49ers Headed for Iraq

The band was playing, the generals gave speeches, the mayor made remarks as the vice mayor looked on and the families wore brave smiles Friday as 80 members of the 749th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, headquartered in Benicia, prepared to leave for Iraq. 

All the players in this drama were drawn together on Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield on Friday morning for a departure ceremony that included a casing of the colors.  Casing the colors is a very formal and solemn part of the ceremony in which members of the deploying unit prepare their company banner (the colors) for travel to their next duty station.  The colors will remain cased until the 749th arrives in Iraq and relieves a guard unit from Georgia.

Lt. Col David Ceniti, commanding officer of the 749th, said his soldiers' confidence is high and that everyone is happy to be done with training and starting their deployment.

Sgt. Oren Rae's family is confident he'll be fine but that doesn't mean his wife won't be worried while he's in Iraq on another deployment. "This seems like a more dangerous deployment," she said.  "Baghdad is just scarier. Last time, they were closer to the Kuwaiti border."

Rae's son Oren was upbeat.  "I feel like he's going to do alright."

Spc. Miguel Batacan of Fremont sounded eager.  "I'm looking forward to the overall experience," he said. "I've never been on a deployment before."

The generator mechanic expects there will be plenty to do in Iraq. "I can see my schedule being fairly busy," he said.

Noting that the 749th is the first support battalion from the California National Guard  to deploy to Iraq for Operation New Dawn, Mayor Elizabeth Patterson said,"This is a historic day.  It's fitting that the first guard unit support battalion to deploy should come from Benicia since it was home to the first Army unit stationed on the West Coast."

She and Vice Mayor Alan Schwartzman said they'd be welcoming all members of the 749th back to Benicia next year.