AN OVERWEIGHT smoker from Boise, Idaho, Calvin Haines, 48, former dairyman and defence worker, did not enjoy his preparations for war in Iraq.

A longtime member of the Idaho National Guard, he was familiar with the three-week summer camp and one weekend a month commitment that the service involved, but was taken aback to find himself called up and embroiled in combat training at Fort Bliss, Texas, last summer.

“It smoked me,” he recalled at Firebase Crazyhorse in Kirkuk, northern Iraq. “All the body armour, helmets, ammo and stuff. I lost 20lb. Those first weeks were really tough. I really didn’t want to go. And my wife didn’t like it at all. She was in denial saying ‘It’s not gonna happen’. Well — it happened.”

Part of the 42nd Infantry Division, Haines is a member of the first National Guard division to be deployed on active service overseas since the Korean War. The Guardsmen, civilians with military training similar to the British Territorial Army (though one cynical British observer recently remarked that they make the TA look like the SAS) started to arrive in Iraq at the end of last year, taking over from the US 1st Infantry Division.

The handover and transfer of command was completed last Monday, and the firemen, doctors, lawyers, students and farmers of the 42nd now patrol a slice of territory the size of West Virginia in the centre and north of the country, where 135 of their predecessors were killed and more than 1,000 wounded.

Deployed to alleviate the pattern of tour extensions for overstretched regular units in Iraq, the guardsmen’s average age of 33 is one of the most noticeable features distinguishing them from professional troops. At Firebase Crazyhorse, a cramped, rundown former Baathist villa in Kirkuk, the oldest soldier in Haines’s company-sized unit, “Echo Troop”, is 56.

About 30 per cent have previous regular military service and have served overseas but for many Iraq is their first experience of a foreign land. The conditions have been an unappealing surprise. Firebase Crazyhorse was experiencing its sixth day without showers, though a fountain in the tawdry garden functioned as tantalising reminder of what the men were missing, and the dirt and cramped conditions were not popular.

“It’s my first time overseas,” said Staff Sergeant Patterson, 36, from Montana. “In fact, it’s almost my first time out of the state. I’d never even seen the Atlantic before. Iraq is a lot more dirty than I expected. The trash in the streets, the garbage, the plumbing — it’s a bit of a shock.”

The age factor and civilian mindset of some contribute to the occasional faux pas: one middle-aged warrior remembered halfway through his patrol of Kirkuk that he had left his rifle on his bunk.

Many of Echo Troop had already seen action in Baqubah, an insurgent stronghold, and likened their performance there to that of a semi-retired football professional playing with a college team: “Everyone thinks he’s an old guy but then they realise he can still pack some weight,” one sergeant remarked.

Some, including Haines, were happy to be serving in Iraq, but for other, older soldiers the trade-off for leaving their families, home and civilian life for war in Iraq was a straight reflection of the financial need of the American poor.

“I joined up because I just looked at my life and the jobs I’d done,” said Specialist Vernon Reynolds, a 42-year-old timber worker.

“I had no retirement benefits. Now I’m eligible for a veteran’s pension. I got seven years left in the Guard. Who knows — maybe I’ll see Iran, or Iraq again. Whatever. In a firefight, age don’t matter so much as long as you can duck and cover. We’re a little slower but we get the job done.”

Part of the job

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