Thursday, 4:30 PM
Bay State guard unit prepares to deploy to Iraq
By Claire Cummings, Globe Correspondent
They go to college, repair fiber optic cables, and construct buildings across Massachusetts.
Come September, they will sweep for explosives, defuse roadside bombs, and clear paths for combat troops in Iraq.
As the Massachusetts National Guard engineering company reported to its Newburyport armory Thursday to pack equipment for the one-year deployment, soldiers and relatives worried about the dangers ahead.
Magill Smith, whose 21-year-old son, Evan, signed up for the Guard last spring and completed basic training in December, said the next few days will be "heavy."
"I’m just feeling like I’m missing my son already, and he’s not gone," said Smith, 57, of Amesbury.
"I was surprised, especially since he is going to be deployed to Iraq before some of his buddies that went into the regular Army," she said. "It’s not a communications job. It’s not a computer tech job. It’s a very dangerous job."
Corporal Russell Saboo, 39, of Amesbury, has 17 years of military service in the Guard and Army. As a communications specialist, Saboo spent most of his service troubleshooting radio systems and phone lines.
Now, he will be disarming explosives.
"My biggest thing is I want to go there to do my job and get back home," said Saboo, who has a wife and three teenage sons. "It’s definitely going to be a new culture to learn."
About 110 members of the 182d Sapper Engineer Company, based in Newburyport, will hold a farewell ceremony Saturday and leave Sunday for 10 weeks of training in Fort McCoy, Wis., before heading to the Middle East in September.
