at sea for a thenrecord 116 days aboard the USS Carl Vinson when the terrorist attacks occurred.
Jets launched from his aircraft carrier dropped the first bombs on Afghanistan, he said. Eventually, the F-14 squadron to which he is attached dropped the majority of bombs, about 500,000 pounds, on the country, he said.
Mr. Anderson said he and his fellow sailors were nervous “all the time” during early weeks of the war. They worked as much as 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and were “very seldom” bored.
The Rev. Michael Shellman, who received his master’s degree in divinity at Temple Baptist Seminary and now is pictured on the school’s billboards around the Chattanooga area, returned home from a stint in July as a chaplain in Afghanistan.
Stationed at Fort Campbell, his unit, like Lt. Exum’s, was in the midst of Operation Anaconda, a 17-day operation in the mountains of the country, according to his wife, Cheryl Shellman.
“It’s dangerous, but at the same time there is such a need,” Mrs. Shellman said. “There is a lot of opportunity to meet the spiritual needs for the soldiers.”
Back in the United States, 76 Army Reserve members from the 3397th U.S. Army Garrison in Chattanooga were deployed to Fort Campbell, Ky., according to Col. Rick Haney. Of those, he said, a couple have come back on medical leave, 19 will come home this month or next and the rest will be on duty for another year. They have been assigned as military police and attached to the base emergency operations center. Among those still on full-time duty, from four to six have gone back into the regular Army, Col. Haney said.
The Naval Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway has had 18 members mobilized, according to Cmdr. Jim Price. They were sent to relieve those called up from various bases and to augment base security, he said. About half have returned, he said. The local Reserves have served in New Orleans; Charleston, S.C.; Mississippi; Pax River, Md.; Camp Pendleton, Calif.; and Guam, Commander Price said.
The 241st Engineering and Installation Squadron of the Tennessee Air National Guard at Lovell Field has seen 13 members mobilized and sent to Southwest Asia, according to Lt. Col. Wayne Bale, commander. Of those, seven still are there, he said. The members were mobilized to put in and maintain communications systems on bases, Lt. Col. Bale said. He said the Lovell Field unit is one of 19 in the Air Guard who handle that specific mission and that more mobilizations are likely after the first of the year.
Nine of the 10 members of the Coast Guard Reserve unit stationed on the cutter Ouachita on Chickamauga Lake have been deployed since Sept. 11, according to Senior Chief Petty Officer Max Evans. They were assigned to security duties at the Port of New Orleans and elsewhere in the New Orleans area as part of homeland security. Four have returned, he said.
No Marines from the Marine Corps Reserve Training Center have been deployed in the year since the terrorist attacks, but “we’re hoping,” a center spokesman said.