When soldiers greeted their vehicles in the early January

When soldiers greeted their vehicles in the early January morning it was like seeing an old friend, a friendship based on a love-hate relationship. And it was the operator’s job to revive that friend who could have been sitting in the motor pool for a month without being started. Their eyes scanned their dispatch books, heads poking under hoods, cold hands removing dipsticks and churning over cold engines. Sgt. 1st Class Brian Breaker has his team go over pre-mission equipment checks at the Roseville armory motor pool, Jan. 6, 2012. The California Army National Guard troops, an IT specialist, a model, a pharmacy and auto mechanic tech, a construction worker, a stay-at-home mother and an unemployed student arrived at 2 a.m. to participate in the 115th Regional Support Group's Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise (EDRE), which had 60 vehicles and 217 troops moving their wheeled assets around the state in response to a earthquake scenario. The troops performed maintenance on their vehicles and received briefings about what to expect. This is the first training that solely focuses on moving the vehicle specialists and their hauling machines into position to respond to a state emergency.