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They are citizen-soldiers who provide medical care at an Army Reserve hospital in Salt Lake City. Now they're headed to the war in Iraq.
A farewell ceremony for them was held today at Fort Douglas.
It's farewell to 78 soldiers. Many of them are deploying for the second time to Iraq. They will spend the next year there.
These soldiers are with the 328th Combat Support Hospital in Salt Lake City. They will put their medical skills to use helping U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians, even Iraqi detainees. It's a mission all of them say is worthwhile. But leaving family for a second time makes it harder.
Sgt. Andrew Cole said, "I've got three young girls, 6, 4, and 3. I'm going to miss them a lot. It's real emotional to say good bye again."
His wife, Dawn Cole, said, "He's my best friend. It's never easy to say good bye to anybody, but I know he's strong, and that makes me strong for my girls."
The soldiers of the 328th Combat Support Hospital are all volunteers. These are citizen soldiers who leave their jobs to save lives.
They just wrapped up deployment training in California. They leave from Salt Lake International Airport on Wednesday. The first stop is Fort Lewis in Washington, and from there it's off to Iraq for a year.
E-mail: gkennedy@ksl.com
