A Farewell For Arms
HARRISONBURG — It doesn’t look like much, the little plastic piece in Barbara Dixon’s hand.
A metal chain floats the token at the center of her chest, near her heart. Her fingers reach for it now and then, especially when she talks about her son.
She’s been driving Greg to National Guard duty ever since he signed up as a high school student in Ashburn. He’s 20 now, but she still wanted to be here for him as he left for his first tour of duty in Iraq.
He, and dozens of Valley soldiers, left for deployment Monday after a send-off celebration from Harrisonburg’s armory, the home of Company A, 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Brigade, 29th Division.
The soldiers have a long journey ahead. They traveled to Charlottesville Monday to meet up with other companies. Then, it’s on to Camp Shelby in Mississippi and, finally, to Iraq.
They’ll travel nearly 8,000 miles over the coming weeks.
Like “a gypsy,” Dixon says, she wishes she could follow him. Greg will be gone for 13 months.
“It’s a long time not to see him but he knows, more than anything, I’m proud of him,” Dixon says, still clutching her token. It’s a plastic, white copy of a dog tag that’s given to family and friends of soldiers.
She only let go to envelop Greg in a hug.
“I’m going to wear this,” she says, taking the dog tag back into her hand, “until he comes home.”
‘We’ll Get Through It’
First Lt. Brett Sweeney knows how hard it is. He offered families a word of wisdom his father once shared at a National Guard Christmas party.
“He said, ‘There are good times in the Army and there are bad times in the Army,’” Sweeney told the hundreds who gathered at the armory. “I can’t determine what today is, if it’s a good time or a bad time.”
Both, says Jackie Harmon.
“No one likes to say goodbye,” she says, reaching for the hand of her husband, Spc. Patrick Harmon. “But these guys are excited. They’ve got to go.”
Of course they are, he says.
“We’re excited to get over there and get this thing started,” says Patrick Harmon, a 25-year-old from Staunton.
This is his second deployment, having served before in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005.
“That was awful,” says Jackie, 24. “This is much better. I’m less worried. A little experience helps.”
That goes for her husband, too.
“He’s an old pro,” Jackie says. “We just can’t wait for him to get back home. I’m gonna miss that boy.”
Lots of wives and girlfriends will.
Just months ago, Jamie Marshall started dating Pfc. Jeffery Weeks, a 20-year-old from Verona on his first deployment.
“I’ll miss him … a lot,” Marshall, 16, of Swoope says. “It’ll be really hard.”
“Of course it’ll be hard,” Weeks says, sliding his arm around Marshall’s shoulder. “But we’ll get through it.”
‘It Just Breaks Her Heart’
That’s just the attitude that gets guys through, says Spc. Wes Runion, who has experience from serving with Harmon in Afghanistan.
“It was good,” the Dayton native says of the deployment. “I grew up a little bit. I was 19 when I was over there.”
Now 22, Runion is a junior at Virginia Tech.
He, too, was anxious to go. “We’re supporting the mission,” he says. “We’re ready.”
Sometimes family members aren’t.
“My little girl doesn’t like it much,” says Sgt. Aaron Katz, a 28-year-old from Grottoes.
Lesley is only 6.
“She doesn’t remember the earlier deployments,” his wife, Kristi, 27, says.
While he’s worried about his daughter, Katz says he’s confident that Kristi will do all right.
“She’s a strong woman,” he says. “It’s just the little girl. It breaks her heart.”
Lots of hearts were broken.
‘Support Our Guys’
Although the gathering carried on for hours Monday afternoon, the preparation began far earlier. Sometime around 3 a.m., veterans woke to start the very first batches of baked chicken that were served at the ceremony.
The Harrisonburg and Bridgewater posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars orchestrated the show of support.
“We’re veterans,” says Eddie Black, a Vietnam vet with the Bridgewater post. “We just want to support our guys going over.”
Soldiers like Dixon say it makes their job that much easier. Harrisonburg Mayor Rodney Eagle came too to show his support.
“We want to see it. We need to see it,” Dixon says quickly, before strapping on his backpack and shuffling over to join a formation.
Within the hour, the soldiers are onboard a bus charted for Charlottesville. They’ve already said their goodbyes but farewells, it seems, never linger long enough.
It’s almost 3 p.m. when buses pull from the curb. Soldiers strain to see through the tinted glass, out onto the armory lawn where loved ones wave.
They’re off.
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