from the Boca News
by Sean Salai

Sgt. Thomas Douglas Ladley, kissing his baby daughter, fought back tears behind a pair of dark sunglasses Saturday at the Callaway Reserve Center in West Palm Beach.

Ladley, on his 33rd birthday, reports today with 31 other Florida National Guard soldiers for duty in the war on terror. He will be out of bed by 4:30 a.m., be on a plane for Fort Dix at 6:30, spend two weeks training as an MP, and then depart for Afghanistan.

“It’s going to be long hours and sleepless nights,” Ladley told the Boca Raton News after an afternoon farewell ceremony. “I won’t have much time to think about what’s going on at home, but those thoughts will catch up with me whenever I go to bed at night. That’s going to be the hardest part.”

The Port St. Lucie resident’s battalion, a part of the 265th Air Defense Artillery, is sending the platoon as a “filler unit” for guardsmen wounded or sent home during their one-year tours of duty in Afghanistan. The detachment will be there at least five or six months, with the possibility of extension.

A St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office deputy and father of five who helped with hurricane relief in Punta Gorda this fall, Ladley said he does not know how he will deal with missing Christmas and his children’s birthdays.

“It will be hard wondering how friends are doing at home, wondering how the job is going,” said Ladley, cradling the infant. “That stuff eats everyone up regardless of rank. The training and the job is nothing compared to it.”

Ladley’s wife of three years, Carrie, said the family exchanged gifts for an “early Christmas” during the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Last minute recall
“Tom was originally supposed to deploy to Afghanistan in March, but he was recalled at the last minute due to complications in my pregnancy,” Carrie Ladley said. “We’ve known since November 2003 he would be going. It’s easier for me because of the timeframe, especially now that I know the baby is okay. But it will still be hard just not hearing from him every day and being home alone with the kids.”

Of her four older children, she said, “The two oldest understand, the five year old has no clue, and it will be impossible to explain to the two year old why dad’s not home.”Unlike Ladley, the other soldiers in the detachment did not find out until October 22 they would deploy to Afghanistan.

“I knew it was a possibility when I signed the National Guard Contract, but it came as a shock it was so soon,” said recent enlistee Pfc. Kenneth C. Maltais, 21, of Boca Raton. “Better Afghanistan than Iraq”

Maltais was joined at the farewell ceremony by his parents, girlfriend, a female cousin and two sisters. “I’m proud and I’m worried,” said Sandy Maltais, his mother. “I know he’ll do a good job and serve his country.”Other families had similarly emotional farewell scenes on Saturday.

“I’m glad my daughter Jill will be there while he’s away,” said Becky Barber, whose 38-year-old son-in-law Cpl. Jeffrey Pilgrim had been in the unit just two weeks when the deployment order came. She said Pilgrim is three years from retirement. Michael and Belinda Jaffe of Melbourne Beach said their 18-year-old son, Pfc. Derek Jaffe, had volunteered for Afghanistan and been elated by the deployment.

“He’s very focused and dedicated to his country,” Michael Jaffe said, watching his son shift excitedly from foot to foot while standing in the ranks prior to the ceremony. “He’s been packed for over a month and will stay in Afghanistan as long as they let him.”

“He’s always done crazy and adventurous things, and he’s been in and out of the emergency room more times than I can count,” Belinda Jaffe said. “He can do those things legally in the Army. I’m proud of him, but scared.”

Belinda Jaffe said that her six-year-old boy Eric, the youngest of her four sons, would not understand his brother’s absence for Christmas.

“He asked me this morning ‘who will win’ the battle,” she said. “I said we would. He asked how I knew that. I said because we are right.”

During Saturday’s brief farewell ceremony, officials from the army and government gave several speeches to the troops.

First Sgt. Regina Bell, a West Palm native who served in Iraq during Desert Storm and again this year, said the 32 soldiers leaving today would forget all of them.

“You remember the day you come home more than you remember the day you left,” Bell said. “The farewell ceremony is a blur — you can’t even remember everyone who was there. Coming home is definitely more important.”

Thanks to Jill for passing this along, and to your Hero for all he's doing.