They walked in to cheers. Members of the Indiana National Guard's 16-13th Engineer Company are heading to Afghanistan. City and county leaders and the Indiana National Guard held a goodbye ceremony Tuesday morning.
Luke Dobson was saying goodbye to his dad Sgt. Daniel Gabryszak. The sergeant, originally from Tinley Park, is also holding his 2-month-old boy one more time until he comes back.
"Know that I'm going to be fine. Everything's good. Get there, do our mission and get back. Get back to Chicago," said Sgt. Daniel Gabryszak.
Tamera Reed is sending her husband off. She says the support group she runs helps her and other family members with the struggles of having a loved one at war.
"They can call me 24 hours a day. It helps me also because I may be having a bad day that day, I may need somebody to talk to also," Reed said.
"Trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my son. I think he's going to have a lot of trouble with it. It's just day-to-day, minute-to-minute," said Kathy Davis, husband deploying to Afghanistan.
Family and other supporters will first caravan to southern Indiana where the soldiers are scheduled to train for a while. Then it is off to Afghanistan where soldiers are expected to be for more than a year.
