More then 100 give sendoff to 133rd

CHARLES CITY - Derrick Wygle slipped the cap from his head and plopped it on his wife, Ona's, as the two laughed and embraced.

The Waverly newlyweds squeezed as much joy as they could into the time they had together Monday evening before Derrick, 24, and his comrades in the 1st Battalion 133rd Infantry of the Iowa National Guard are deployed today to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

More than 100 friends, family members and community residents gathered at the Charles City Armory to bid them farewell, applaud them and pray for them.

The deployment is said to be the largest deployment of National Guard soldiers since World War II.

“Citizen soldiers, it is hard to overstate what our country is asking you to do,” Charles City Mayor Jim Erb told the soldiers in one of several tributes from state and local dignitaries. “You are going to Afghanistan at a time that is very critical for our country. ... The service will be difficult, demanding and dangerous. But that is why you are being sent, because you are prepared.”

Some, like Derrick Wygle, had served previously in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. But most of the 35 soldiers in the mortar platoon were new recruits.

Wygle said he believes the families are taking the brunt of the deployment.

“Us soldiers are ready, we're prepared,” he said. “We train non-stop.

“You can never train your family enough. When we deploy, we've got each other. I know what to expect.”

But the families are left behind to carry on alone.

“I'm very overwhelmed,” Ona, 24, acknowledged.

Just married in January, she will now take over duties her husband used to handle around the house. She is grateful for friends and family who are there for support, including a friend whose husband is also being deployed to Afghanistan, she said.

Christian Bandin, 23, of Thompson said his good-byes to his mother, Maria, and his brother, Angelo, 18.

“I'm as ready as I'll ever be,” he said.

Maria Bandin said she doesn't like the fact that her older son is leaving, “but I don't have any choice. That's what he wants.”

Bandin said he is proud to go.

“I really look forward to serving my country,” he said. “I feel prepared. I trust in myself and my comrades-in-arms.”

Becky Johnson of Osage was seeing off two of her sons in the 133rd Infantry Regiment - Jordan, 23, and Jacob, 19.

They have known about the deployment for about a year, the brothers said.

They said they are anxious to go.

Platoon Sgt. Thomas Sage of Waterloo, who has been to Afghanistan twice as an imbedded trainer with the Afghan Army, said he has come to like Afghanistan and its people.

“I feel very comfortable in taking them over,” he said of the 133rd. “After all the hard training we've done, we're like family now.”

The soldiers will report to Camp Shelby, Miss., for additional training, then to Afghanistan for a one-year assignment. Their job is to support the Afghan National Army and police units and to assist in humanitarian relief initiatives.

By KRISTIN BUEHNER, Mason City Globe Gazette