Saturday, Nov. 08, 2008

Guardsmen bound for Afghanistan

S.C. helicopter unit leaves for yearlong mission

Nyisha Williams figures it will hit her around 6 o’clock one night.

That’s usually the time her husband returns home from work, walks through the front door, gives her a kiss and calls for the couple’s 2-year-old boy, Trenton.

But now her husband, Pfc. Michael Williams, won’t be a part of her daily routine for a while.

On Friday, Williams and about 60 members of a South Carolina Army National Guard helicopter unit left on a mission that eventually will take them to Afghanistan.

About 150 people, including top Guard leaders, attended a send-off ceremony in the Army Aviation Support Facility at McEntire Joint National Guard Station near Eastover.

Since 2001, S.C. Guard soldiers and members of the Air National Guard have served in support of the war in Afghanistan. Back in May, about 1,800 members of the Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team completed a yearlong deployment to the Southwest Asia nation.

The soldiers will spend about two months training at Fort Sill, Okla., before heading to Afghanistan.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Nyisha Williams said of what will be a yearlong separation. “I knew it could happen, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen so quick.”

Pfc. Williams’ unit, Detachment 1, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 238th Aviation Regiment, which flies the CH-47 Chinook helicopter, was formed just two years ago.

The unit, though, has a mix of experience, said its commander, Capt. Rob Rozetar, a Clemson University graduate from Pottsville, Pa.

About half of the soldiers have deployed at least once to either Afghanistan or Iraq, Rozetar said.

For Rozetar, this will be his second mission to Afghanistan, the first in 2003. He also has served in Iraq.

Having been to Afghanistan, Rozetar knows his unit will be relied on heavily to haul troops, gear and supplies.

Many areas in the mountainous country where U.S. troops are operating are accessible only by helicopter.

“There’s a lot of concern among the soldiers about what the country looks like, what the work day will be like,” Rozetar said.

Pfc. Williams, who is a salesman in civilian life, said about all he knows of Afghanistan is “it’s either cold or it’s hot.”

Reach Crumbo at (803) 771-8503.