For the last Iraq-bound National Guard unit to leave New Jersey, Wednesday was a long day that began with tears and goodbye kisses by dawn's early light in Teaneck and ended at a dusty Army training base in the New Mexico desert.
But no sooner had Foxtrot Company left the Garden State than the reality of war struck home: Two New Jersey soldiers had been killed in Iraq.
The events were unrelated - Foxtrot's departure from its home at the Teaneck Armory and
the deaths of Army Reserve Maj. Dwayne M. Kelley of South Orange and Capt. Gregory T. Dalessio of Cherry Hill. And yet, they were emotionally connected, too, in the way soldiers and their families are always linked by the wounds of war.
Back in Teaneck, at the armory's Family Readiness Center, phones began to ring Wednesday afternoon with calls from worried relatives as the news spread that two Army officers from New Jersey had been lost.
"We had 68 calls in only a few hours," said Sgt. Minnie Hiller-Cousins, a grandmother and school guidance counselor who served in Iraq in 2004 and now advises families. "People are worried."
Meanwhile, for much of the day, Foxtrot's 130 soldiers had no idea that New Jersey's casualty list had grown by two. By the time news of the deaths in Iraq spread, Foxtrot's plane had left McGuire Air Force Base in central New Jersey and was on the way to Fort Bliss, Texas, to join nearly 3,000 other New Jersey Guard soldiers for desert training before deploying to Iraq in September.
'The worst news'
But the paradox of Foxtrot's departure on the day the Pentagon confirmed the deaths of Kelley and Dalessio was hard to ignore, especially among families who had said goodbye only hours before to soldiers.
Kelley, who was also a state police detective sergeant, perished with three other Americans in a Sadr City bomb blast. Dalessio, a member of the Army's 1st Armored Division, based in Germany, died from gunshot wounds suffered in the Iraqi town of Salman Pak.
"It numbs you," said Jovannie Villabol of Teaneck, president of the Teaneck Family Readiness Center.
"We were still dealing with the emotions of the morning after the soldiers left," added Villabol, whose husband, Joseph, suffered nerve damage while serving in Iraq several years ago. "To have this happen was the worst news."
Foxtrot's soldiers gathered at the cavernous Teaneck Armory early Wednesday. After roll call, they filed downstairs to the basement weapons room and were issued M-4 carbines and 9mm pistols.
"The day is here," Foxtrot's commander, Capt. James Egan of Glen Rock, told the troops as they stood at attention and several dozen relatives watched from bleachers.
"I know it's a tough time," Egan said, glancing up at the family members. "Everyone's going to come home. We'll be fine."
Such hopefulness contrasted with many soldiers' sense of danger ahead, though.
Just before he left his parents' Glen Rock home, Egan's father, Tom, a Vietnam veteran, gave his son a silver crucifix medallion that he had worn for years. Egan plans to wear it around his neck with his dog tags. Egan also packed a book: "Arabic for Dummies."
Meanwhile, Sgt. Felipe Diaz, a Paterson police officer in his civilian career, left two video recordings for his young son.
"The good tape and the bad tape," Diaz explained. "The good tape has birthday and Christmas wishes - all the events I won't be home for. The bad tape is a message in case I don't come home."
Before roll call, Sgt. Brenda Alston of Paterson hugged her husband, Sam.
"The hardest part will be every night when I go to sleep and she is not there," Sam Alston said.
Alston, 43, a mother of five and grandmother of three, left the morning of her youngest daughter's graduation from Eastside High School in Paterson.
"I just told her I love her and wished her good luck," Alston said of Starniquasia. "I wish I could be there. But I can't control everything."
The Foxtrot soldiers arrived in Texas at 1:30 p.m. New Jersey time and were met by a welcoming party from the 5th Armored Brigade, the Army unit responsible for training Guard and Reserve units. The soldiers then boarded a bus to Camp McGregor, a sprawling 700,000-acre training center in Cloudcroft, N.M., that is part of Fort Bliss.
"It's a little hot," Sgt. Dennis O'Brien of Hamburg said Wednesday night as he stood in a food line. June temperatures at Fort Bliss average 95 degrees.
The soldiers will undergo two days of processing at Camp McGregor, then 10 weeks of intensive exercises, including urban combat training. Camp McGregor simulates the Iraqi landscape, with mock cities that include mosque facades.
O'Brien said the mood among the soldiers was "pretty good … people are talking on cellphones."
Foxtrot is trained as a support company - meaning that its soldiers assist combat units in a variety of tasks, from running chemical detection machines to repairing trucks. But along with other soldiers of New Jersey's 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Foxtrot has been told its primary mission in Iraq will be to help guard prisoners.
The brigade's assignment to Iraq is the largest overseas deployment of New Jersey National Guard units since World War II.
'I left him sleeping'
Such history was on the minds of many of Foxtrot's soldiers. But as they departed, their personal family histories dominated their thoughts.
"I feel like I didn't do enough to say goodbye," said Spec. Marlene Martinez of Ridgefield, who gave birth to her son, Josiah, six months ago.
"I left him sleeping," Martinez said of her baby, who will be cared for by her mother. "I didn't want to wake him."
"What's going through my mind?" said 54-year-old Sgt. Dennis O'Brien. "I'm thinking that I'm leaving my girlfriend behind. And I'm leaving my parents, too."
After checking weapons and eating breakfast, Foxtrot's troops lined up again. Then, after several throaty Army "hooah" cheers and the snap-click of rifle bolts in a final safety check, the troops walked through a side door to waiting buses.
At that point, a young girl ran to her father, hugged him once again and sobbed softly.
"Don't worry. Don't worry," the girl's father said over and over.
Later, as the three chartered buses slowly pulled out of the armory parking lot for the 90-minute drive to McGuire Air Force Base, relatives and friends rushed forward, pressing their hands to the bus windows to offer one last goodbye.
Handshakes, advice
At McGuire, Foxtrot's soldiers received yet another goodbye - from more than two dozen senior National Guard officers who lined the runway and greeted each soldier with a hug, a handshake and a few words of encouragement.
The last officer to greet each soldier was Maj. Gen. Glenn Rieth, the overall commander of New Jersey's Army and Air Force Guard units.
"Be safe," Rieth said again and again, as the soldiers shuffled past in single file, their rifles slung over their shoulders with lumpy backpacks.
"It makes me proud that N.J.'s National Guard is a major force protector," Rieth said beforehand. "But I certainly feel the emotions here today, as a husband and a father. All of these soldiers are somebody's father or mother or son or daughter."
Staff Writer Justo Bautista contributed to this article. E-mail: kellym@northjersey.com
