Saturday, the Army Reserve in Rock Hill will be no more. Rock Hill will be less because of it.
Decades of service to country will be over. Hundreds, thousands maybe, of area men and women drilled weekends, starting in 1964, in the brick Army Reserve Training Center building at 515 S. Cherry Road. More still served in Rock Hill before that when the Reserves were based across Cherry Road from where the building sits.
The 343rd Quartermaster Company, which becomes inactive Saturday, has occupied the building since the unit's creation in 1999. The unit served a year in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. Men and women, average age less than 20, delivered fuel and water and supplies in combat zones.
A few members of the 120-member 343rd refused to follow orders and deliver fuel in Iraq. The refusal over claims the fuel was tainted and equipment lacked armor and proper maintenance caused an international incident.
None of the soldiers who refused orders were from South Carolina, the military has said: All were brought in from other states to fill the ranks before deployment to Iraq.
The 343rd logged more than 375,00 miles in Iraq -- an average of three, 75-mile missions per week. No 343rd soldiers were killed in Iraq.
The building is being closed as part of a federal base closure program. The closure comes because the 343rd was changed to a chemical unit based in Greenville.
The closing of the center, and the shifting and renaming of the 343rd, were in the works before the 2004 incident and had nothing to do with the refusal to follow orders, said Maj. William Ritter of the Army Reserve 81st Regional Readiness Command. Since the Army announced the closure in October, only about 20 soldiers have been training here. The rest have been transferred.
Ritter said it is possible the Army might return to Rock Hill again as needs change, but there is no guarantee. The 343rd never was able to recruit a full 120-member company in its six-year lifespan.
The 391st Combat Engineers B Co. was based in the Cherry Road building until the company was moved to York in 1995. The unit was activated in 1961 during the Berlin crisis. Still based in York, B Company served in Afghanistan for a year until coming home in April.
The York County link to service remains.
"I was proud to be recalled then and serve," said Rock Hill's Alvis Poe, 71, who was activated in 1961. "The unit was full of local men. It was an honor to be a part of that unit."
Local 343rd soldiers and 391st soldiers said the same things about honor and service and country when they came home from their wars.
Ritter said the Army on Satur-day will welcome soldiers from the 343rd and other soldiers who called the Cherry Road center home. The public can come, too.
"We want to honor their contributions to the nation," Ritter said.
Rock Hill is not alone. The Army Reserve is closing centers in 43 other towns and cities in eight Southeastern states, Ritter said. Like in Rock Hill, the American flag will be lowered, folded and placed in a bag.
After the military Jeeps leave, the building becomes the property of York County. County leaders have yet to decide what to do with it. One option under consideration is a homeless shelter, but the York County Natural Gas Authority next door has also expressed an interest in the property.
Soldiers in the building trained for war. Men and women in their teens, our neighbors, left home and family to help hungry and homeless Iraqis and Afghans. The next time the place opens its doors, it might be to let hungry homeless Rock Hill men escape the cold.
