SU students prepare to fight in Operation Enduring Freedom

As the threat of war with Iraq seems more inevitable each day, Southern University students enlisted in the armed services are preparing for deployment to the Middle East.
According to Velena Johnson, the Veteran’s Affairs Coordinator for SU, approximately 80 students are active members of either the Army Reserves or the Louisiana National Guard. Eighteen have withdrawn this semester.
“Some students were just notified on January 22 about their deployment overseas,” said Johnson.
“My deployment to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba set me behind,” said Specialist Deion Dorsett, a junior and combat medic from Shreveport. “My unit is back on the redeployment list, so we may be redeployed as early as April, this time to serve in the Persian Gulf.”
The soldiers deployed from Southern are joining the ranks of some 60,000 soldiers already in the Persian Gulf area, and the increase in ground forces is what officials termed an important step in the military buildup in the Persian Gulf.
Despite the fact that the academic career of Southern University’s soldiers may be put on hold, some feel that preparation for war is critical.
“Competence is crucial to the mission,” says Damien Moore, a junior and noncommissioned officer in the Army Reserves from Dallas. “I agree that preparing for war is key. Of course it would prolong my plans to receive a degree, but it is necessary for the U.S. to be cautious against Iraq.”
According to a recent news poll, most Americans are in favor of using nuclear weapons against Iraq if Saddam attacks US military forces with chemical or biological weapons in a war that the public perceives as practically inevitable.
” The United States is the dominant power of all countries and Iraq needs to recognize that. Going to war for my country is the highlight of any military career that is what I’ve been training for,” said Moore.
His patriotic enthusiasm for serving the country is shared by another SU soldier.
“I was trained to kill, so I’m ready,” says Corporal Philip Mothershed, an electronics engineering student of the Weapons Company 3rd Battalion 23rd Marines in Baton Rouge.
According to the Washington Post, the United States plans to deploy approximately 100,000 soldiers to prepare for a possible war against Iraq. This will include three to four heavy army divisions, an airborne division, a marine division and special operations forces.
US soldiers have been progressively receiving activation orders in support of Operation Enduring Freedom after the Bush Administration made claims that Iraq violated Security Council resolutions of the United Nations by intending to build nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction.