Monday, December 13, 1999
Guard answers holiday call to Kuwait
Pre-Christmas deployment met with resolution
BY SARA J. BENNETT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BLUE ASH — Leaving home at the holidays for duty in a foreign country is hard enough.
For 73 members of the 123rd Air Control Squadron of the Ohio Air National Guard based here, Sunday's gloomy skies and wet weather made leaving for a four-month mission in Kuwait even tougher.
“It just had to rain today,” Airman Dennis Williams of Cheviot said as he bent over a plateful of the chicken and rice served to the guardsmen before they left for the airport.
“Standing out in the rain and saying your goodbyes just don't make it any better.”
Airman Williams, 20, and fellow guardsmen will spend four months in Ali Al Salem, Kuwait, monitoring the southern no-fly zone over Iraq. They learned of the deployment in September, and most celebrated Christmas early.
Still, when it came time Sunday for families to leave their loved ones at the Air National Guard base in Blue Ash, emotions ran high.
“I've got two girls, and they're not used to Dad being away at Christmas,” said Tech. Sgt. Rusty Estep, 38, of Mount Orab. “(Leaving them) was harder than I thought it would be.”
The guardsmen will have a variety of duties in Kuwait, from coordinating midair refueling to using radar and other surveillance to check for violations of the southern no-fly zone.
Although the mission does have risks — guardsmen will be stationed at the northernmost base to Iraq's border — security will be tight, said Maj. Ann Coghlin, base spokeswoman.
Sgt. Estep, who spent 18 years in active duty with the Air Force, said he isn't worried for his safety.
He is one of about 25 of the deployed guardsmen who serve full time. The rest are traditional guardsmen who commit to duty one weekend a month and 15 additional days a year.
Airman Christina Valentino, 21, of Harrison signed up for the Air National Guard in June. As a civilian, she works as a patient care assistant at Bethesda North Hospital.
“I never thought I'd be going as far off as I'm going, and I could have held off a couple of years,” she said. “But I guess that's what makes it so exciting.”
The Air National Guard held a Christmas party and prayer service for the deployed guardsmen and their families Tuesday. Gov. Bob Taft attended.
After dinner, buses took the guardsmen to the airport. Their 20-hour flight left at 8:15 p.m.
Toting a plastic bag full of gummy bears, Airman Valentino said she was ready. But her thoughts still lingered on Christmas Day and her family celebrating without her.
“I've never missed a holiday like this with my parents,” she said. “We're really close, and for me not to be able to be there and share it with them will be hard. It will make next year all the more special.”
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