Hartford — The Connecticut National Guard is sending a unit to Bahrain for the first time.


Before family and friends gathered at the William A. O'Neill Armory Tuesday, the Guard held a send-off ceremony for 120 soldiers of the 248th Engineer Company of Norwich and 140 soldiers of the 143rd Military Police Company of West Hartford.


The engineers are going to Bahrain, while the military police are deploying to Afghanistan, which will bring the total number of Connecticut guardsmen overseas to 550.

"We mark these occasions because they are in fact special occasions, when our very best and very brightest and our very best prepared respond to duty's call," said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who presented the state flag to the units to fly overseas.

Bahrain is "not a country you typically think of the Army being involved in," said First Lt. Keith Parent, who commands the engineer company. "But when I found out what we were doing, it's right in line with our typical missions."


The company specializes in building roads, but Parent said the soldiers have prepared for a range of responsibilities, from upgrading structures to providing security. While there has been political unrest recently in the Gulf Arab state, he said he does not expect the company to get involved.

The average age of the soldiers is about 22, said Parent, 26, of Enfield.

"We really want to go out and do what we trained for," he said.

Private First Class Theodore Wetherby, 26, of Ledyard, said, "This is what we signed up for."

Wetherby, who is deploying for the first time, said that in Bahrain, "We'll get to learn some new things, do our tasking and get home safe."

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