Previous Story
Babauta planning Iraq trip next month
|
Posted on Jan 24 2005
Re-electionist Gov. Juan N. Babauta plans to fly to war-stricken Iraq next month to visit deployed CNMI troops.
Babauta, who just got back from a U.S. trip, which included a meeting with the reservists in Fort Polk, Louisiana last week, said that he, together with Guam Gov. Felix Camacho and possibly Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, may be allowed to join a military trip to Iraq a few weeks from now.
“We’re just waiting for the go-signal. We’re hoping to leave next month. I promised the guys I’d go to Iraq,” said Babauta.
He said another governor from the Pacific and maybe a congressional representative from Guam or Hawaii would be welcomed to join the Iraq trip.
Babauta said the CNMI reservists’ training at Fort Polk went “outstandingly well.”
“The commanding officer and I spoke and he told me that our men did outstandingly well during the training. I heard praises for our reservists,” the governor said.
He said the 100th battalion that included the 80-plus CNMI reservists trained at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk.
“They trained in a best combat training center in the nation,” he said.
JRTC, which began operations in Louisiana in 1993, uses a training program that heavily integrates Air Force and other military service personnel, as well as host-nation and civilian personnel to make the course “uniquely realistic.”
While at the center, the reservists trained with contingency and special operations soldiers—including paratroopers, air assault soldiers, Special Forces and Rangers—who are among the first to be called in a military crisis.
Reservists were reportedly trained to operate heavy armored units equipped with tanks and armored personnel carriers.
They are expected to be deployed to Iraq before the end of the month.
Fort Polk was established in 1941 and was named in honor of the Rev. Leonidas Polk, the first Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana and a Confederate general.
