Nineteen-year-old Amanda Gino had just moved to Madison this January and started her first week of classes at UW-Madison when she received her call to active duty in the Army National Guard. Gino, a private first class, immediately withdrew from class and left ordinary student life behind as she embarked on almost two months of training to prepare to go overseas.
\I actually joined the military for college money, to be honest, but my views have changed since then--like I'm more patriotic now that I've gone through basic training,"" Gino said. ""Especially after Sept. 11 it felt like that, I just kind of want to go and fight. I'll do what I can to help other people.""
Gino, a petite brunette who punctuates her conversation with infectious, buoyant laughter, is one of 205 members of the Wisconsin Army National Guard 147th Aviation Battalion who shipped out from Madison Friday. As of March 19, 148,612 members of the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve had been called to active duty as part of the United States' effort in Iraq, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Like the other soldiers in her unit, Gino did not know exactly where she was headed Friday afternoon, but her demeanor suggested she was not worried about going off into the unknown.
""I'm kind of excited,"" she said, her brown eyes sparkling as she bit into red-white-and-blue frosted cake after the unit's send-off ceremony. ""I don't know how everybody else is, but I left my family a while ago. My family's all in Honolulu, and I'm not really having to say goodbye to them now.""
Although Gino's family could not come to see her off, more than a thousand of the unit members' family and friends crammed into a hangar to say goodbye to their loved ones at the Army National Guard Flight Facility, 1954 Pearson St., in Madison. After a ceremony attended by military brass and government leaders, the troops and their families and friends shared their last few minutes together, ate cake and took pictures against a gigantic American flag backdrop.
CW2 Heath Tomlin's parents came from Oshkosh to see him off. At home, Tomlin, a 32-year-old bachelor, worked at his parents' insurance business. He joined the Guard because he wanted to fly helicopters, and he now pilots UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for the army. Going overseas, he said, ""just comes along with the territory.""
""I've been over in Kuwait before, and I've talked to Iraqi people before, and they've told me themselves that this is a bad, bad man that has to be taken care of,"" Tomlin said.
His mother, like many of the other family members present, tried to keep a brave face as they said goodbye.
""Mom's holding it together the last couple of minutes here,"" Tomlin said.
His mother said she was ""very proud"" of him.
Pfc. Peter Flood's mother said the same thing of her 19-year-old son, who would have been a sophomore at UW-Madison this semester. Despite his youth, Flood, a tall, pale blond with a buzz cut, works as a mechanic on the Black Hawks. He twisted his army cap around in his hands as he talked about why he signed up for the service.
""Why'd I do it? I don't know, lots of reasons,"" he said. ""One, it helps pay for school. Another reason is I get to work with expensive machines and have fun with that. Another thing is I get to see parts of the world, I guess.""
Flood said he had a general idea of where he would be deployed. He has only been overseas once before, on a high school trip.
""I'm a little bit of everything, excited, nervous, apprehensive, I don't know, excited,"" he said. ""Everything kind of goes through at the same time, you know?""
Even more experienced soldiers said they were nervous about shipping out. Sgt. Brian Ziegler has been in the Guard for 15 years and spent four months in Kuwait last year.
He leaves behind his job at Spring's Window Fashions in Middleton. More importantly, he said, he leaves his wife, Laura, who is expecting their first child. Clad in a gray maternity shift, Laura Ziegler stood beside her husband and held her tears in check as she talked about coping while he was away.
""With a baby on the way, that's pretty much taking up my time,"" she said. ""That's at least going to help me get through it--that and work and family.""
As he prepared to leave his wife, Brian Ziegler said he was concerned about the situation, but he put it in perspective.
""I fly on the Black Hawks right now, so it's the same thing. It's just a different area you're fighting in,"" he said. ""It's no different than flying around Madison. It's just a little sandier.""
The troops and their families will not dwell on the fact that the troops are in harm's way. Gino, for one, shared Brian Ziegler's attitude and tried to put a brighter spin on the situation.
""I just think it will be a neat experience, you know?"" she said. ""It's probably not going to be fun but it will be a story to tell, a patch on my arm. I try to look at it that way.""
With war now underway in Iraq, many polls show that a majority of Americans now agree with and approve of the plans President Bush has implemented. However, many UW-Madison students have not changed their opinions and say they are still very much opposed to war in Iraq.
""I'm against it. I think it's really wrong,"" said UW-Madison freshman Jenny Griep. ""But Bush wanted it so I knew he was going to go ahead with it anyway.""
Griep touched on what seemed to be a common trend among students. Many said they strongly believe Bush had always planned to go to war and there wasn't anything the people could do to stop it.
""I think the protests we've seen have really not made a difference. I make this statement because of something Bush said about policy not being about focus groups, which he refers to the protesters as,"" said UW-Madison freshman Josh Moskowitz.
UW-Madison freshman Tony Bauer said he agrees that somewhere around 50 percent of Americans feel they cannot do anything about the situation.
Some students said they have strong opposition to war with Iraq because they cannot find justified reason for war, saying they do not believe it was the last resort in disarming Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein.
""The main negative point of war is that, if used, weapons of mass destruction can kill many and you have to ask, at what point is it enough?"" Bauer said.
Despite their opposition, many students said they feel a personal connection to the conflict with friends or family members on the battlefield.
""I feel bad so many kids our age are going to go fight for a war that isn't really just,"" said UW-Madison graduate student Tony Jones. ""I'm against this war because I don't think it was a last resort.""
However, these students made it abundantly clear that their opposition to war should not be mistaken for support for Hussein.
""I severely believe Saddam Hussein should be removed, but not by the means of war. However, now that they've started this way they better damn well follow through with it,"" said UW-Madison freshman Brennan Less.
While many remain steadfast in their opposition to war, others, like the current polls claim, have changed the way they feel about the war.
""At the onset I was against [the war] because I don't think Iraq poses an imminent threat to the security of our homeland,"" Moskowitz said. ""Now that the war is under way, as an American, I feel it's my duty to support
the troops.\
