1038th says parting words

Guardsmen prepare for year-long stint in Middle East

 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --6/6/14-- Marlie Echols, 4, holds on to her father, Specialist Joseph Echols of Paragould, Friday at Camp Robinson following a deployment ceremony for the 1038th Horizontal Construction Company. The 160 soldiers are leaving next week for Ft. Bliss as part of a nine-month deployment to Kuwait.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --6/6/14-- Marlie Echols, 4, holds on to her father, Specialist Joseph Echols of Paragould, Friday at Camp Robinson following a deployment ceremony for the 1038th Horizontal Construction Company. The 160 soldiers are leaving next week for Ft. Bliss as part of a nine-month deployment to Kuwait.

In a hall echoing with the sounds of families sharing stories and babies crying, members of the Arkansas National Guard's 1038th Horizontal Construction Company got a warm send-off Friday in advance of their deployment to Kuwait.

The roughly 160 members of the 1038th -- including combat engineers, equipment operators, maintenance and medical personnel -- gathered at the Robinson Maneuver Training Center in North Little Rock to say goodbye to their families before leaving for a nearly year-long mission in the Middle East. There, the unit will focus on improving roads, drainage systems and fortifications at U.S. bases.

Before heading to Kuwait, the 1038th will go to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, to complete a month's worth of training. The mission is in support of the U.S. military's Operation Enduring Freedom.

Danarrius Broadway, a specialist with the unit from Hughes in east Arkansas, said this would be his first deployment.

"I'm actually excited to go," he said, holding his 1-year-old niece. "Really and truly, it's like you just can't wait. At the same time, you just don't want to leave your family. But, you know the mission has to be done."

The 1038th's deployment will raise the number of Arkansas National Guard members overseas to about 275. While this will be the first overseas deployment for the 1038th, some in the unit have seen time in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 875th Engineer Battalion and the 1037th Engineer Company.

The mission to Kuwait will be the second deployment for 1st Lt. D.J. Spence, whose family attended Friday's ceremony.

Spence's mother, Donna Spence of Piggott, said she had another son deployed to the Middle East. She said goodbyes never get easier.

"I've had two sons, I've had nephews and very close friends over there, and they're just all different when they come back," she said. "They've just seen things. You see it in their eyes, they've seen things and witnessed things that -- it's just different from our way of life."

Capt. Clayton Shelley, the 1038th's unit commander, said cultural differences between the U.S. and the Middle East mean big adjustments for troops on their first deployment.

"There's a great deal of culture shock," he said. "Most of them have never been outside of the continental United States."

Shelley said this deployment will put the unit in safer circumstances than many U.S. troops see overseas.

"The general consensus is, in most places there are enemies that are kind of hostile. But where we're going ... it's a friendly atmosphere," he said. "We've been training up for several months, so we're kind of ready to show our skills that we've learned throughout the training, put them to good use."

Debbie and David Echols made the drive from Paragould to see their son, Spc. Joseph Echols, before his deployment. They said this would be his first stint overseas.

"We're not really used to it, but I think he'll be all right," David Echols said. "We're proud of him."

"We're very proud of him," Debbie Echols said. "It's a mixture of pride and anxiety, too, because he's going into the unknown. But every day's an unknown. ... When you get up today, you don't know what your future's going to hold. So, really, you've got to look at it that way."

Metro on 06/07/2014

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