Seymour church supports Iraq-bound troops

EDINBURGH - It is one thing to be a soldier. It's another to be deployed.

But once you are overseas and you know you have support back home, it somehow makes the mission worthwhile.

A group of Puerto Rican soldiers based at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh since April are heading to Iraq on June 8. When people at the Christian Renovation Center at Cornerstone Community Church in Seymour found out about the 268 Transportation Company Detachment 3, they wanted to "adopt" them and help any way they could.

They began with a social gathering May 21 at Camp Atterbury, where they were served Puerto Rican food.

"We cannot let them go without doing something for them to show our appreciation of what they are doing," said Orlando Munoz of the CRC. "We arranged this for the unit so they could enjoy a little bit of social time and let them know there's people proud of them. It's real support."

On Sunday, Munoz said, people from CRC will return to Atterbury to serve as host for a softball game and picnic for the unit.

Adopting a unit means providing things they need while they are overseas, Munoz said. But it also serves another purpose.

"More of it is to pray for them and asking God to take care of them," he said.

"We will keep in touch with them through e-mail, supporting them in a spiritual way. Sometimes when you are out there, (someone) dropping lines on e-mail (to them) makes a big difference. It lets them know people worry about them and hope they come home soon to their family."

Munoz originally found out about the unit through a Puerto Rican newspaper's Web site. He discovered a majority of the soldiers were serving on a volunteer basis.

"It's something we as a church feel obligated to do these things for them," Munoz said. "They have enough as it is as soldiers."

Munoz knows how that is. In 1995, he joined the 101st Airborne of the U.S. Army at Fort Campbell, Ky. He was stationed overseas for a year in Iraq, and he served a total of eight years in the Army.

"I'm the type of person that this is something where pride comes up," he said. "I really love to do these things helping them because I was helped once before."

The soldiers in the unit are thankful for the church adopting them.

"The gathering of us here has helped us to know each other," said Sgt. Carlos Velazquez.

He's been with the unit for a year but has had an 11-year military career. He said the unit began training at Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico, before moving on to California and then Edinburgh to prepare for mobilization.

Velazquez said he hasn't been deployed since 2003 when he went to Saudi Arabia.

"When I found out, at first I was concerned because I had just moved to Puerto Rico," he said, as he was born and grew up in New York.

Velazquez joined the unit because of its vicinity to his home, and it had an opening at the time.

"It was definitely a good decision," he said of joining the unit. "I was really motivated because our first sergeant, we know him very well. Eighty-five percent of our guys are volunteer. I'm one of them."

He said the unit is "just like family."

"It's not a matter of going to war," he said. "It's a matter of meeting new people, new places, new ideology. The good thing about activation is you get to work on things you've trained good for and get hands-on experience."

Commander Joel Ayala has been with the unit since January, but he's been in the military since 1994. This will be his first time to Iraq, but he has been deployed overseas before.

He's enjoyed getting to know his soldiers.

"These guys, they are something else," he said. "They're motivated, and they've made things a lot easier for me. They have the right attitude for someone who has to go to Iraq for a year. Most of these guys have been together before. They've been together in good and bad times."

He said the unit had helped him personally and professionally.

"It's so easy for me because it's not the same thing when you have a unit that's not so close," Ayala said. "It's helped me a lot in my position to get things done."

Staff Sgt. Angel Velez has been with the unit for a year and four months. He's been in the military for 17 years. When Velez joined the military, the Desert Storm conflict had just begun.

This will be Velez's third deployment. He once spent eight years in Germany, and he served active duty after Sept. 11.

Velez serves a customs and transportation role in the unit, which is what he did for three and a half years in Puerto Rico.

"It's the camaraderie you have with the soldiers," Velez said of what he likes about the unit. "It's a bonding, and the bonding has kept on growing and growing. Everybody understands each other."

He said a Puerto Rican detachment is currently serving in Afghanistan, so his unit was prepared for possible deployment.

"It was a matter of time," he said. "The moment would come that they would need our service. Everybody had positive thinking about it. It makes it easy to work when you have somebody you know (working with you). Instead of working as a soldier, we work more like a family. Everybody looks after each other."

Of the church's support, Velez said, "It's great for us. It's a morale booster for us to have other people from our island when we aren't able to have family members around the corner. Being able to share with them is like being able to be at home with our family."