Authored by: LTC (R) Nathaniel Flegler Jr.
Photos by: LTC (R) Nathaniel Flegler Jr.
GRIFFIN, GA, March 19, 2024 – Cadets from the Griffin High School Army JROTC Bear Battalion lined Hill Street Saturday morning to send-off the 2nd Battalion 121st, Infantry Regiment of the Georgia National Guard.
It was a bittersweet morning downtown Griffin, with families waving banners wishing their Soldiers a safe return from a deployment that will last for approximately a year. The unit will deploy to Egypt for a multi-force observation mission on the Sinai Peninsula that borders Israel.
“We are very proud of the commitment and sacrifices these Soldiers are making to help support our national security around the globe. For my Cadets to be a part of this send-off ceremony was just a small token of appreciation we wanted to show the Soldiers in this unit”, said Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Nathaniel Flegler Jr., the Senior Army Instructor in charge of the JROTC program at Griffin High School.
Many of the JROTC Cadets that came out to support the Soldiers’ send-off ceremony saw for the first time the outpouring of love from the community and family members as a caravan of jeeps and busses passed by them carrying the members of the National Guard unit out of town.
The JROTC unit supported the ceremony by providing a color guard and a formation of thirty enthusiastic Cadets who were eager to pay respect to the Soldiers as they passed by the formation on Hill Street. “I felt sad, but at the same time I felt excited for this experience of participating in this ceremony honoring the Soldiers as they deploy overseas,” said Cadet Jaadyn Rasaw, Cadet Company Commander.
