Mass. Guard unit mobilizes for Iraq

Mass. Guard unit mobilizes for Iraq
Boston Globe - United States
Friends, family say goodbye to 101st Engineer Battalion

By Nandini Jayakrishna
Globe Correspondent / June 14, 2009

Waving flags and holding red and blue balloons, proud friends and family members bade farewell yesterday to a Massachusetts National Guard unit preparing for deployment to Iraq.

"It's exciting to be part of history," Captain Paul A. Barnett, 38, a chaplain in the 101st Engineer Battalion, said before the unit's send-off ceremony on a dock at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

"We are doing something not only for our generation but for the generations to come, and not only for our country but for the world."

With the USS Constitution, the Navy's storied frigate, as a backdrop, Major General Joseph C. Carter, the Guard's adjutant general, told the 180 soldiers to continue their battalion's legacy of devotion and sacrifice.

"Always place the mission first," he said. "Never accept defeat. Never surrender. And never, never, never leave an American serviceman behind."

One of the oldest units in the Army, the 101st has fought in six major conflicts, from the Revolution to the current war on terrorism. Eight of its soldiers have received the Medal of Honor, the country's highest military decoration.click link for more