Five boyhood pals bound for military deployment in Iraq

An appreciation night for four young Maine National Guardsmen from Perry and one from Robbinston will be held on Friday, December 30, at the Perry Elementary School at 6 p.m. Pfc. Michael Barnard, Pfc. Theodore "Teddy" Cummings, Pfc. Adam Hall and Spc. Ben Maloney of Perry and Pvt. Jordan Bishop of Robbinston, all members of the 152nd Field Artillery Unit who have been assigned to go to Iraq with the 172nd Mountain Infantry, will be honored at a spaghetti dinner put on by the Family Readiness Team from the Calais Armory.

"I'm excited," says 20-year-old Mike Barnard, who will be reporting to Fort Dix, N.J., on January 12. "They're looking at sending us to Iraq in the middle of February. It's a big stress-reliever having all sorts of friends with me when I go."

"My parents [Jeffrey and Terry] are kind of proud and scared at the same time C just like any parent would," adds Barnard, who has been in the National Guard for two-and-a-half years.

"I think this reception is a wonderful idea," says Adam Hall's mother, Joy Trott. "It shows what a family-based town we have and how much we care about them. They'll know they'll be in our prayers. I don't like to see [Adam] go, but it's his job, and he's doing it for his country."

"I'm proud of all of them," stresses Teddy Cummings' mother, Barbara DeWitt of Perry. "And what's really nice, with Teddy and Ben, is that our families have known each other since we were pregnant. Ben was born a month after Teddy."

"They've been buddies since kindergarten," agrees Ben Maloney's mother, Bernadette.

Barnard, Cummings, Hall and Maloney were classmates at Perry Elementary School until Hall was in the seventh grade and moved to Whiting, where his father Wallace "Butch" Hall resides. Cummings, Barnard and Maloney graduated from Shead High School in Eastport in 2003, Hall graduated that year from Washington Academy in East Machias and Bishop, who grew up in Eastport, is a 2004 graduate of Shead. "Adam left, and they re-met in the Guard," notes Bernadette.

"I guess I'm glad they're going to be together as friends in a foreign land," she says. "I'm nervous, but Ben really wants to do this and that encourages me. He really enjoys [the Maine National Guard] and enjoys the people he's with."

"You see them growing up together, so that helps in knowing they're going overseas together," points out Trott, whose son, now 21, joined the Guard on his 18th birthday. "They've been close ever since elementary school. In fact, Adam has been rooming with Ben and Jason Bones." Bones, a 2003 Shead graduate, is also a member of the 152nd. He returned in February from a year overseas, eight months of which were spent performing military police duty at Abu Ghraib outside after the scandal that brought infamy to the prison.

"They are all really really good boys. They're great kids," stresses Jack Maloney, Ben's father, who coached several of them in elementary school. "They're taking the best Perry has to offer. I pray that they come back safe."

Jordan Bishop, at age 19, is the youngest of the five local Guardsmen assigned to the 172nd. The son of Sheldon "Butch" and Tami Bishop, he has only been in the Maine National Guard since June. "I didn't expect it so soon," says Butch Bishop of Jordan's deployment. "Normally they ship out as a unit."

A Vietnam veteran, the elder Bishop isn't happy that his son will be going to Iraq, "but it's a plus that the five of them are going over together. I hope God keeps an eye on them."

Maine National Guard recruiter Walter Cummings, Teddy's uncle, says he'll be keeping an eye on them, too. "They know I'll support them now, when they go over and when they come back."

"All of these young men are exemplary," he stresses. "They're very professional and dedicated to the military and their unit."

The 172nd Mountain Infantry unit to which they're being attached did not have enough men for its upcoming deployment, which is why Barnard, Bishop, Cummings, Hall and Maloney have been reassigned, explains their recruiter. "The 172nd didn't have the numbers - there are usually over 100 men in it - so they're drawing from other units, and all of them are being trained as infantryman."

"I think it's wonderful they're stepping up to the plate. We're very proud of them."