Nearly 200 Guardsmen gathered to spend time together with their families and friends in the Ward 8 Recreation Center. The company is a mounted unit, whose mission is to provide convoy support, accompanying vehicles across undisclosed routes that traverse zones still struggling for stability.
“We’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” said Spec. E-4 Brian Primeaux, standing next to his wife. Nearby the wife of a colleague held his 10-month-old daughter McKenzie. The unit will be gone for at least a year, he said, spending the majority of that time in Baghdad.
  
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In addition to caring for their daughter, Jeanne said she will be in contact with Primeaux as much as possible while he is away.
“I’ll talk to him on the telephone, the computer by e-mail and maybe video,” she said.
Spec. E-4 Jason Arceneaux, whose wife, Miranda, stood nearby holding the Primeaux’s daughter, said although they are prepared to go, knowing they would soon be leaving is still difficult.
“It’s almost like a last holiday, so we want to enjoy it,” Arceneaux said. “It’s an emotional holiday.”
The unit has been training two years for the upcoming deployment to Iraq, training which readies the soldiers physically and mentally, said Capt. Hal Bridges, the unit’s commanding officer.
Bridges said the Jeanerette unit’s official going away ceremony is Jan. 7. By Jan. 9, they will be in Camp Shelby, Ala., ready to deploy.
“These guys have had a long enough lead time,” he said. “We’ve had a solid two years of training. We’re here today so we can talk, us to them and them to us.”
Some of the unit’s members already have experience serving in Iraq and are prepared to return for another year’s rotation.
“A lot of us have, but some haven’t,” Bridges said. “Most of the leadership has had one tour already.”
Bridges himself is a veteran of the Operation Iraqi Freedom 3, which lasted from 2004 to 2005, having served in the military for the past 13 years. With that experience behind him, Bridges is ready to return and looks forward to answering his country’s call once again.
“I want to go to Iraq,” Bridges said. “I’m in it to win, for as long as it takes. My dad served in the National Guard, so I grew up with the military.”
Seated at one of the long tables filling the hall, Spec. E-4 Lana Martin sat untangling a toy fishing pole for her 5-year-old daughter Ansley, surrounded by her two other girls, Genevieve, 3, and 11-month-old Reagan. Originally from Florida, she met her husband, Mike, who is from Erath, while both of them were serving in the military. After nearly a decade of service, Mike left the military last April, and on this tour he will be at home caring for the girls while his wife serves her first tour overseas.
“He’s been over (to Iraq) twice,” Martin said. “He shares what he knows, but we both know it’s different when you get there.”
Martin feels content knowing her husband will be looking after their daughters, and all of them will be looked after by the pair’s extended family of relatives and their military family. Martin said, however, she sometimes has conflicting emotions concerning her departure.
“Yes, but like I always say, it’s bittersweet because it’s what we’ve been trained to do, so I’m excited to go,” Martin said.
Sunday’s family day began at 10 a.m. as state Rep. Simone Champagne, D-Jeanerette, spoke to the assembly following opening remarks by Jeanerette Mayor Arthur Verret.
Live music was provided throughout the day by Sublimation Effect and a DJ. Santa Claus arrived with gifts for the children after food provided by the Jeanerette Chamber of Commerce was served. Door prizes were awarded as the day drew to a close and the hall gradually emptied, with only a few briefly remaining to watch a last bit of football on television.
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