thedrifter
12-18-07, 06:22 AM
December 18, 2007
Daytona soldier prepares for 3rd deployment to Iraq
By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff Writer
An occasional series featuring stories of military servicemen and women far from home and their loved ones here. Today, we speak with Marine Sgt. Henry L. Butts Sr., 38, of Daytona Beach, who is about to depart for Iraq for the third time.
Q. This deployment will be your third to Iraq. When was your first?
In 2003, I was a crew chief for an amphibious assault vehicle. "This is the desert" -- that's what we were saying -- but we used Amtracks, a lightly armored vehicle, during the initial march from Kuwait all the way to Baghdad. I was a gunner on the vehicle, which made me crew chief. We were engaged in several firefights with the Republican Guard before they started calling them the insurgents, which they are calling them now. The last encounter was before we crossed into Baghdad. They blew the bridges out to slow the convoy but they didn't know we didn't need a bridge so we splashed and did what we did. We stayed in Baghdad for about a week and a half, consolidating units. After that, we started back to Kuwait. We were in (the) country for about five months.
Q. What do you do when you are not over there?
I got back in July of '03, and went back to work as the network admin computer guy at Bethune-Cookman College (now Bethune-Cookman University). But then I was deployed again in January '04 for about six months on a joint forces exercise, something the U.S. does with South American nations about working together. After that I went back to B-CC. They had open arms. I did a lot of stuff with the Toys for Tots program. But in November of 2005, I got word we were going back to Iraq.
Q. What happened over there the second time?
It was sort of like the Vietnam era. We patrolled up and down the Euphrates River, trying to cut off supply lines for the insurgents and working with joint forces finding high-value targets. They had boats, which were an easy escape route for them, so we used the boats to stop them. It worked out very well.
Q. What was it like along the Euphrates River?
There were ambushes. Unlike roads where there was only one way up and you had to come back. We got into firefights. A couple of Marines were wounded. My job was security for the launch sites. We were mortared while we were launching the boats. It was really dangerous. Everybody wounded came out of it good, came home and doing well.
Q. You are originally from Gulfport, Miss., and came here in the 1970s. When did you get into the military?
It started on Sept. 11, 2001. I was working at B-CC as a network administrator for the college. When I saw what was happening, I was pretty disgusted and upset and had an idea we were going to go to war. I was too old to join but I saw Donald Rumsfeld on TV. He said if you were between 18 and 35, call your local recruiter. I was 32. I said, "Wow, I have three years." I picked up the phone and called. I got in, and Nov. 22 that year was my sign-on date. By December I was in boot camp. I reported to Bravo Company, my reserve unit in Jacksonville.
Q. You missed the Toys for Tots distribution again because you have already begun retraining in California. Your sister, Donna Victory, has taken over that program. You have three other sisters, two brothers and your mother, Willie Mae, here in Daytona Beach. You also have two brothers in Jacksonville and one in Texas. Who else do you leave behind?
My wife, Jing, is staying in Daytona Beach, and my children are with my first wife -- son, Henry Jr., 10, and daughter Hope, 4 -- in Ormond Beach.
audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com
Ellie
Daytona soldier prepares for 3rd deployment to Iraq
By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff Writer
An occasional series featuring stories of military servicemen and women far from home and their loved ones here. Today, we speak with Marine Sgt. Henry L. Butts Sr., 38, of Daytona Beach, who is about to depart for Iraq for the third time.
Q. This deployment will be your third to Iraq. When was your first?
In 2003, I was a crew chief for an amphibious assault vehicle. "This is the desert" -- that's what we were saying -- but we used Amtracks, a lightly armored vehicle, during the initial march from Kuwait all the way to Baghdad. I was a gunner on the vehicle, which made me crew chief. We were engaged in several firefights with the Republican Guard before they started calling them the insurgents, which they are calling them now. The last encounter was before we crossed into Baghdad. They blew the bridges out to slow the convoy but they didn't know we didn't need a bridge so we splashed and did what we did. We stayed in Baghdad for about a week and a half, consolidating units. After that, we started back to Kuwait. We were in (the) country for about five months.
Q. What do you do when you are not over there?
I got back in July of '03, and went back to work as the network admin computer guy at Bethune-Cookman College (now Bethune-Cookman University). But then I was deployed again in January '04 for about six months on a joint forces exercise, something the U.S. does with South American nations about working together. After that I went back to B-CC. They had open arms. I did a lot of stuff with the Toys for Tots program. But in November of 2005, I got word we were going back to Iraq.
Q. What happened over there the second time?
It was sort of like the Vietnam era. We patrolled up and down the Euphrates River, trying to cut off supply lines for the insurgents and working with joint forces finding high-value targets. They had boats, which were an easy escape route for them, so we used the boats to stop them. It worked out very well.
Q. What was it like along the Euphrates River?
There were ambushes. Unlike roads where there was only one way up and you had to come back. We got into firefights. A couple of Marines were wounded. My job was security for the launch sites. We were mortared while we were launching the boats. It was really dangerous. Everybody wounded came out of it good, came home and doing well.
Q. You are originally from Gulfport, Miss., and came here in the 1970s. When did you get into the military?
It started on Sept. 11, 2001. I was working at B-CC as a network administrator for the college. When I saw what was happening, I was pretty disgusted and upset and had an idea we were going to go to war. I was too old to join but I saw Donald Rumsfeld on TV. He said if you were between 18 and 35, call your local recruiter. I was 32. I said, "Wow, I have three years." I picked up the phone and called. I got in, and Nov. 22 that year was my sign-on date. By December I was in boot camp. I reported to Bravo Company, my reserve unit in Jacksonville.
Q. You missed the Toys for Tots distribution again because you have already begun retraining in California. Your sister, Donna Victory, has taken over that program. You have three other sisters, two brothers and your mother, Willie Mae, here in Daytona Beach. You also have two brothers in Jacksonville and one in Texas. Who else do you leave behind?
My wife, Jing, is staying in Daytona Beach, and my children are with my first wife -- son, Henry Jr., 10, and daughter Hope, 4 -- in Ormond Beach.
audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com
Ellie