Members of the Air Guard 152nd Airlift Wing said goodbye to their loved ones before deploying to Kuwait early Tuesday morning.
The guard members will be stationed in Southwest Asia for 120 days. But whether this is their first deployment or their fifth, they said it is always tough to leave loved ones behind.
"My mom's more worried abut me deploying because it's my first time over to the desert," A1C Brian McGary said. "She is just emotionally caught up on it."
"It is never easy leaving family and friends," Senior Master Sergeant Paul Bright said.
It was an emotional goodbye at the Nevada Air National Guard base in Reno. The guardsmen and women will be flying and maintaining aircraft and performing airlift and drop missions in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
They said one of the toughest parts of this deployment is that they will be gone for the whole holiday season, leaving their families behind. The families said technology like Skype and cell phones does make the separation a little bit easier. But even with that, they didn't want to waste the opportunity to send their airmen and women off with the right messages.
"I want to tell you to be safe, and I love you," Senior Master Sergeant Bright's wife Christy Bright said, "and Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year."
The guardsmen and women will be stationed in Kuwait until mid-spring.
Written by Arianna Bennett
