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Operation Spit Shine puts pride into homecoming

Dec- 5-2004 » Filed Under: TF Olympia

Maine Army National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion is part of Task Force Olympia.

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By Bill Nemitz

On any other time and place, this would be just another Saturday morning paint job. But as they rolled and brushed fresh white latex onto the interior walls of the Stevens Avenue Armory in Portland, members of the Maine Army National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion said to a man and woman that this detail was truly special.

"It's like cleaning the house before the parents show up," said Staff Sgt. Pete Charron, his arm in a sling from the surgery he had last week on his wrist. "You have a lot of guys here who wish they had a chance to go over there."

Over there, of course, is the northern Iraq city of Mosul - home since late last winter to most of the 133rd. While they go about their duty and count the days before they come home to Maine, members of the 133rd's "rear detachment" are spending their monthly drill weekends sprucing up the battalion's armories around the state.

They call it Operation Spit Shine.

"It's not much, compared to what they're doing," said Spc. Michael Pearce of Portland, who enlisted in the 133rd six months ago after four years in the regular Army.

Still, it's as good a way as any to keep busy for soldiers like Pearce, who joined the battalion after it was deployed to Iraq last February, or Charron, whose medical problems prevented him from shipping out in the first place.

More significantly, as they lug their paintbrushes and other equipment to Norway, Lewiston, Westbrook, Portland and Belfast, these soldiers serve as a reminder that the 133rd is entering the home stretch of its yearlong deployment in what is fast becoming one of Iraq's most volatile cities. The armories, many of them untouched since the battalion left almost a year ago for training at Fort Drum in upstate New York, are slowly coming back to life.

"I can't believe it's been a year," said Sgt. 1st Class Patrick McKenney, who was sent down from the MANG's 240th Engineer Group to help keep the 133rd's remaining soldiers on track. "It seems like just yesterday everyone was mobilizing here."

Some, in fact, still are. At last month's drill, the call went out for volunteers to fill vacancies left by soldiers who, due to illness or special circumstances, have come home already from Mosul. A dozen soldiers raised their hands - and all are now training for their deployment later this month.


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