Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Pfc. Bill Gille loads supplies this morning into the luggage bay of a bus that will carry his unit from Butler County to the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast. Click photo for larger image. More pictures Follow the progress of the soldiers on their mission to the South: Alpha Company on the Gulf Coast

LONDON, Ky. -- Forty-two soldiers lugged body armor, rifles and water onto a charter bus outside Butler yesterday, following the hard path south of thousands of other troops going to the hurricane disaster area.

Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, Stryker Brigade Combat Team, has done disaster work before, clearing snow for emergency vehicles in the 1993 East Coast blizzard, and humanitarian missions, providing security in Kosovo.

Obviously, given the likelihood of thousands dead at their destination, Hurricane Katrina will be another matter.

The mission is part disaster relief, part security, but all unknown. Alpha Company members think they are going to New Orleans, via Mississippi.

Yet the words "hurricane," "flood" and "death" are hardly mentioned. If you couldn't see all the men wearing fatigues through the tinted windows of the Fullington Auto Bus Co. charter, and could only hear them, you would not be able to tell the difference between this bus and a (fairly well-behaved) trip to Mardi Gras.

Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Cadet Chris Richard, left, and Lt. Damyan Graves ride a bus through Ohio and Kentucky on their way to the Gulf Coast yesterday morning. Click photo for larger image.

The soldiers, most of them in their early 20s, played Frisbee, razzed each other and watched action movies on the DVD player. It was up to the unit's commander to address the unsaid.

"We could be doing body recovery," said Lt. Damyan Graves, addressing the soldiers in a classroom at the Butler Armory early yesterday morning. "This is very serious and can affect you in many different ways."

Graves, 30, is usually a motorcycle officer with the Erie police. He told the young soldiers about the smell of decomposed bodies, saying it is overwhelming, even in the mostly mild Pennsylvania weather they are used to, let alone week-old bodies in the deep American South.

"If the stress starts getting to you, let someone know about it. We won't send you home, but we can cycle you out" to other tasks, Graves told them.

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Staff Sgt. Geoffrey Brown describes Alpha Company and what the unit's mission may be. Click photo for larger image.

Few of the soldiers from Alpha Company have been to Iraq, so this is their first major mission. The 112th is the only Stryker armed personnel carrier brigade nationwide in the National Guard, and most of the unit has been in basic and advanced training only.

"Most of the young guys are the younger crowd," said Staff Sgt. Geoffrey Brown, 36, of Orwell, Ohio, who is approaching his 20th year in the guard. "A lot of young guys, some experienced guys -- they come from all walks of life. And we're all volunteers."

Brown did not know what the brigade's exact mission would be, once it meets up with about 20 others who left Butler in a convoy Sunday -- only that it will likely go at some point to devastated New Orleans.

"We just want to go down and help," he said.