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Womack tells stories about time in Egypt

BY HOLLY LATIMER

Staff Writer    10/17/2002

Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Womack spoke to the White County Association of Legal Support Professional Wednesday about his time in the Sinai Peninsula area with the Gunslingers.

The Gunslingers went to the area as a part of the Multinational Force Observers, a group which celebrated its 20 anniversary during the Gunslinger's tenure in Egypt.

The observation force began under a policy set forth during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. The 11 nation organization was set up to provide a barrier between the warring regions of Israel and Egypt. Carter recently received a Noble Peace Prize for his part in restoring peace to the area. The observation actually began in 1982.

The Gunslingers tenure in Egypt was the first time that a pure National Guard unit had been in charge of the observation. According to Womack, the soldiers had always come from the rapid deployment groups or the "best accomplished peacekeepers and warfighters."

"Instead, they send in the Arkansas Army National Guard," Womack said, adding that when people in the peninsula area heard that a Guard group was replacing the 101st Division which was sent to Afghanistan, they panicked. Soldiers in the Sinai area were concerned that the guard unit would not be able to get there on time and some had even planned to stay an additional three months.

He said while the people in Egypt were panicking, the Gunslingers were at Fort Carson in Colorado preparing for the mission. "We were to go over and do a mission. We told them to point us in the right direction and get out of our way to do the job," Womack said.

By December 15, the Gunslingers were trained and ready to go, Womack said. "We were ready to go on and get over there, but Wal-Mart shipped us home," he said, noting that the unit prepared for its deployment in 90 days, not the usual 180 days granted to other units.

Womack said that the Gunslingers arrived on schedule with 529 people as specified under the MFO guidelines. "We didn't know any better. We went over, did our mission arguably better than ever done before," Womack said.

Although people tried to prepare Womack for the loss of men in the area, it was unwarranted, because the Gunslingers did not lose any manpower.

"We only had two accidents and they were on the post. No one was hurt or killed," he said, noting that the damage cost $275.

Womack said the small amount of damages were not a result of his leadership, but of those under his leadership. "They took the mission seriously," he said.

One example of the way that the mission was performed was the story of a Bedouin child who had a head injury. Womack said his medical staff "put the kid back together and saved his life."

The Gunslingers were to make a visible presence in the area while also facilitating trust building. The relationship of the Gunslingers to the Bedouin children was one which illustrated this building. Womack said that the soldiers treated these children as their "children away from home." The children received clothes as well as candy from the soldiers.

In addition to building trust, the Gunslingers were also able to train frequently while in Egypt.

"We were training 24/7 and training like never before," Womack said, noting that the duration of time spent in Egypt gave the unit more time together than any other training exercise had.

Although Womack doesn't think that he will be deployed again because of his job as mayor of Rogers, he said that with a possible confrontation with Iraq on the horizon, it might give the government cause to look back to the Arkansas Guard for soldiers.

"We surprised everybody and rewrote the standard for those deployed," Womack said.

He said that although there is much debate about the possible conflict with Iraq, "I trust and believe in the military leadership to know a lot more than what I do and what the average citizen knows."

He said that when an enemy hates the United States the way that Saddam Hussein hates the country, that Saddam needs to "remove him from power, and the face of the earth."

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