State soldiers ready for mission

FORT WAYNE -- Hundreds of Indiana National Guardsmen called to active duty in the war on terrorism were saying farewell to their families, while hundreds more were wondering when their turn would come.\n"Part of me is excited because this is what I train for," Lt. Col. Ivan Denton told members of a Fort-Wayne based unit called to active duty this week. "I'm also married and have three kids. I'm not excited about leaving them."\nAbout 600 soldiers in the 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry Regiment reported to Camp Atterbury in south-central Indiana on Monday. They were to spend the next two weeks training at the 33,000-acre base and move on to Fort Knox, Ky., after Thanksgiving.\nTheir orders did not say where they wo uld be sent from there. The soldiers have been assigned to both Operation Noble Eagle -- the homeland defense effort that began after the Sept. 11 attacks -- and Operation Enduring Freedom, the war against terrorism that began last year in Afghanistan.\nThat left Guardsmen and their loved ones wondering when they would see each other again.\n"I'm just, like, numb," said Angel Brownlee, whose husband, Dameion, is a private first class in the Guard. "It's not real to me yet. It won't be real to me until I actually see him leave."\nMore than 300 Indiana reservists from all branches of service are already on active duty, according to the Department of Defense, and 900 more of Indiana's 12,000 Guardsmen have been placed on alert, including units in Indianapolis, Jasper and Linton.\nPfc. Jeramie Hasenour, 22, and 19-year-old Brittiany Montgomery of Otwell in southwest Indiana got married Saturday, more than six months before the April wedding they had planned.\nThe couple made the decision after Hasenour's Jasper-based 152nd Battalion was placed on alert last month.\n"What if he goes away and something happens and I wished I would have married him?" Brittiany said.\nIn Fort Wayne, spouses and children of mobilized Guardsmen were issued military identification cards. Some of the soldiers began writing their wills.\n"I'm just praying as much as I can," said Pfc. Brownlee. "Everybody has the best intentions of coming home. You just never know"