'A little bit tougher'
Guard troops take in holiday ahead of deployment
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Sgt. J.J. Bixby poses for a photograph with his wife, Leanne, 10-month-old daughter, Jordan, and dog Ginger at their home in Rutland on Wednesday evening. Cassandra Hotaling / Rutland Herald |
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By Cristina Kumka Staff Writer - Published: November 26, 2009
Sgt JJ Bixby of the Vermont National Guard already made the tapes his wife will use to show their young daughter what a bedtime story read by Daddy looks and sounds like.
"There still will be a part of me here while I'm gone," he said.
Today, the soldier faces a Thanksgiving holiday he may not get the chance to celebrate next year with his family.
Bixby's story is one of about 1,400. Half of all Vermont National guardsmen will be serving in Afghanistan by the beginning of the year.
Some troops will enter family members' homes adorned with signs reading "Vermont Supports Our Troops," and family members will be thinking what next year's holiday will bring when their loved one is at war.
Troops from Rutland and beyond, some who are leaving and some who have been deployed and came back, say today's holiday will be especially difficult given the circumstance that this will be the last holiday spent with loved ones for an undetermined time.
Command Sgt. Maj. Vince Collins was at home in Massachusetts preparing for what he called the usual "big to-do" — 26 family members feasting in a church hall because one home wasn't big enough.
Collins, of the Vermont National Guard's 86th Brigade Special Troops Battalion of Rutland, will be deployed to Afghanistan in the coming months, his first deployment overseas since serving in Iraq in 2005.
"It doesn't matter whether someone in the family is deploying or not," Collins said from his Ashby, Mass., home Wednesday. "Even the first time we went, we didn't do anything different."
"We" was Collins and his son, who was flying home Wednesday.
A U.S. Marine, that son is deploying to Afghanistan, too, but chances are they won't see each other there, Collins said.
This year, the Christmas tree will go up weeks ahead of time so it will be ready when Collins gets back from training in December. Most of his time will be spent with his new grandbaby, he said.
Bixby will continue old holiday traditions and embrace new ones as his family grows.
Bixby, a patrol commander with the Rutland County Sheriff's Department, joined the National Guard at the age of 17, 18 years ago.
His father flew helicopters in Vietnam and Bixby served in Iraq for a year in 2005.
He has four daughters — one of them turned 13 this month when he was training for his deployment to Afghanistan and another is a baby.
Bixby spent the day before Thanksgiving getting what he called his "fix" — spending the most time he could with his "strong" family.
Bixby said it's going to be a "little bit tougher" this time around.
"You know what's coming and you kind of know what to expect and you know what the heartache is going to be," Bixby said while on patrol Wednesday. "There are a lot of birthdays, Christmas, a lot of holidays you just don't think about until you're not home."
For others, talking about holidays, and missing them, is still hard decades later.
"It's very hard when you're away … support your troops," said Dan Colton, outside Rutland's American Legion Post 31 Wednesday afternoon.
Colton, a Vietnam veteran with the U.S. Navy, said he "just doesn't talk" about the holidays he missed or what they were like when he got back.
Linda Perham, Vermont's candidate for the Legion's national commander, said holidays won't pass the troops by, but neither will a feeling of absence.
Perham served 13 years as a nurse with the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany and across the United States.
"One holiday we each made a special dish that our mom made and we ate it together," Perham said. "Any of us who are stranded or away from our family are going to think about them having a great time and us being alone. But now we have Web cams, cell phones … our communication access isn't as cut off as it used to be."
For family assistance when a spouse or relative is deployed, call the Rutland Armory at 775-0194.
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com