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Guard Soldiers Get Their Footlockers
Articles Spur Action

By DAVID GREENE

After a delay of over a month, nearly 200 footlockers belonging to Bronx soldiers based out of the Kingsbridge Armory arrived at the Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq on May 14.

After the Norwood News reported on April 21 that the footlockers were stuck at Ft. Benning in Georgia, local members of Congress wrote to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Commanders at the base subsequently felt the heat and took action.

“My general got really energized behind the guys at Ft. Benning to get the footlockers shipped out,” according to Lt. Colonel Richard Steele, who contacted the Norwood News after reading previous reports on the paper’s Web site. The lockers contained personal belongings as well as National Guard equipment.

Explaining the snafu, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Riera, the Garrison Commander of Ft. Benning, said that commanders in the field were operating under a “change in instructions,” where members of the 145th Maintenance Company were directed to use equipment from another unit rotating out of Iraq.

But once the order came down to find the soldiers’ footlockers, it took some time to locate them on the huge military base. “The challenge is getting the stuff to them,” Riera said. “And going back and forth [with the units in Kuwait and then Iraq], it took a while to identify what property we were talking about.” The footlockers were stored in giant 20-foot containers at Ft. Benning, which processed 4,500 troops for Operation Enduring Freedom.

Though one member who asked not to be identified said he and his fellow soldiers had been frustrated by the situation, he added via e-mail, “We’re just glad we got our stuff and thank everyone back home for their support.”

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