Belfast sergeant on his way to Persian Gulf for second tour of duty

FORT DRUM, N.Y. – One year ago, Army Sgt. Allen “Jay” Weaver rolled out with the 3rd Infantry Division spearhead that drove from Kuwait to Baghdad. Today, he is headed back to the Persian Gulf, preparing for a second push into Iraq, this time with the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion.

“It’s a different war now than it was then,” Weaver said last week. “We pretty much knew the enemy and took them on. There is no more Iraqi army, so now we’re going to have to be attuned to people in civilian clothes. There’s going to be a lot of judgment calls.”

There are a number of soldiers in the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion who have experienced combat in Vietnam or in the 1991 Gulf War. But Weaver, 25, of Belfast, is the only one to have participated in the early stages of this war in Iraq.

Weaver has already felt firsthand the sting of the desert dust, the terror of taking enemy fire and the joy of fresh water as it replenished a parched body.

The battles were swift and sudden, the endless tract of desert mind-numbing and monotonous, and the nightly explosions maddening.

Yet when mechanized forces of the 3rd Infantry Division crossed the Euphrates River and pushed forward to the outskirts of Saddam Hussein’s capital city on the banks of the Tigris River, Weaver encountered a vibrant green oasis that he found overwhelming.

“When I first saw Baghdad, it was very weird,” Weaver said. “We had been seeing only desert and rocks for weeks and suddenly it was all lush with farms and trees. I never expected to see anything like that. It was really quite beautiful.”

Weaver, the son of Belfast Police Chief Allen Weaver, joined the Army after his graduation from Belfast Area High School in 1997. He served with the military police in Korea and stateside.

When the Army was sent to Iraq, Weaver was assigned to the security team of Gen. Bill Webber, the 3rd Infantry Division’s assistant division commander.

After the battle was won, Weaver was shipped back to U.S. soil and was discharged in June.

He returned to Belfast, took a job with the Camden Police Department and became engaged to Gwen Russ, his hometown sweetheart. He also signed on with the National Guard. Still, he didn’t expect to go back to Iraq.

“I didn’t really like it too much because I had already done my thing,” Weaver said. “It’s going to be a long tour and I’d much rather be home. I admit I was a little disgruntled at first, but once you get back into the military mind-set and realize you have a duty to do, you do it.”

Weaver said that whenever his buddies ask him for advice, he tells them to train hard, pay strict attention to what’s going on around them, avoid distractions, and always expect the unexpected.

“You’ve just got to keep your head about you,” he said. “Everybody has bad days but you just can’t go out there thinking about your problems or worrying about some phone call from home. You’ve got to keep your head up, keep your mind on the job, maintain security and watch your buddies’ backs.”