] FORT DIX, N.J. -- The 635 soldiers of a battalion of the
] South Carolina National Guard scheduled to depart Sunday
] for a year or more in Iraq have spent their off-duty
] hours under a disciplinary lockdown in their barracks for
] the past two weeks.
]
] The trouble began Labor Day weekend, when 13 members of
] the 1st Battalion of the 178th Field Artillery Regiment
] went AWOL, mainly to see their families again before
] shipping out. Then there was an ugly confrontation
] between members of the battalion's Alpha and Charlie
] batteries -- the term artillery units use instead of
] "companies" -- that threatened to turn into a brawl
] involving three dozen soldiers, and required the base
] police to intervene.
]
] That prompted a barracks inspection that uncovered
] alcohol, resulting in the lockdown that kept soldiers in
] their rooms except for drills, barred even from stepping
] outside for a smoke, a restriction that continued with
] some exceptions until Sunday's scheduled deployment.