May 8 was a bittersweet Mother’s Day for many Marines, sailors and families of 7th Engineer Support Battalion, Combat
Logistics Regiment 1, 1st Marine Logistics Group, as about 200
service members loaded the buses for the first leg of their journey to Helmand province, Afghanistan.
For some, this was just another seven-month deployment, but for
many, this was their first combat deployment, which made it especially tough for Marines and sailors on Mother’s Day.
Among the deploying Marines, a pair of brothers, Pfc. Alex C.
Vincent and Pfc. Nicholas J. Vincent, combat engineers with Charlie
Company, 7th ESB, CLR-1, 1st MLG, will deploy together. They
joined the Marine Corps together in July 2010. They spent their last
few moments at Camp Pendleton with their mother and father before saying goodbye.
“I’m very proud of them, but I’m also a bit worried,” said their
mother, Christina. The brothers are slightly nervous about deploying, but are comforted they’ll have each other to rely on while in a combat zone.
“[Deploying with my brother] makes it easier, because you already
know somebody, you have somebody you can trust,” said
Alex, 21, from Temecula, Calif.
But the deployment wasn’t only about children deploying on Mother’s Day. For Lance Cpl. Karla R. McJunkin, a combat engineer with Charlie Company, 7th ESB, CLR- 1, 1st MLG, deployment means being separated from her 10-year-old daughter and two stepdaughters.
“I’m glad to go out with my platoon,” said McJunkin, 29, from
Caldwell, Idaho. “I gained a lot of respect for them. It’s not exactly
fun leaving your family and loved ones, but you gain such love and
trust of your platoon; I wouldn’t have it any other way.”