VALDOSTA – On Monday, November 26, 2018, family members and supporters gathered at 2200 Cypress Street at the Georgia National Guard Armory to say goodbye – for a little while.
A Family Readiness Group planned a send-off for Army National Guard Delta Company 2-121, “Dakota Strong,” to head out of Valdosta bound for Fort Stewart where they will train for a while then be deployed overseas to Afghanistan in late December/early January 2019.
At 11 a.m., the armory was packed with the unit members and their families, along with Valdosta Mayor John Gayle and County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter, enjoying a big feast before they were to load up on a special chartered bus. As it began raining, they decided to leave about 15 minutes early, with bikers for escorts.
Jeff Rassatt stood outside in the gray watching the bus grow smaller as it drove away. “As a former Army officer, I’m jealous,” Rassatt said, “But as a father, I’m petrified.”
A little girl, Isabella Bennett, screams after the bus, “Daddy! Daddy! Meme and mama are crying! Look! Daddy, meme and mama are crying!” Her plaintive cries grew louder. Her mother, a beautiful long-haired young woman named Ingrid, comes up behind her and enfolds her in her arms.
Her grandmother, or “meme” as Isabella calls her, Joni Bennett, is proud of her son, “J.T.” Her family prides itself on being military strong. Her husband, Buck Bennett, remembers a day much like today when he was commanding this same unit in 2000, heading off to Bosnia. J.T. was running around in the cavernous armory like Isabella. “He’s been an infantryman since he was two-years-old running around this armory with his daddy,” Joni says.
Today he’s a young man, 30, and has been married to Ingrid for a year and a half. It is J.T.’s first deployment. Ingrid says it hasn’t completely sunken in, but she cries a few tears. She’s tough.
But not that tough.
“My personality is to act like nothing is happening,” Ingrid says. “But it’s a little bit of a reality check to watch him leave.”
For nine months these families will be without their loves, sons, daughters, wives, husbands, fathers, mothers.
“It’s really important for communities to support those who are deployed,” Joni says, as the food is put up, tables broken down, chairs folded. The party’s over, but the experience has just begun. “Reach out. Cut grass, even moms and dads appreciate it. Anyone interested in sending care packages, write notes and cards, please do. After a couple of months, people tend to forget that they have service men and women who are actively serving. People forget that we’re still in a war after 18 years.”
Joni says that people underestimate what a “touch of home” can do for someone – like her son – who is deployed. “Send them beef jerky, packs of Kool-Aid,” Joni added. “Photos. We want to encourage the community to remember them while they are there.”
Joni tells a story about raising about $500 for bakery items from one of their favorite places from their home in Brunswick. They were so excited to be sending it. When all the baked goodies arrived, oil had begun to leak out of the packaging and the inspectors immediately blew it up for security reasons. When they saw what was inside they gathered it all back together and they all still wound up eating it, all the blown up crumbs.
It matters, Joni implored. “They’re so excited to get anything,” she said. “Everybody’s thinking of them right now, but come February and March…people forget.”
“Just please remember, people are still at war and people are still at home…praying everyday,” Buck Bennett injected.
Joni urges anyone interested in sending servicemen and women care packages to contact Sgt. Isgrove at the Georgia National Guard Armory in Valdosta.
