For guardsmen, deployment upends Christmas

For guardsmen, deployment upends Christmas
HAMLET, N.C. — It was still October when Jennifer Guinn hung her family’s stockings — six red ones with the owner’s name printed across each white cuff.

There was a Christmas wreath on the front door to greet Halloween trick-or-treaters, and the Guinns’ four kids helped trim the tree with sparkling white lights — two full months before Santa was due.

With her husband, Staff Sgt. Ryan Guinn, due to spend most of December training with his National Guard unit for an upcoming yearlong deployment to Iraq, celebrating the season as a family meant celebrating on the military’s timeline.

“We knew that once he left he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the tree for long,” Jennifer Guinn said. “He wanted time to be able to enjoy all the lights ... while he was here.”

For the 76 soldiers of E Company who will deploy to Iraq in April, and their families, this year’s Christmas is a holiday upended by pre-deployment training. Instead of spending time with family and friends, they practiced gunnery at Fort Stewart, Ga.

The Associated Press is chronicling the company, their families, and Hamlet, the town they’re leaving behind, as the North Carolina National Guard’s 30th Brigade Combat Team leaves for a 12-month tour in Iraq. The empty seats at Hamlet’s dinner tables and church pews as Christmas approached served as a preview of what awaits.

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