About 175 Nevadans set to be deployed

Jace Radke

Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004 | 9:35 a.m.

About 175 Nevada Army National Guard soldiers were saying goodbye to their loved ones this morning as they embarked on an 18-month deployment to Iraq and Kuwait.

The members of the 1864th Transportation Co. were to board planes at McCarran International Airport today to fly to Fort Lewis, Wash., where they will await orders that will send them to the Middle East.

Among the soldiers set to leave was Marco Irenze, a 30-year-old sergeant, who is being deployed with his brother, Massimo, a 25-year-old sergeant.

Marco Irenze is a Transportation Safety Administration supervisor at McCarran, and will leave his wife and three sons, ages 17, 7 and 6 at home.

"We're ready to rock 'n' roll," Marco Irenze said Wednesday as he finished packing. "We're going to say goodbye to our families and and then we'll be on our way.

"I'm confident that my family will be all right while I'm gone and we can concentrate on our mission."

Some families were expected to see the soldiers off this morning at the Henderson Armory.

The 1864th is hauls water, ammunition and supplies via tractor-trailers through the deserts of Iraq and Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The unit's trucks will be either flow or shipped to the Middle East, Nevada Army Guard spokeswoman 1st Lt. April Conway said.

While the majority of the soldiers with the 1864th are from Las Vegas and Henderson, as many as 60 of the soldiers heading overseas with the unit hail from Reno, Winnemucca and Elko.

The soldiers will be in Fort Lewis anywhere from two weeks to three months before moving on to the Middle East, Conway said.

Tonight about 600 soldiers with the Las Vegas-based 221st Cavalry Squadron will participate in a farewell ceremony as they prepare for an 18-month deployment to Fort Irwin, Calif. The unit specializes in driving M1A1 Abrams tanks and will take over the mission of acting as opposing forces in training for the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which has been called to duty overseas.

With the two deployments, more than half of Nevada's Army National Guard soldiers will be mobilized, ranking Nevada as one of the states with the highest percentage of mobilized troops.

Statewide there are about 2,000 Army Guardsmen, and now there are more than 1,025 soldiers mobilized.