FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.—Thousands of friends and families filled the coliseum, cheering and waving as the soldiers walked inside. A few held signs, including: “We miss you daddy.” Many cried at the thought of loved ones being deployed to Iraq for the next year.
Nearly 9,000 people gathered to say goodbye Tuesday to about 4,000 members of the North Carolina National Guard’s 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team—one of the last combat units headed to Iraq—along with a battalion from West Virginia and a company from Colorado.
Federal officials joined Gov. Beverly Perdue, several members of Congress and military commanders in thanking the men and woman amid thunderous applause inside the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, home to the Army’s sprawling Fort Bragg.
“You’re citizen-soldiers in the finest tradition,” said Army Secretary Pete Geren, asking soldiers sitting in the front row to stand at ease. “We owe you a debt that we can never repay.”
Geren called the soldiers’ pending service the “heavy burden of freedom since 9-11.” North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge, whose district includes parts of the Fayetteville region, added: “You are ordinary Americans that have been chosen to do an extraordinary job. Together, we pray that God may keep you safe.”
Spouses, children and other members of soldiers’ families listened as several speakers moved through the podium on the coliseum floor, looking into a sea of camouflaged troops.
Crystal Benton, 28, said she knows the war in Iraq is winding down but still worries about her husband, Sgt. Matthew Benton, 32. This will be his second tour in Iraq—his National Guard team was deployed for more than a year in 2004.
“I just want him to come home safely,” she said. “Nobody wants to go period. But to go for a second time, you can’t imagine how I feel.”
She stopped talking suddenly and glanced at her cell phone. Her husband had just sent her a text message. “He wants to know where I am,” she said, then looked around and waved. She didn’t know if he saw her.
“This is so hard,” she said between tears. “I just want to tell him I love him and that I’ll miss him.”
The team is headquartered in Clinton, and the soldiers recently spent several weeks training at Fort Irwin, Calif. Sgt. Jobel Barbosa, a driver for E Company, said he was ready to go after months of training.
“I just want to get it over with,” said Barbosa, 29, of Hamlet. “We’ve trained. We prepared. Now it’s time to get over there.”
He said he would miss his family, including his mother and his 10-year-old daughter, Christian.
“It’s not easy leaving. But the sooner I leave, the quicker I can get back. I told them not to worry, but I know they will,” he said. “I’m going to think about them every day. But I promised them I’ll stay safe.”
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Associated Press writer Barbara Rodriguez contributed to this report from Raleigh.
