Sergeant John Middlemas, of the Montana Army National Guard, remembers vividly the experience of being caught in the blast from an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Iraq’s Kirkuk province in 2005.
“Getting hit with an IED is something you never forget,” Middlemas, 27, said. “It was scary as all get-out.”
When he was younger, Middlemas was in a car accident where the Ford Escort he was riding in collided with an 18-wheeler. Getting hit by an IED, he said, “was kind of like that.”
Smoke, rocks and a heat wave instantly emanated from the explosion. Though Middlemas, riding in an armored Humvee, suffered only minor injuries, when he returned to Forward Operating Base McHenry, medics checked his torso thoroughly for internal damage possible from the compression the body undergoes due to the force of the blast.
“Pretty much everything hurts,” he said, though within a few days he was back on patrol.
Middlemas, along with Staff Sgt. Allen Hunt, are members of the 1-163rd Cavalry Regiment, Detachment 1, Company B, and work out of the Armed Forces Reserve Center north of Kalispell as active guard reserve. The two full-time members of the unit, they organize and oversee training, logistics and support for the 25 Kalispell-area Guard members in the 1-163rd.
At the end of April, the regiment’s more than 500 troops from cities all over Montana received deployment orders for the fall, “in support of the overseas contingency operations.” According to Lt. Col. Don Emerson, batallion commander for 1-163rd, the mission will be, “to provide convoy security for military and contractor convoys throughout the country of Iraq.”
“The expectation right now is southern Iraq,” Emerson, reached this week while participating in war exercises in Idaho, said. “The 1-163rd has been on a very aggressive training program for the last year building up to deployment.”
The soldiers will head to Camp Shelby, Miss., in late September before deploying overseas. With the upcoming deployment, approximately 1,000 Montana Army National Guard troops are planned to be in Iraq or Afghanistan, the largest number since 2005. On Saturday in Kalispell, the 80 members of the 639th Combat Sustainment Support Company were honored for their service after returning in January from a year-long tour in Iraq doing resupply work, fueling and transportation.
The Helena-based Company E of the 145th Forward Support Battalion is also being mobilized. Both will be attached to the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team of the Idaho Army National Guard.
Hunt and Middlemas wear on their uniforms patches representing the 116th, which was formed in 1922, featuring a snake representing Idaho’s Snake River and a sunset to signify the West. The 1-163rd is a combined arms battalion, with infantry, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and tanks.
“It’s a different mission from what they did in ‘04-’05 in that the focus is on convoy security and acting as gun truck squads, as opposed to dismounted patrolling and counterinsurgency operations,” Emerson said.
Hunt said recent training exercises at Fort Harrison in Helena have included convoy security, preparing the Guardsmen to detect, “things out of the ordinary” while traveling.
“If you see an IED in the road, there are certain ways you are supposed to react to it, and how to handle it and report it,” Hunt added.
For Hunt, 34, this will be his third deployment since joining the Montana Army National Guard in 1999, and all have been with the 1-163rd. He was the squad leader for Middlemas in Kirkuk in 2005. Prior to that, Hunt deployed to Bosnia in 2002 to conduct security and stability operations following the conflict there, which he described as a relatively peaceful mission.
“You’re trying to help and provide support for a rebuilding community,” Hunt said. But the deployment to Iraq as the conflict escalated there was a different story, with insurgents shooting at them regularly, mortar attacks on their base and IEDs turning up on a near daily basis.
Despite the combat, Middlemas speaks positively of the overall deployment.
“I feel like I have a much better perception than I did before about how the rest of the world operates,” Middlemas said. “It’s definitely made me a better soldier, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
Back in Montana, he sometimes finds it difficult to describe the experience of serving in Iraq during that period when the subject arises in conversation.
“People can’t really conceptualize what it is like to be driving down the highway and have that knowledge that you could be going up in smoke at any moment,” Middlemas said. “That’s really hard for people to wrap their minds around.”
But his favorite memory from that time was providing security in Kirkuk for the mostly successful – and peaceful – legislative elections held at the end of that year.
“People said it would be violent, and then just to see none of that happened,” Middlemas said, recalling the sight of, “people walking 10 miles into town in their Sunday best just to vote.”
“I tell that story any time somebody tells me that they’re not registered to vote,” he added.
As he begins to prepare for another deployment, Middlemas feels mostly positive, though he acknowledges heading overseas has its drawbacks, like not seeing his girlfriend.
“My private life gets put on hold for a year,” Middlemas said. “Everything gets put on ‘pause’ for me, while everybody else’s life keeps moving.”
“My perspective on my life when I get back could be re-shaped by what happens in this current deployment,” he added.
His family, in Townsend, is concerned for his safety, though Middlesmas doesn’t think the upcoming deployment will be as hard on his mother as his first tour was.
“My mother is a lot more laid back than she used to be,” Middlemas said. “She knows a little bit more what to expect.”
Hunt is married with two children, ages 9 and three months, so his family is currently figuring out how to arrange childcare during his deployment. Over the last several years, the National Guard has expanded services for families of deployed soldiers, like the Family Readiness Group, which offers assistance with finances, insurance and other needs.
Emerson believes most soldiers in the 1-163rd are broadly positive about the upcoming deployment, a fact of life that is not unexpected for those serving in the Guard.
“Most of them understand when they join nowadays that deployment is definitely a possibility,” Emerson said. “Although nobody likes to leave their family and their employer for a year, I think the general consensus is they’re looking forward to getting over there, executing the mission and coming home.”
Not only are Hunt and Middlemas preparing their own families, but they are focused on ensuring the 25 Guardsmen in their unit and their families are ready. Those preparations can range from making sure a soldier who needs his wisdom teeth removed before heading overseas does so, to weapons training.
Last week, Middlemas and Hunt were readying equipment for individual weapons qualifications, ensuring every Guardsman has the appropriate skills with pistols, machine guns and grenade launchers.
“Our job is still to take care of these guys and support them in everything they do,” Hunt said. “Our focus is to make sure that everyone we deploy with is ready.”