Two Cape firefighters leaving for Iraq

They'll be home for Christmas, but they're leaving for Iraq shortly afterward.

Fire marshal Mike Morgan and master firefighter Larry Hagan from the Cape Girardeau Fire Department will leave for the war in Iraq on Jan. 2.

The department held a party Friday afternoon to wish the men farewell.

"We're just real proud of them, and we wanted to show them that," said fire chief Rick Ennis.

Both men are part of the U.S. Navy Reserve construction battalion, nicknamed the Seabees.

This is Morgan's third deployment to the Middle East; he was activated in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm and again in 2003 for the current conflict.

"My sea bag's ready. It's got a few miles on it, it's going to get a few more," said Morgan, who will be saying goodbye to his wife and two teenage children.

It is Hagan's first deployment, though he has been in the military for 27 years.

"The only really tough part is the fact of leaving the family behind," Hagan said. "But I'm looking forward to doing it and then coming home."

Hagan has a wife and two daughters in Cape Girardeau.

Both men are scheduled for a year's deployment, but the Navy can exercise an option for a second year.

Morgan said that speaking with friends and through his own experience, he gets a different sense of Iraq than what he hears and reads.

"Schools are opening, electricity is being restored, roads repaired, people being able to go to school who weren't allowed before, women being able to drive. All that's been unheard of in the past. Running water, electricity. Things we take for granted, those are the good things going on over there," he said.

Assistant chief Mark Hasheider said the department will have to cover for the absence of two valued members.

"People will try to go ahead and adapt, which is the least that we can do to allow them to leave and do their duty and be able to return to their positions they have now," Hasheider said.

Retired fire marshal Tom Hinkebein will help fill in for Morgan.

"If the families need anything, they can call. We'll try to accommodate their needs. We support them with packages and e-mails and try to let them know what's going on here at work, which can be, not as important as family life, but it just keeps them in touch," Hasheider said.

One other Cape Girardeau firefighter, Sam Welker, has spent time in Iraq. There are six military reservists in the department.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245