Over 140 soldiers from the Pennsylvania National Guard are being deployed to the Middle East, according to reports from Harrisburg, Pa.
On Saturday morning in Harrisburg, soldiers from the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 3622nd Sustainment Maintenance Company took part in a deployment ceremony.
“We ship out tomorrow,” said U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant, Luke McCoy.
Those who are deployed will spend one year in the Middle East, providing support to U.S. Central Command and partner forces in order to achieve regional security objectives.
“We’re a maintenance company, so we’re going to be doing a lot of maintenance and a lot of electronic work, recovery operations, relations with other, with other allied nations and stuff,” McCoy explained. “So, there’s just a lot of maintenance, a lot of good stuff over there.”
Preparing for a mission like this is no easy task, to say the least.
“Between getting all the equipment ready that we’re sending over there and getting everyone medically and admin cleared, it’s been a work horse for us to get ready for this thing and the guys work their butts off and I can’t be more grateful now to be going over with these guys,” he added.
Saying goodbye to family, friends, and loved ones is often the most challenging aspect of deployment for many soldiers.
“I’ve been in for nine years, so it’s my first one [deployment],” said Ashlee Ebling, U.S. Army Specialist. “I’m really excited to do something great, something to do a little hard with the family, leaving the daughter behind and my husband.”
Being so far away from home, many of these soldiers will rely heavily on technology to stay connected.
“We can facetime, we can WhatsApp signal through those apps and stuff,” McCoy said. “There’s wi-fi over there so we’ll be able to talk just as like if you’re 20 feet over that way and I was facetiming you, we can do that from across the world. So, we’re lucky in that sense to our technology is going to be very great for us.”
On Sunday, the soldiers will depart from the Harrisburg International Airport and make their way to Texas before embarking on their overseas mission.
In the past year, Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers embarked on missions across the globe. This included a deployment of nearly 700 soldiers to Africa, over 150 soldiers to Germany, and almost 50 soldiers to the Middle East. It is worth noting that in October, hundreds of soldiers returned from their deployments in Africa.
The Pennsylvania National Guard, established in 1747 by Benjamin Franklin, has grown to become one of the largest state National Guards in the United States. In the wake of September 11, 2001, the brave Soldiers and Airmen of the Pennsylvania National Guard have successfully carried out over 43,000 individual deployments.
