Sgt. Josh James captured a family picture just hours before him and roughly 100 other Tennessee National Guardsmen boarded a bus at the National Guard Armory in Elizabethton Friday morning. Although the picture showed him, his three kids, and pregnant wife smiling, the happy face was only temporary.
“I feel a little nervous,” James said. “Not really dreading it, not really looking forward to it.”
James, who calls Elizabethton home, is a member of the 776th Maintenance Battalion. The Elizabethton-based unit, along with its Mountain City detachment, began a 400-day deployment Friday that will ultimately take the group to Iraq.
The time away will bring plenty of uncertainty for soldiers like James.
"I'd like to be home for my kid to be born, but I don't know if it's going to happen or not,” James said.
His wife has a lot on her plate. Her baby girl is due in February. In the meantime, she’ll raise the couple’s three kids on her own. If that’s not enough, next Friday, she’ll close on a new house for the growing family.
"There's so many things that will come within a year,” Carla James said. “Our daughter will go to school, our son will go to pre-school, our baby will be born, a home will be bought."
Sgt. Robert Fillers, also of Elizabethton, shared his concerns too. His fourth daughter is just six months-old.
"The families back here is the ones that's got it the roughest,” Fillers said. “(My wife’s) got to be mom and dad, take care of the house, business. She's got to do it all."
Some of the soldiers in this unit have served in Iraq before. However, this time is different for 39 year-old SSgt. Dennis Erwin, an Elizabethton firefighter.
"When we went to Desert Storm I was a 21 year-old who didn't have a family,” Erwin said. “That's the only emotions I've got right now is leaving my family."
The soldiers didn’t just say goodbye to their families Friday. They also said goodbye to their day jobs. Hampton High School teacher SSgt. Jeff Bradley left his students behind.
"It was tough,” Bradley said. “I think I taught for about three weeks before we started training, so I had to leave at three weeks of school."
As the dozens of soldiers said their goodbyes and loaded the buses, wives like Carla James stole kisses from their husbands. Despite their efforts, those kisses only kept their soldiers around for a few extra seconds.
By 9:00 am, it was time to go. The soldiers were due in Indiana for roughly two months of training, before heading to Iraq in December. So, as the two buses pulled away, families accepted the inevitable and gave their soldiers a hero’s goodbye.
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