BORDENTOWN, N.J. - When you mention Army engineers, most people think of building roads or buildings. For the New Jersey Army National Guard's 150th Engineer Company, their mission in Afghanistan will be the opposite. They will be deconstructing.
The 113 Citizen-Soldiers received a sendoff at the Joint Military and Family Assistance Center in Bordentown on Saturday. Among the well-wishers was New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.
She addressed the capacity crowd, recalling how these engineers were on the frontlines during Hurricane Sandy replenishing protective berms. Now they are going to different frontline.
"You are the generation that gives us hope that tomorrow will be truly better than today," said Guadagno.
The unit's mission this time is not restoring dunes, but returning areas in Afghanistan back to how they look prior to the military buildup.
"It is important not only important in the respect that we are closing down FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) and reducing our nation's footprint in Afghanistan but also has the implied mission that we are helping to bring our brother soldiers home," said Capt. Jeffrey Hager, commander of the horizontal engineer company
Hager, of Pemberton Township, has been an officer in the unit since it was a detachment. He sees the mission ahead will not be easy. "But I know the 150th will take it all in stride," added Hager.
"The important work of the 150th in Afghanistan...will allow all of our troops to come home faster and our entire nation wants to thank you for that," added Guadagno.
She expressed her mixed emotions as a parent whose son is at the Air Force Academy when Guadagno told the parents: "I can't imagine how hard it also is to let them go."
"They are heroes, they want to go," said Guadagno.
The final farewell was on Sunday as a pair of buses rolled out of Hammonton with a police and motorcycle escort. Nearly one hundred riders brought the soldiers to the gate of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst where the motorcyclists dismounted and saluted the engineers as they entered the installation.
"Missing your loved one gets easier every day because even though it is one day further from the last time you saw them, it is one closer to next time you will," added Hager.
The 150th Engineer Company includes Citizen-Soldiers from 19 of the state's 21 counties. Four-dozen soldiers from Delaware will deploy with the New Jersey Guard members as they leave for mobilization training at Camp Shelby, Miss.