210th in Kuwait, awaits orders

By Rose Hooper

"They are gone."

Carolee Nisbet with the Office of Public Affairs at Fort Dix, N.J., confirmed the N.C. National Guard's 210th Military Police, which has a base in Webster, left the United States last Thursday, June 5.

"I can't say where they have gone," said Nisbet, "only that it is in support of Operation Enduring Freedom."

Further confirmation of the local unit's departure came from Andrew Sleeth with the N.C. National Guard's Office of Public Affairs in Raleigh.

"The 210th doesn't fall under our jurisdiction as of last Friday," Sleeth told the Herald Monday (June 9). "They are with active Army now."

While military officials won't confirm the unit's whereabouts, family members in Jackson County said they have received phone calls during the past few days from Kuwait City.

"My daughter Melissa called me at 2 a.m. yesterday," Julie Townsend said Tuesday. "She said they left Fort Dix at midnight Friday, took an 18-hour commercial flight and arrived in Kuwait City.

"Melissa said there were 275 soldiers on the flight, so the 211th must be with them," Townsend said of the Clyde-based unit.

The word family members hear from the phone calls is that the 210th expects to remain in Kuwait City at least two weeks. Then it might be on to Baghdad for these military police charged with guarding prisoners of war, they say.

The 210th's gear left on a ship from Charleston, S.C., May 16, said Laurie Bryson, whose husband, Brian, a staff sergeant, called home then to say, "It will take three weeks to get there; I expect that's when we'll get our move."

According to the unit's mobilization papers, which were received in March, these former "Weekend Warriors" could be deployed for up to a year.

Back to Archive: 06/12/03.