Teary-eyed families and a grateful governor saw off about 80 Arkansas National Guardsmen early Sunday in North Little Rock.
The Kuwait-bound companies of the 77th Combat Aviation Brigade left Camp Joseph T. Robinson in a pair of charter buses after a brief deployment ceremony.
Relatives, like the Thomas family, blew kisses and waved miniature American flags as the buses left. Marcus Thomas, a full-time member of the Indiana National Guard, came to town to send off his son, Spc. Brandon Anderson-Thomas.
Marcus is more accustomed to being the one boarding the bus; in 2005, he deployed to Afghanistan.
On Sunday, he watched his son leave behind a sobbing 7-year-old boy.
"It's hard leaving family," he said. "You never get used to that."
The group that left Arkansas on Sunday is comprised of aviation support personnel. They will provide helicopter maintenance and operations to the group of about 300 Arkansas guardsmen and groups of other military components already on the ground.
The deployment is part of the United States' longstanding cooperation with Kuwait to promote "security, stability, and our mutual interests in the region," according to a Guard news release.
Guard officials said the members of 77th Combat Aviation Brigade will support aviation assets that provide security and training to the region, and they'll also support combat missions targeting the Islamic State group.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson began his brief remarks thanking the soldiers and their families. He then recalled his stint at the Department of Homeland Security during President George W. Bush's administration.
"We don't have terror attacks here because our military men and women are forward deployed," he said.
In addition to the almost 400 Arkansans deployed to Kuwait, about 700 soldiers in the Arkansas Guard's 39th Infantry Brigade are stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas making final preparations for their deployment to the Horn of Africa, a Guard spokesman said.
The Guard has additional deployments planned in the spring and summer to Central America and Kosovo.
Those who deployed Sunday are expected back near year's end. Until then, husbands and wives of soldiers will take care of homes, finances and children alone.
A wife of one of the deploying soldiers was wandering through the hangar where the ceremony was held carrying an infant in a car seat. Someone offered to help her, but she declined.
"I've got to get used to it," she said.
As if on cue, Maj. Gen. Mark Berry, adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, assured the soldiers their families would be looked after.
"We won't forget about them while you're gone," he told the 80 soldiers standing in formation.
Metro on 02/06/2017