Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Emotional Send-Off As 4,000 Northwest Soldiers Deploy To Afghanistan

Members of the 2nd Stryker Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord prepare to "case" their flags in preparation for a nine month deployment to Afghanistan. Photo by Austin Jenkins
Members of the 2nd Stryker Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord prepare to "case" their flags in preparation for a nine month deployment to Afghanistan. Photo by Austin Jenkins

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Nearly four thousand Northwest-based soldiers are about to deploy for nine months to Afghanistan. The Army’s 2nd Stryker Brigade received a formal send off Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma. The departure comes amid continuing fallout from the case of suspected Afghan shooter Sgt. Robert Bales.

As an Army band played, soldiers in fatigues lined up by battalion on a parade field. In the stands sat, proud and worried family members like Wendy Mertka. She fought back tears as she spoke of her son’s first deployment.

“I’m not happy about him going, but I knew when he joined up it would happen,” she says.

Adding to her anxiety: the case of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. He’s the Lewis-McChord soldier charged with massacring Afghan villagers.

Proud, but worried mother Wendy Mertka (left) sits with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren at a deployment ceremony for the 2nd Stryker Brigade. Photo by Austin Jenkins
/
Proud, but worried mother Wendy Mertka (left) sits with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren at a deployment ceremony for the 2nd Stryker Brigade. Photo by Austin Jenkins

“With what just happened over there I’m very scared for these guys because they’re more upset over there now than what they were.”

Mertka’s son, Josh, is assigned to a Stryker vehicle. He says commanders have drilled into them one word: discipline.

“Discipline as far as respecting Afghans," he says. "We have to respect them as humans too."

The 2nd Brigade has adopted a motto: “seize the high ground.”

Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network

Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.