Melrose's 182nd Infantry Regiment Deploying to Afghanistan

The 182nd Infantry Regiment of the National Guard, based at the , will deploy to Afghanistan at the end of March 2011 and the city is coming together to support its soldiers during their year-long mission.

Melrose firefighter Bob Driscoll, an active-duty member of the Air Force Reserve and chairman of the Melrose Veterans Services Advisory Committee, said at a press conference held on Monday at the that the will be adopting the 182nd as the VFW previously did in 2008, when the regiment was deployed for 15 months to Kosovo.

The VFW stationed collection points throughout the city in 2008 at schools, the library and police and fire stations.

"We ended up collecting and sending over 800 pounds of toiletries, books, and stuff like that to support the soliders here," Driscoll said, as behind him stood the 182nd's Maj. Eric DiNoto; Lt. Col. Thomas Stewart; Capt. Kyle Moore; First Sgt. Dan Reilly; Staff Sgt. Michael Batchelder; and Second Lt. Christopher Johnson.

"We're hoping to do that again," Driscoll said.

Driscoll said the VFW will work in concert with Melrose , the office and other veterans organization in the city to support the 182nd Infantry Regiment.

"They're our neighbors. Our kids go to school with their kids and they're going to be away for a year," he said. "That's a very long time; not only for them, but it's even longer for their families. Their children are going to need support throughout the year, their wives and husbands are going to need support throughout the year, so we want to come together and support them for the year they're away."

DiNoto, a Melrose resident and operations officer of the 182nd, said the regiment will be part of 13 provincial reconstruction teams in the west, east and south of Afghanistan that will also include city planners, teachers, doctors and others.

"We're going to try get them pointing in the right direction, make them self-sustaining so we don't need to be there any longer," DiNoto said. "We're going to be there for a year. We need your support. We are part of this community—we are your sons and daughters, we are your brothers and sisters. Without you we can't do this. Our families cannot do this without you."

DiNoto said he's hoping the community will support two upcoming events: the 182nd's Regimental Ball, "our last social function with our families," tentatively scheduled for Friday, Jan. 21 at the Burlington Marriott.

"It's going to be a great event, I promise you," he said with a smile.

DiNoto said he's also working with for a send-off parade on March 28 next year, with the 182nd marching down Main Street from the Armory to Memorial Hall, "and send this unit off the right way—a Melrose way."

Dolan said the city is "proud" of the regiment that calls Melrose home.

"They're as part of our community as any great insutition in the city of Melrose," he said. "Whether they live here or not they are Melrosians, and great Americans."

Stewart, batallion commander of the 182nd, said he has served in a number of communities throughout Massachusetts and has been with the 182nd Infantry as commander since April.

"I'm not from Melrose, but I really wish I were," he said "The support you all provide to our soliders and our unit out there on Main Street is just incredible. Twenty-two years of service, I've never ever seen any other community come out like this for the regiment, the hometown unit."

Stewart mentioned the long history of the 182nd—one of only four units in the country to trace its lineage back to 1636, and whose members fought on the Pacific front in World War II—and brought with him notecards he had made displaying the regiment's crest, one of which he gave to Dolan with note on the back from the regiment.