Twenthy-eight members of the Virgin Islands National Guard left St. Thomas Wednesday on their way to Kosovo.
Joined by tearful but positive family members, the group assembled at Gate 10 in the Cyril E. King Airport.
The plane carrying the troops flew from St. Thomas to St. Croix where it picked up the rest of the 100-plus force.
This is the first deployment for Sgt. Llewellyn Edinborough Jr. His younger sister, Shakyra Frett, and his mother, Eleanore Leseuer, joined him and the other troops and families at the airport.
Edinborough had a going-away bowl of goat water with him and speculated it might be awhile before he got another.
Remaining positive was important to Leseuer in seeing her 24-year old son off.
"I didn’t want to come here and be all emotional," Leseuer said. "I wanted him to leave happy."
The Myron family has two men in uniform, one deploying with the VING, and the other
carrying letters.
Postal worker Myron Howard Sr came to bid farewell to his son Spec. Myron Howard Jr.
"I will stay in touch with e-mail and Skype," Howard Jr. said.
This will be his longest period away from his family with the exception of basic training Howard, Jr. said.
First Sgt. Dale Carty is deploying for the second time; his first mission was to Guantanamo Bay.
Carty’s wife, Bebe, who was holding back tears, held the couple’s sleeping month-old granddaughter, Li’niaya Cantois, in her arms.
"Its just hard," Bebe said.
Carty’s departure leaves step-son Ala Cantois and his older brother as the men of the house.
"It is going to be hard for us," Cantois said. "Its hard not having my father around. He teaches me the right thing to do."
The troops will receive six weeks of training at Camp Atterbury, IN. Some of the training they will receive before going to Kosovo will be in Serbian language skills, Carty said.
The troops have a number of high-tech ways to keep in touch with family. Most said that they will be using e-mail and instant messaging and several said that they will be using VoIP and DSN, or the Internet to contact family.
Nine-year-old
D’Andre Antoine accompanied his mother, Sgt. Dazarene Lescott, who was also joined by her mother and her cousin.
Lescott said that she would use Skype as well as Majic Jack to keep in touch with her loved ones.
Like many of her fellow troops, Lescott said she’d learned that Kosovo was cold, but its people were mainly peaceful.
The 661st Military Police Company will then perform a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, according to a VING spokesperson.
Many of the troops have been deployed before to Guantanamo Bay Cuba, as well as Iraq.
