Many Missouri National Guardsmen will be leaving their spouses behind as they deploy to Afghanistan, but one couple will be going together. John and Jessica Byrd joined the Army, they said, to see the world. Now they’ll get to see it together. The Byrds met after they enlisted. They say this will be their first trip to the Middle East.

The Byrds say even though they’re serving in the Middle East together, they’ll still be leaving loved ones behind. They’re already prepared to check in with the moms as often as they can and have set up a Skype account to talk to their parents via video. However, they feel blessed, they say, to be able to go together.

They’re serving with the Missouri National Guard’s Agricultural Development Team to continue working with farmers in Afghanistan. The mission is to help them grow viable crops, build irrigation systems, store food and more so that farmers there no longer have to rely on growing poppies to support the illegal opium trade.

About 60 guardsmen are on this mission, which is headed to Camp Atterbury in Indiana for more training before flying out to the Nanghahar provence.

They were at a deployment ceremony as state dignitaries and families of the civilian soldiers gathered at at the Ike Skelton Training Center in Jefferson City.

They’re not sure yet how long they’ll be there. John says it’s supposed to be for 12 months but could be there longer, and he says the guard is always asking for volunteers to serve longer.

They say they met after enlisting in the military and were going to school in San Antonio. Jessica is from Indiana; John is from Michigan. The couple now lives in Springfield.

They say as a couple going to a war-torn country, their worries aren’t so different than civilian couples’.

Jessica Machetta reports [Download/listen MP3]

A contingent of Missouri National Guardsmen will leave Fort Benning, Georgia, on the weekend for service in Afghanistan. And, while many Missourians might consider these missions “routine,” the man who is leading this group of Guardsmen into a war zone wants in known these operations are anything but routine.

Missouri National Guard Command Chief Warrant Officer Don Muschler says going into a a part of the world in which there are hostilities is always a danger.

“We’re in a war zone – real bullets, real bombs, real bad guys wanting to impose their threat on us every day,” said Muschler as he prepared to leave Jefferson City for a week of training and preparations at Fort Benning. “The risk is there and the high threat is there.”

And no one gets accustomed to going to a war zone – no matter how many times a service member has been there.

“It’s one of those things you’ll never get used to – a deployment or multiple deployments,” said Muschler. “You’re away from your family for upwards of twelve months. You can never get back the missed birthdays, you know, the first time the baby crawls, the first time the baby talks. You can never get that back.”

But Muschler sees the big picture.

“We do this for the greater good and, hopefully, our children won’t have to do with what we’re doing now.”

The pilots and other personnel heading to Afghanistan will transport VIPs and others to locations in the theater of operations. These are not combat missions, but that does not mean they are danger-free. The ammunition fired at these planes can do just as much damage as they do to aircraft involved in combat.

Download/Listen: Steve Walsh report (:60 MP3)

There is sad news involving a Missouri soldier this Memorial Day. The Pentagon reports Missouri Army National Guard Sergeant Paul Faris Brooks, a Joplin native based at Fort Leonard Wood, died in Iraq on May 21st of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked by enemy forces using improvised explosive devices. It happened near Baghdad.

Brooks, who was 34, was serving overseas with Headquarters Company, 1/252 Combined Arms Battalion of the 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team. Two of Brooks’ colleagues were also killed in the attack.

Governor Jay Nixon has released a statement in which he says, "The prayers of the First Lady and I go out to Sergeant Brooks’ family and friends."

Brooks began his military service with the Arkansas National Guard in 1997. He later served in the Army Reserves and joined the Missouri National Guard in July 2004. While in the Missouri National Guard, he was a member of the 935th Aviation Support Battalion, in Springfield. Brooks previously mobilized to Iraq in September 2006 – November 2007, with the 20th Combat Aviation Brigade, Sedalia. He had volunteered for his second deployment through the National Guard Bureau.