WALBRIDGE, Ohio — Both nerves and excitement filled the Lake High School gymnasium, as friends and family anxiously watched their uniformed loved ones' call to duty ceremony Saturday afternoon.
One-hundred and fifty-seven members of the Ohio Army National Guard's 1483rd Transportation Unit stood together as they were called to deployment.
Joshua Lee, commander of the unit, said that the ceremony marked a significant milestone for many of the soldiers, including Lee, as it was their first deployment.
"It's kind of what we all stood up there (for) and raised our right hand to do," said Lee. "It's kind of our culminating event as a soldier to deploy."
Seasoned and novice officers stood side by side. For those going into this deployment as their first, it is surely nerve-wracking. However, those who have been deployed once or twice before see it as a learning experience.
Seasoned guardsmen like Sgt. Sir Abernathy view this step as a learning experience for the young soldiers.
"What I tell soldiers a lot of times is when you deploy, especially in our job, you actually learn or understand why we do a lot of the things we do here stateside," said Abernathy. "And you do it all the time there, versus once a month here."
Abernathy was first deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and understands how the new soldiers feel.
He states that the best way to keep the new deployees working hard is by helping them feel like a part of the team and treating them like family.
"A lot of them are nervous and fearful of the unknown," he continued. "You got your buddies, you got your crew, your clique, you got people you can learn from easily and people not so much. But take the good with the bad and do what you can with it."
While the 1483rd unit is deployed it will support Operation Spartan Shield and Operation Inherent Resolve.
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