CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Ind. — After all is said and done, the Soldiers of the 991st Transportation Company hauled more than 2.5 million pounds of short-ton cargo during their one-year deployment to Iraq. To say they got the job done is an understatement.
First Sgt. Lamondo Parker, first sergeant for the 991st, said the unit hauled all types of military classes of cargo from oil to vehicles to food.
"We logged more than 1.5 million miles picking up or delivering cargo in the surrounding Baghdad area," Parker said.
The 991st was responsible for delivering supplies from a main supply hub to troops in the field.
Parker said the deployment was one full of accomplishments, milestones and scares. On the unit's very first night convoy in country they encountered an improvised explosive device.
"We never hit another one after that but it opened up everybody's eyes pretty quickly," Parker said.
Sgt. Earl Nicholson II, of Reidsville, N.C., said the deployment indeed was an eye opener for him, but in a different way.
"This deployment steered me in the right direction as far as being responsible and mature," he said. Nicholson, the youngest non-commissioned officer in the platoon, pinned on the sergeant rank during his deployment.
"I felt proud my leadership saw that in me ... that they thought I could step up to the plate," Nicholson said. "That was the biggest accomplishment of my deployment right there."
The only gray cloud in Nicholson's otherwise great experience was the fact that he missed the birth of his daughter, whom he is anxious to see.
"I'm ready to do the daddy thing," he said.
Nicholson said he can't wait to get back to his fiancée and get started on becoming a family, not unlike the one he's leaving today.
"We all looked out for each other," Nicholson said. "This was just a great group of friends..."
The family bond, however, was one that had to be developed considering the 991st Soldiers came from six different states: Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.
The first sergeant said he was concerned in the beginning, since the Soldiers had never trained together, but the worry was for nothing.
"We came together just like I knew we would," Parker said. "We became family. If I had to do it again, I would like to go back with every one of them."