By Michael A. Lindenberger
The Courier-Journal

After 26½ years in South Korea, Army Staff Sgt. Edison Bayas was due to come home this August to Fort Knox, where his wife and three children have been waiting.

Instead, he's been ordered to war in Iraq.

"Gosh, I don't know what to think," his wife, Diana Bayas, said about the news. "You just have to hope and pray and keep it in your mind that they will be safe."

Such sudden shifts in plans have become more familiar to military families across the country, as the Pentagon scrambles to maintain troop strength of about 138,000 soldiers in Iraq.

The shuffling of troops from South Korea, where American soldiers have been garrisoned for more than 50 years, is part of a massive change in the U.S. military posture.

But thousands of troops now in Europe are also expected to be rotated into Iraq. In addition, the Army has issued a broad stopgap order that prevents soldiers from leaving units that are expecting to be deployed within 90 days.

In Kentucky, it's not just the families of soldiers serving overseas who have had to adjust to the hard tidings of war orders. Others are finding that they have had to say goodbye all over again, as units have been sent for second tours.

For Somerset resident Coleman England, it's his son in the Marine Reserve who has been ordered to report back for another tour of duty in Iraq, just as he had begun getting settled in as a part-time soldier with civilian interests.

"Sure, I am a little bit concerned because I feel like the people who have already been over in the line of fire for one tour shouldn't be going back again," England said. "Seems like we are stretched pretty thin."

"It's no secret that our military is as heavily engaged now as it has been in any other time in recent history," said Ali Bettencourt, a spokeswoman for the Army.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Army had been organized with the expectation that its primary mission would be so-called "contingency operations" - missions expected to be relatively short. The war on terrorism has changed that, she said.

Kentucky's share

Earlier this month, that burden got a little easier for Jennifer Walton, whose husband returned with his unit to Fort Knox after twice being deployed to Iraq.

"It's awesome. It's just been awesome," Walton said of her husband's June 12 return. But she knows he's eligible to be sent back again. "It goes with the territory. It's just part of the job."

England said his son, 24, is a senior at Eastern Kentucky University and is a corporal in the Lexington-based military police unit of the Marine Reserve, which returned from a first tour in Iraq last fall.

"He basically feels like it is crummy that he has to go back again, but he feels like it is his duty to go back and serve since he volunteered," said England of his son.

In all, about 160,000 members of the Reserves or National Guard are on active-duty status nationally.

In Kentucky, that call to arms is being heard in every corner of the state. At Fort Campbell, spokesman George Heath said it's all but certain the 101st Airborne Division will return to Iraq late this year or early next. The soldiers returned in February after a year in Iraq.

And Special Forces soldiers from Fort Campbell have been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Another unit at the post near Hopkinsville returned a year ago after operating the first, and busiest, combat hospital in Iraq.

National Guard troops have been activated as well. Col. Phil Miller, spokesman for the Kentucky National Guard, said members from units based in Richmond, Harrodsburg and Louisville are deployed to Iraq. Another unit, the 223rd Military Police Company, returned last fall. None of state's Guard units are yet serving a second tour, he said.

Respites shorter

Col. Harry Lee Warren, commander of the 86th Combat Support Hospital based at Fort Campbell, said he told members of his team - about 500 doctors, nurses, medics and other personnel - to be ready to go back for a repeat performance.

"The day I got off the plane coming back from Iraq, I assumed our mission was to refit our equipment and prepare our unit for another tour," said Warren, a surgeon who took command of the hospital unit in 2002, just after it had returned from the war in Afghanistan.

"I assumed we'd be home for one to two years, as those other units were deployed," Warren said. "We've now been home for a full year, so I expect we'll be going back."

Each month, the unit sends 30 medics and other health workers to Vanderbilt University hospital in Nashville, Tenn., for 30 days of training alongside trauma units.

"They've been dealing with situations that are comparable to the trauma cases they will see on the battlefield," Warren said. "I want everyone ready to go again."

Candi Thomas, whose husband returned to Fort Knox from a second tour in Iraq on June 12, said the heavy demands on the soldiers asked to return to Iraq take a toll on families.

"The second time I was more prepared, but I was still worried and had a lot of sleepless nights worrying if everything was going to be OK," said Thomas, whose husband, Sgt. Kevin Thomas, is a truck driver for the 233rd Transportation Company.

The company's 140 or so soldiers returned to a formal welcome home from family members and others at the post, but brought with them news that they'd likely be ordered back to Iraq a third time, probably later this year.

Thomas said her husband has been given a new assignment - he'll be working with trainees at the post - so she hopes he'll be able to sit out a third deployment, but she said he's not been told for sure whether he'll be ordered back or not.

Thomas' two children, ages 11 and 9, were "ecstatic" about seeing their father return, but his wife said his deployment this last time has been tough on her and the children.

"I got some sleep for the first time, and the children were so happy to see their dad. People don't know it, but this is really hard on children," Thomas said.

Connie Shaffery, spokeswoman for Fort Knox, said members of the company have been told to prepare for a possible deployment. An order could come later this year, but nothing official has been decided, she said.

"They've certainly been told to prepare for the possibility, but it's not clear whether the soldiers can be redeployed so quickly," Shaffery said. "Right now we have some people here looking into the legality of sending them a third time. No official announcement has been made."

Second Lt. Joel Machak, 22, said the prospect of the company going back a third time to Iraq hasn't led to complaints from members of his platoon.

"Mostly, everyone just wants to hurry up and get it over with," he said. Even a short stint in the States is welcome news for the company's soldiers, said Machak, who returned just in time to help celebrate his wife's 23rd birthday.

"We had guys who were able to get home just in time to see their babies born. Everybody was just really happy to be home," Machak said. "One of the biggest things for me to get used to again is everything around here is so green. It didn't seem like anything was green over there."

Some support weakens

England, the father of the Marine reservist, said he's worried that the violence in Iraq continues unabated, and can only hope his son gets through his second tour safely.

"There have been more people killed since the main war ended. They are supposed to just be doing a mopping up operation, trying to get the government in place, but it seems like there is just more problems with the insurgents."

For England, the war's duration and failure to find weapons of mass destruction have weakened his support for President Bush's decision to invade.

Bayas, whose husband in South Korea is scheduled to be sent to Iraq, said as frightening as the news has been, it wasn't unexpected, given the number of troops the Army has committed to Iraq.

"The way we look at it is he was going someplace after he got back (from Korea)," she said. "And wherever we went, he would have been sent over eventually."

She said her husband is from New York and reacted strongly to the events of Sept. 11. "I think that the bottom line is that when 9/11 happened, it changed everything," she said.

But for Bayas' friend and co-worker, Diana Gilbert, the news that her husband also was being sent from Korea to Iraq was a shock.

After 18 years in the Army, she said, she had been hoping that when his tour in Korea was up this summer, he'd be able to find a safer assignment between now and when he could retire.

Instead, she said she had to break the news to her young nephews and niece that their uncle was headed to war. "Oh my God, they were thinking, 'What in the world just happened?' It was a little devastating to me, too," Gilbert said. "We were supposed to leave (Fort Knox) back when he got ordered to go to Korea for a year. So I don't know what I am going to do now."

Bayas said that's a conversation she's not had yet with her children, ages 3, 8 and 9.

"We really haven't told the children yet," Bayas said. "He didn't want them to be stressing out, or be worried that anything is going to happen to him. He just said, 'I have been gone for 261/2 years, let's just keep it at that, keep them thinking I am in Korea.'."

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E-mail mlindenberger@courier-journal.com