Marianna Guardsmen Leave for Iraq Duty

They will have one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq, using more than 60 trucks to transport supplies, equipment and troops on roads where insurgents have attacked military vehicles with homemade bombs, rocket propelled grenades and gunfire.

Already, Three Florida guardsmen have been killed in Iraq since April 2003.

The Marianna soldiers are leaving less than a week after some other Panhandle guardsmen and reservists were welcomed home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is the second time the 144th has been activated in the past 15 months. More then 150 soldiers from the company served from March through July last year at Fort Stewart, GA, where they then returned home to Marianna without being sent overseas.

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