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‘Our freedom comes with a cost’
Community to bid National Guard troops bound
for Afghanistan farewell today
By GENE
ZALESKI
T&D Staff Writer
Thursday, February 08,
2007
Orangeburg businesses and schools are expected
to answer the call to show support for the historic deployment of
soldiers from the Orangeburg 218th Brigade Company B/163rd Battalion
today.
Company B will be deployed to Afghanistan as part of
Task Force Phoenix. The entire tour of duty is expected to be 18
months, which includes preliminary training before arrival in
Afghanistan and debriefing.
Soldiers will depart for two
months of training to Camp Shelby, Miss. before heading to
Afghanistan in April for a yearlong deployment to a base outside of
Kabul.
The 90-troop deployment is the Orangeburg unit’s
largest since World War II.
Rivelon Elementary School’s
fourth- and fifth-grade students will be among the first to see the
troops off during their scheduled departure today from the National
Guard Armory on Stonewall Jackson Boulevard.
The estimated 80
students, with the support of Principal Paulette Faust, will bid the
soldiers farewell by waving U.S. flags and holding a banner
proclaiming Rivelon Elementary’s appreciation for the
troops.
“I want them to learn to be patriotic and to have a
love for their country,” said Delores Frazier, Rivelon Elementary
School academic assistant. “Since our guys are there, we have to
support them. This is the least we can do.”
Frazier said she
and the late Army Spec. Darius Jennings, a former Rivelon Elementary
School student, would frequently correspond via e-mail. “He would
say, ’Since I am in here, I have to do my job.’”
Frazier said
while she does not support the war, she does support the
troops.
“If it was up to me, none of our children, fathers
and brothers ... and now mothers and sisters ... would be there,”
she said.
At Orangeburg Preparatory School, students will
sign an “OPS supports our troops” banner that will be displayed in
front of Fairey Chevrolet-Cadillac on U.S. 601.
OPS computer
teacher Crystal Thornburg will spearhead the creation of the banner,
which will serve as a complement to the school’s past participation
in the nationally-based “Operation Gratitude” letter writing
campaign.
Through “Operation Gratitude,” Thornburg said, the
students have written more than 100 letters in the past two years to
the soldiers as well as sending them nonperishable items.
“I
want to students to be supportive of their troops and where they
live and what (they) stand for,” she said. “Our freedom comes with a
cost.”
Laurel Baye Healthcare director of personnel Alashea
Markley said the nursing home employees will bring about 144 U.S.
flags to the send-off and will help to distribute flags to
attendees.
“We are participating because Laurel Baye of
Orangeburg supports the troops,” Markley said.
Pepsi-Cola
Bottling Co. unit sales manager Ernie Oliver said the company
donated 25 cases of soft drinks, each case containing 24
bottles.
“Some employees here locally and throughout our
system are currently serving (in the military), and we thought it
was an admirable thing to help folks coming from the local community
and trying to protect our freedoms,” Oliver said.
Today’s
deployment, with a planned police escort, will begin at 12:15 p.m.
at the National Guard Armory on Stonewall Jackson Boulevard, and the
route will continue along the U.S. 21 Bypass to U.S. 601 and on to
Interstate 26.
South Carolina Army National Guard officials
encourage the public to offer their support by lining the sides of
the U.S. 21 Bypass and all along the deployment route. Individuals
are encouraged to wear patriotic colors and to bring an American
flag with them in a show of support.
Businesses along the
route are also encouraged to place a yellow ribbon outside their
establishments.
Prior to the escort, an informal ceremony
will be held at the armory with family, friends and community
leaders. The armory ceremony will not be open to the
public.
The event is being sponsored and prepared by the
Family Readiness Group, a volunteer-based network overseen by the
state National Guard.
Task Force Phoenix is a five-year
multinational effort designed to keep the battered nation on the
road to recovery following the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban after
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The coalition force is tasked
with conducting the training of the Afghan National Army and the
Afghan National Police. It reports through the NATO chain of
command, which formally took full responsibility for Afghanistan in
October 2006.
The Orangeburg unit, along with Walterboro,
Darlington/Florence and Hampton of the 163rd Battalion, joined about
1,800 men and women of the 218th for a ceremonial send-off at
Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia earlier this month.
The
deployment is considered the largest in the history of the South
Carolina National Guard.
T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be
reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com
or by phone at 803-533-5551. Discuss this and other stories online
at TheTandD.com.
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