Indiana military units called to duty

Some reserve military units in Indiana have been called to active duty for the global war on terrorism and are preparing to deploy.\nAbout 140 members of the Marines' 6th Engineer Support Battalion in South Bend began getting their things in order after receiving notification of the activation on Saturday.\nJeffrey Coney of Elkhart changed plans to get married in Jamaica in June and instead was married in snowy Goshen on Monday after receiving the activation notice.\nConey has no idea how long he will be apart from his new wife.\n"It all depends on how long they need us for," he said. "It kind of eats at you, not knowing where or when you'll be going."\nOfficers with Company B don't know when the deployment call will come, but have to be ready to ship out Camp Pendleton in California on short notice, 1st Sgt. Samuel Almeda said.\nUnit members were kept busy over the weekend notifying family and friends of the activation and with letting their employers know they could ship out at any moment.\n"We're going to hit the ground running," Maj. Leon Bertchy said.\nAbout 100 members of a Marine reserve unit based at Grissom Air Reserve base near Peru also were notified over the weekend of their activation. That unit, which provides radio, wire and computer communications support, also has not been told when it might be deployed.\nAmong other activations, Orland Town Marshal Charlie Smith is being deployed with the Army's 12th Special Forces, a select group from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. He left his northeastern Indiana home on Wednesday for Chicago, then his group will go to Fort Bragg in North Carolina.\nSmith, who served with the Marines during the Vietnam War, has been to Bosnia three times on peacekeeping missions and spent seven months in Kosovo. Despite all his experience, he said he was nervous about being deployed.\n"Anybody that doesn't fear the unknown going into something like this is stupid," Smith said.\nThe number of National Guard and Reserve members called to active duty nationwide stands at 58,894, the Pentagon said Wednesday.