TYRONE - The members of Detachment One, Charlie Company, Second Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment were greeted by rousing applause and a flurry of flags Wednesday as they marched past saluting veterans onto Gray-Veterans Memorial Field.
''This is a stop on the road to liberty,'' Lt. Col. Samuel Hayes III said as he thanked the hundreds who packed the bleachers to honor the 69 citizen soldiers of the Pennsylvania National Guard, part of the 56th Stryker Brigade.
The soldiers leave today, bound for Baghdad, after a few months of additional training at stateside bases.
Hayes was introduced Wednesday by his father, Samuel E. Hayes Jr., a Vietnam veteran, former Pennsylvania House Majority Whip and former state Secretary of Agriculture.
He urged the soldiers to be ''persistent in your vigilance'' as they enter what he pointed out is a 360-degree battlefield where the enemy is too often afraid to stand and fight.
Hayes Jr., invoking the words of Thomas Payne, said ''these are the times that try men's souls,'' and he noted that the citizen soldiers have their ''lives put on hold to serve the colors of our nation.''
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stir political debate, Hayes Jr. said, but he suggested the soldiers ''just leave that alone, and you'll probably be better off than those doing the debating.''
Hayes Jr., who also will see another son, Lee Hayes, go to Iraq in the coming months as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, said the soldiers of Charlie Company are not ''the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot'' who ''in this crisis, will shrink from the service of his country,'' but they are ''heroes and patriots for all seasons'' who ''will carry the day.''
On the cloudless September afternoon, the community's gratitude and support carried the day for the soldiers about to embark on their latest mission.
''It was great,'' Sgt. Mike Kissell said. ''I was amazed at how many people came out.''
Kissell, a Stryker vehicle commander from Bellwood, recalled being the ''new guy'' in the unit in 1992, looking up to the older soldiers.
Now, after 17 years and a 12-month deployment to Kosovo in 2003, he's fulfilling that role for the younger soldiers.
''You become a family,'' Kissell said.
Sgt. Gunner Richards of Tyrone said pride has kept him active in the National Guard for 21 years.
''Plus, I love doing it,'' he said.
Richards, who also was deployed for operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, said although going to battle has ''changed tenfold'' during his time in the military, particularly because of technology, one thing remains constant.
''I'll miss my family the most,'' he said of his impending deployment.
The Tyrone-based National Guard unit's 12-month deployment will be the last from the storied Tyrone armory that has roots back to the Sheridan Calvary Troop that was formed in 1871.
Tyrone, as well as Charlie Company's other armory in Bellefonte, will be decommissioned, and the company will share a new facility in Centre County.
Robert Myers, 76, remembers the last deployment parade March 1, 1941, for the Sheridan Troop, then designated as Troop B, 104th Cavalry Pennsylvania National Guard. He wanted to be there again to ''send the boys off.''
One of Myers' brothers, the late Dick Myers, was a part of the Sheridan Troop and lost a leg in World War II. Another brother, Robert Myers, was a side-gunner who was killed in action when his B-24 was shot down in 1943 over Berlin.
''It was a good turnout,'' Myers said of Wednesday's event.
Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7446.
