Regional Guard unit to be sent to Panama for training

About 360 National Guard troops from Southeast Missouri will be spending portions of their summer on a military mission in a foreign country -- but it's not Iraq.

Instead, the 1140th Engineer Battalion, with its headquarters in Cape Girardeau, will send its soldiers to Panama as part of its annual training to build small medical clinics and schools in rural areas of the Central American country.

The 1140th will send six rotations of 60 troops each, said Sgt. Jeff Aldrich, the readiness non-commissioned officer for the 1140th. The soldiers will serve in two-week rotations over 12 weeks from February to the beginning of May. The men and women will be drawn from the entire battalion, which has three line units with soldiers from Farmington, Fredericktown, Perryville, Jackson, Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, Portageville, Charleston and Caruthersville.

"It's a humanitarian support effort," Aldrich said. "We've done things like this throughout the years. We went to Honduras in 1995 after Hurricane Mitch and we've been to Panama five different times."

The first rotation will meet this weekend to perform preparatory work, such as getting shots to combat malaria and yellow fever, which is predominant in Panama.

"We stay pretty current on everything, so it's just a matter of making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed," Aldrich said.

Aldrich said it's going to be a lot of work, but the soldiers who have been contacted have all displayed a good attitude. Especially, he said, when they hear about what they'll be doing.

"It's not a vacation," he said. "But it's for a good cause."

That doesn't mean it hasn't presented some hardships for the troops.

Spc. Eric Ebaugh, who found out at 3 p.m. Wednesday he'd be going to Panama, now has to drop his classes at Southeast Missouri State University. He is a 22-year-old biology major.

"But it's not a big deal," he said. "It's just trying to figure out the school thing and to tie up some loose ends at home before I go."

When it was mentioned that it could be worse, that he could be joining other soldiers who are serving in the Middle East, Ebaugh said: "Definitely."

But Ebaugh said he believes being sent to Panama may make the unit more desirable to activate in the war.

"I mean, I don't really know, but it seems like we're more deployable if we've been sent places to train," he said. "But I'm kind of glad we're going. I've never been down there. It should be cool."

Sgt. Rodney Sebaugh of Cape Girardeau also wondered if being sent to Panama affects their chances of being deployed to Iraq.

"Technically, they could call us at any time," he said. "Iraq is definitely on my mind. It's on all of our minds. But you can't let it bother you. You have to go on living your life. If it happens, it happens."

Sebaugh said this will be his fourth trip to Panama.

"It's a lot of hard work, but it's a real enjoyable time," he said. "It's a break from the norm, getting away from the winter blues and having sunshine all day long and some nice weather."

"And," he said, "it's not Iraq."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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