Mystery shrouds war preparation

The uniformed men and women began streaming into Bangor from all over Maine on Thursday, the citizen soldiers gearing up for a war that remains as mysterious to them as it is to the rest us.

More than 300 members of the Army National Guard’s 112th Medical Company and 1136th Transportation Company assembled at the Armed Forces Reserve Center and the Bangor Armory to begin the hurried preparation for their mobilization and possible deployment overseas.

Standing in long lines, bundles of paperwork in hand, some of the Guardsmen seemed exhilarated by this abrupt shift in their everyday lives and where it all might lead them in the coming weeks. Others looked anxious and forlorn as they grappled with the uncertainty of having to leave their husbands, wives, children and jobs for a mission that raised questions no one has yet been able to answer.

If war truly is inevitable, when will the invasion begin and where will they be sent? When will they see their loved ones again? In a few weeks, a few months, or not for a year or more?

The soldiers shuffled from line to line to get their dog tags, to have their medical and payroll records checked, and to make sure their wills were in order. The Rev. Ray Dupere manned one of the 25 processing stations all day Thursday and well into the night. As the senior chaplain for the Maine National Guard, his primary job was to ask the soldiers about their spouses and children and whether there were problems at home they needed to talk about.

“I saw emotions that were all over the map,” said Dupere, pastor of the Church of the Open Door in Hampden. “One guy might be just raring to go, knowing this was what he was meant to do. But others were miserable about the whole thing and how it had all happened so fast. The crunch of finding out you have four days to process and then you’re gone doesn’t give families much time to get used to the idea.”

Several of the soldiers rushed to get married. There were three weddings on Tuesday and Wednesday, three on Thursday, three more on Friday, and at least one planned for the weekend.

“The soldiers wanted to make sure their fiancees would have the benefits and privileges that military spouses get,” Dupere said. “Then there are the soldiers who, while they don’t like to think of it, wanted to make sure that if the worst happened their widows would get the proper financial support.”

One of the more dispiriting parts of the process, Dupere said, was trying to console distraught soldiers who had problems at home that they should have resolved long before the alert was issued. Some had sickly spouses and felt terrible about leaving them for an extended period. There were single parents who had not made arrangements for the care of their teenage children.

“They’ve had months to consider the possibilities, the what-ifs, but they didn’t,” Dupere said. “Now that they’re being shipped out, it’s a little bit too late. That was anguishing for me.”

While the mood of the Guardsmen was positive, for the most part, Dupere said even the veterans were troubled about marching into such an uncertain future.

“In talking with people who had been through Desert Storm and Bosnia, it was apparent that they all saw this new situation as entirely different,” he said. “In Desert Storm, they knew their job was to go in and drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait. The scenario had been laid out for months, and there was news every day about what was supposed to happen. This time, they don’t see any of that. All they know is that there is going to be a war, and they’ll be part of it. The rest is a complete mystery, a lot of questions just floating around.”