HARTFORD, Conn. — Nearly six-hundred men and women from the Connecticut National Guard began their mission to Africa on Wednesday.
The last flight of the night -carrying around 200 guardsmen- left the Bradley Air National Guard Base at 7 p.m. The crews will be making a stop in Texas to finish training before heading to the base in Africa.
It is Lt. Eleanor Baranofsky’s second deployment. She’s leaving behind her husband and two dogs for nearly a year.
“Very excited, it was hard to leave home today, I have a couple dogs so it’s hard to leave them,” Baranofsky said.
Major General Francis Evon said soldiers from the 1-102nd infantry regiment will be supporting the Operation Enduring Freedom mission while in Africa.
“Basically as security, making sure everything is safe, guarding bases and things like that” Evon said.
It’s Connecticut’s largest deployment of troops in more than a decade and most recently the group was assisting the state with increasing hospital capacity during the pandemic.
“Just a year ago, this same unit was helping with the hospital capacity, building additional capacity at Central Connecticut State University, Southern Connecticut State University and Western Connecticut State University,” Evon said.
“Not many people get to do something like that with the military, running a warehouse that had to facilitate all the covid precautions, the gloves, the masks,” Captain Joseph Stoute said.
Governor Ned Lamont posted a video to twitter pointing out the troops' efforts during the covid-19 pandemic and thanking them for their service.
“You worked on setting up a field hospital covid related, I know you were there after Isiah, the hard-hitting electric storm, there you were we're making a difference, now your off to Kenya, Somalia, this is amazing what you do on the behalf of the people of the state," Lamont said.
Officials said the guardsmen will be in Texas for several weeks finishing up training and quarantining before heading to Africa for 10-12 months.
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