April 15, 2003
Husker
Fight Song
Nebraska Guard unit on ground in Iraq
LINCOLN (AP) -
Members of a Nebraska Army National Guard unit have confirmed they are on the
ground in Iraq.
The Lincoln Journal Star reported the development in today's editions.
On Saturday night, Lincoln attorney and National Guard Capt. Chris Ferdico,
32, e-mailed pictures of his detachment of the Nebraska Army National Guard's
41st Rear Area Operations Center.
He is one of eight people with a red Husker flag in front of a larger-than-lifesize
photo of Saddam Hussein.
"I think we were the first soldiers from the Nebraska Army National Guard in
Iraq," Ferdico said in an e-mail sent last Tuesday to his fellow attorneys at
the Baylor, Evnen law firm.
Nebraska Guard officials have said they could not confirm, for security
reasons, the location of Ferdico's unit or any other Nebraska units deployed
to the Middle East, the newspaper reported. More than 2,000 Nebraska Guard and
Reserve members have been activated in recent months.
Forty soldiers from the unit, including Ferdico, spent six months in Macedonia
two years ago serving as a clearinghouse for U.S. troops and equipment headed
into Kosovo.
About 25 members of the unit were called to active duty in February, going
first to Fort Hood, Texas, before they were deployed overseas.
Ferdico said in his first-e-mail that he was with a small detachment from his
unit "that moved forward to help plan future ops, but things keep moving so
fast that we keep jumping and our unit hasn't caught up with us yet."
He also said he was hot and dirty and couldn't say where he was, "but things
are going well."