Loved Ones Say Goodbye to Soldiers Deploying Overseas

(KNSI) – Sixty-five men and women from a St. Cloud-based Minnesota National Guard unit are headed for Kuwait.

A send-off ceremony was held at the St. Cloud Armory Tuesday afternoon for the B Company 1-194 – also known as the Tank Company – as they boarded a bus on their way to Fort Bliss, Texas, before heading overseas in support of Operation Spartan Shield.

Jake Judd (KNSI)

DeAndre Larson has been with the company for about eight years, and this is his first deployment. He says he’s excited and nervous but knows what he’s doing is for the greater good.

“There’s rumors kind of floating around that we might get to train with other countries. I’m pretty excited about that. I’m nervous for you know, leaving my friends and family. This is the longest I’ve ever been away from them. But I think what will happen in the future outweighs the struggles that could happen while I’m deployed.”

His new fiance, Jasmin Lotten, says she’s proud of her man.

“I’m very proud of him, but obviously we’re all going to miss him a lot, but, we’re very proud of him.”

Lotten says she’s not nervous at all about him being gone.

Wendy Lane’s son Jared is also being deployed for the first time. She says she’s a “ball of emotions,” but the dominant one is concern. She says she’s concerned for his safety, but it’s also “sadness that I’m going to miss him for a year. Lots of things going on right now in the heart and in the mind.”

She says her son has tried his best to reassure her, but there are a lot of emotions swirling with him, too. She says he’s experiencing “excitement, uncertainty, concern for family members he’s leaving behind and being gone a year.” Lane says it has been a tough adjustment, but it’s something they’re all “very proud of” Jared for doing.

Both Lane and Lotten say they’ll be relying on technology to keep in touch.

March 7th, roughly 1,100 members of Task Force 1-194 left for Fort Bliss, Texas, before heading off to Kuwait, also in support of Operation Spartan Shield.

Lane offered one last sentiment before the company boarded the bus.

“God bless our troops.”

KNSI News Director Jennifer Lewerenz contributed to this story.