By Megan V. Williams
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/whqr/local-whqr-661687.mp3
Wilmington, NC –
As families around the region gather together for the holidays, those in the North Carolina National Guard have an extra reason to hold each other close. This time next year, many members of the Guard expect to be heading off to another deployment in Iraq. WHQR talked with soldiers and their wives about what lies ahead...
Twelve months of waiting. That's what families in the Guard's 30th Heavy Separate Brigade face this Christmas.
Earlier this fall, the Defense Department notified members that they're likely to be deployed in just over a year. So in coming months, the 30th Brigade will ramp up its training.
The Brigade returned from its first tour in Iraq three years ago, and for the many soldiers who have joined since, this deployment will be the first chance to put their training into action.
"It's like being on a football team and doing nothing but practicing. At some point you'd like to get into a game and see how you perform."
First Sergeant Robert Bowen already knows this game. He deployed with the 30th in 2003. But Bowen says nearly half the men in his unit joined after he got back.
"So these are first time soldiers who, in my opinion, are anxious to go over and serve. They've heard the war stories and they've heard the other veterans of deployments, and I think they're kind of anxious to get out."
During a quiet interview at the Guard armory in Greenville, Bowen won't say he's looking forward to deploying again. But he's not shying away from it either.
"In some ways you dread, you dread the train up and being away from your family. But you still, deep down, you like putting the uniform on and you like serving."
In Wilmington, a guardsman's wife has a very different answer to that question.
"I hate it, I hate that he would actually be disappointed that he wouldn't go back again."
Debbie Ezzell's husband recently transferred into a training position with the regular army after twenty years with the 30th Brigade. But neither he nor his wife rule out the possibility that he too could be sent back to Iraq.
"And he said it to me, to my face: 'I would love to go back.' And I thought, you're nuts! Why? Why would you want to go back?"
Ezzell stands in her kitchen surrounded by women who know what she's going through. Ever since the Brigade's first deployment, Ezzell's taken it on herself to organize social gatherings with nearby National Guard wives.
While they've seen less of each other since their husbands returned from Iraq, Ezzell says the likelihood of another deployment already is bringing the women back together.
"We're pulling the ranks together because we know that next year things could be completely different. Next year, at least two of us standing in this room could have husbands that are going to be redeployed."
As Ezzell talks, Deanna O'Neil bends over the lunch plate of her two-year-old daughter, Faith, cutting grapes and ham into toddler-sized bites. O'Neil, who is pregnant with her second child, already is bracing for how the separation will affect her family.
"If we do go away for a week, or if he goes away for a week for training, it's constantly like, 'I want to see daddy! I want to see daddy! I want to see daddy!' And so I think that's the part that's going to kill him, is when she talks to him on the phone and says, 'Where are you? Why can't you come and see me?' That's what's going to tear him up."
Impending family separations are weighing on the minds of a lot of North Carolina's Guard members right now.
At his home in the mountains outside of Asheville, First Sergeant Robert Newsome says he's already worrying about who will mow the grass and take care of his family's animals while he's gone. But his biggest priority right now is just to enjoy the holidays.
"I mean, I realize the deployment's a year off, but next Christmas I may be kind of running around, trying to get last-minute things done. I definitely want to make sure I spend more time with my children and wife at Christmastime. So that's the main thing on my agenda as far as this Christmas."
Newsome is taking off from work this entire week, a rare break from his job as a Wildlife Officer. The possibility of re-deployment has changed this entire holiday season for him.
"Yeah it does make it more special. A lot more special."
Newsome and other members of the North Carolina Guard are trying to enjoy the holidays, knowing this may be their last peaceful Christmas for a while.
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