A sendoff ceremony was held Tuesday for about 120 members of the Connecticut Army National Guard ahead of their deployment to Cuba.
For the first time ever, the 643rd Military Police Company will head to Guantanamo Bay. They’ll be responsible for the facility’s detainee operations.
“A lot of our soldiers are fairly young, and this will be their first deployment. It’s definitely an exciting time for my soldiers. It’s my first deployment, so I’m very excited,” said Captain Robin Felder, the company commander.
It’s a mission that lasts about a year, and it’s a sacrifice soldiers and their families make together. For the family of Specialist E4 Andre Vasquez, this first deployment leaves them filled with emotions. But they know they’ll be able to stay in touch through letters, pictures, and phone calls.
“I’m happy, but I’m also sad because I’m not going to see him at all. And it’s going to be hard because he’s going to be so far away,” said Vasquez’s 11-year-old sister, Mia.
“I’m very proud, and that’s all I talk about,” said Vasquez’s mom, Yolanda. “Whenever I see someone who wants to go in the military, I talk about the National Guard.”
Excitement is a feeling many soldiers feel about the deployment, but they also know how tough it will be to leave their families for so long. Specialist Luis Roche has a wife and two young sons and says he’ll miss birthdays but that using FaceTime and calling them will help.
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“As a soldier I know I am going to sacrifice time with my family. It is what I signed up to do,” said Roche.
While it will be the first time in Cuba for this company, it’s the second deployment of Connecticut troops to the country in four years - the 192nd Military Police Battalion, deployed on a similar mission to Guantanamo in 2015.
The 643rd Military Police Company leave the state in mid-March for further training in Texas, then head to Cuba.
“We'll be in charge of basically making sure the detainees are properly cared for, that the care and custody is done in the right way, humane manner, just basically make sure the day to day operations of the prison run the way they're supposed to run,” explained Captain Felder.
This is the unit’s first deployment in over a decade. Their last was in 2006, when they spent more than a year in Germany.
