fc. Brandon Kish, leans over to kiss his 13-month-old son Kass, held by his wife, Brittney early Thursday. (Bill Hess • Herald/Review)
Posted on 04/02/2010 7:40:15 PM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — They were a team: husband, wife and son.
And for the first time, facing the Kish family is a yearlong separation, or in Army-speak, deployment.
At times, it seemed the family could not get close enough, as Brandon, a private first class with Bravo Company, 86th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, and wife Brittney squeezed 13-month-old Kass between them.
Then there were times with Brandon going around in circles with a delighted son in his arms, and then putting the boy on his shoulder, as Brittney watched and smiled.
It was as if Dad wanted is son to get to know him more during the last few hours before the soldier left for Afghanistan on Thursday.
“I’m afraid he won’t know me when I come back,” the GI said.
Although the soldier said he plans to try and talk with his son and wife, “as much as I can,” while gone he said deploying will be hard.
“It’s like a double-edged sword. I signed up and knew I would be deploying,” Kish said. “But I want to stay home too.”
Agreeing was his wife, who said she will be staying in the area and knows there will be support for her and their son.
The battalion has set up a strong family support group, which has a number of post and off-fort networks to assist.
The goodbye time Thursday morning in Eifler Gym was a combination of pure military — a roll call with soldiers responding when their names were called in a variety of ways but primarily “here, sergeant” — to the family time as children ran around having fun as their soldier parent spent time with them and their spouse and other unattached soldiers mingled with friends.
Speaking to the deploying soldiers — 120 of them left Thursday and 240 are expected to leave on Saturday — Maj. Gen. John Custer said during their year in Afghanistan, “every day is going to be different.”
But, when they return and years from now when they are old and having a beer in some veterans’ club, they will talk about their time in the military, and it will include serving in Afghanistan, said Custer, who commands the Intelligence Center of Excellence and the fort.
The mission
As Custer spoke, the sun had yet to start to rise over Arizona, and the general reminded those who were deploying that they were going “to a dangerous place, a crazy place.” But it is a place where the nation’s security is being defended even though it is thousands of miles from the fort.
To the family members, Custer told them to take advantage of every support mechanism the unit and the fort can provide.
“Don’t feel you are alone, you’re not,” the general said.
To those deploying, the general said, “Soldiers, you all know your duty. It’s time to go do it.”
But it wasn’t quite time to leave the gym.
There was still some time to, as one officer said, “be with your families.”
Then as the skies over Arizona began to show some light from the rising sun, the battalion soldiers lined up to leave the gym.
Some waved to their families or friends, as families and friends waved back.
As Kish started to walk out of the gym, he ran over, kissed his crying wife and his son, who was playing with some dog tags, got back in line and before going out the door, stole one more look back at Brittney and Kass.
After the soldiers had left, Brittney and Kass departed — she still wiping tears from her face and the boy happily oblivious to what had just happened.
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@ svherald.com.
What’s ahead for soldiers?
Thursday’s departure of 120 soldiers from the 86th Expeditionary Signal Battalion was the second of three planned flights airlifting members of the unit to Afghanistan.
Their flight was to take them from the Arizona post to Fort Drum, N.Y., where deploying soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division were to get on board the contract commercial airliner and then head to Shannon, Ireland, and to Kyrgyzstan where they were to board military aircraft to go to Afghanistan.
The first departure of an advance party of about 40 soldiers left on March 24.
On Saturday, the final deployment of 240 soldiers from the battalion is scheduled to depart the fort.
The battalion soldiers will be placed at a number of sites in Afghanistan, providing communications links during the year-long deployment.
Later this year, soldiers of the 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, which like the 86th is part of the 11th Signal Brigade, are to deploy to Iraq.
fc. Brandon Kish, leans over to kiss his 13-month-old son Kass, held by his wife, Brittney early Thursday. (Bill Hess • Herald/Review)
God Bless
my prayers are with them....
I confess I sometimes forget the great sacrifices these men and women make for us. My daughter has a very good friend who is going over within 2 weeks. Please keep him in your prayers. He’s a wonderful young man.
This summer my son will also be deploying.
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