It was standing room only at the Worland Eagles Club Saturday afternoon as friends and family of the 2-300th C Battery Wyoming National Guard gathered to wish well for the soldiers who headed to Fort Hood, Texas, Monday in preparation for deployment to Kuwait.
First Sgt. Tim Metro, who will be serving his second deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom, emceed the ceremony, which lasted just over 30 minutes. Metro honored Basin and Greybull veterans at the start of the ceremony — Lee Lapp, Don Loob and Charles Pearl, all of Basin, and Rev. Mike McMillin, of Greybull, who offered the invocation and benediction for the ceremony.
Metro also recognized the area mayors and legislators in attendance – Lovell Mayor Bruce Morrison, Basin Mayor Phil Juillard, Cody Mayor Nancy Tia Brown and State Rep. Collin Simpson, State Rep. Pat Childers of Cody
Worland Mayor Kreg Lombard spoke to those crowded into the meeting room, “I think we’ve doubled the size of Worland today. Do we support our troops or what? I stand here with pride and great humility as I speak to this group of American heroes. Worland-area heroes from around the Big Horn Basin are embarking to a war-torn areas of our planet to protect our way of life. For this I thank them, and the willingness to serve this great nation of ours.”
The mayor said he is familiar with what the families will be going through, having had a son serve in Baghdad and a grandson serve in Somalia. “I understand the pressures of these young American heroes as they go and leave their loved ones and their jobs to serve their country. A part of all of us will be going with you. I am sure I speak for all of us when I say we are looking forward to your safe return after your successful mission.”
Lt. Col. Brian Nesvick, battalion commander for the 2-300th Field Artillery, was one of two keynote speakers. “Wyoming soldiers are definitely supported better than soldiers anywhere else in the world. We certainly don’t take that for granted. It’s reflected in our soldiers’ performance and service when they do go outside the state. That’s a credit to all of you and all the other communities in Wyoming.”
He said it’s common practice in Wyoming communities for citizens to come up to soldiers in stores or restaurants and thank them for their service.
Nesvick said when Wyoming deploys its soldiers it is a conglomerate effort that’s made of an entire team — not just of soldiers.
“I look at this Powder River team being comprised of all of those folks who support the overall effort to go and protect our country and serve our state. He said the families are foremost part of that team effort with families having a tougher time than the soldiers.
“Being a husband or wife at home not knowing what goes on over there every day, I think can be a lot more mentally draining than the soldier on the ground, who knows what’s going to happen that day and knows his job well and knows he’s got good equipment and knows it’s time to go git ‘er done. My hat is off specifically to the family members (not just spouses but parents and siblings),” Nesvick said.
He also thanked the employers for giving time to soldiers for the deployment in 2004, for additional training for the HIMARS system and now for the second deployment.
Nesvick thanked the service of past veterans. “We stand on their shoulders as we go forward and protect and serve our country. We’d be absolute fools if we didn’t embrace the lessons they’ve learned in the past and we take that very seriously. We thank you for going and making mistakes so all of us can learn and that we can continue to become a better force.”
He said elected officials have shown support for enacting legislation to support soldiers when they return and to support families when soldiers are deployed.
“I look at this as a team, the Powder River team. For one part of the team to be successful requires efforts on everyone’s part. When the soldiers go over there and do the work our nation asks us to do, those successes are shared by everyone on the team,” Nesvick said.
Capt. Glenn Nicholson said in the past 18 months when the unit was notified of deployment they have been busy with training and combining units into the Charlie “C” Battery for the deployment.
“As commander of this unit I challenge everyone of my soldiers to learn something new about the Army every day,” Nicholson said. “I have a lot of faith and confidence in the job that they are going to do. These soldiers out here on this floor will go in harm’s way, there’s no doubt about that, but I can guarantee you, and rest assured that the majority of these soldiers have performed in this theater operation before and performed very, very well.”
Nicholson said the soldiers will be part of a convoy-security mission.
He then turned his remarks to the friends and family of the soldiers because they have the hardest time, dealing with hot water heaters, vehicles that break down and paying bills.
“I salute you. I respect the job that you do and it makes our job very easy when we’re deployed to have those people at home that are the rock in our lives that can take care of the fires on the home front so we can go out there and do our job,” Nicholson said.
In talking to his “fellow comrades” he said he expects nothing but the best and is excited about the job that they are going to do and “know we are going to go over to Kuwait and ‘southern Iraq’ and be very successful.”
Nicholson ended, “This is what we have to do. Each and every one of us that wears this uniform have volunteered to do this mission and we will do it with every one of you in our hearts. And we will do it to the best of our ability.”