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Air reservists answer the call
‘This is what we signed up for,’ said Technical Sgt. Mark Brown.
VIENNA — Youngstown Air Reserve Station reservists say the only thing tougher to face than the danger in Afghanistan is leaving loved ones behind.
Six members of the 910 Airlift Wing’s Force Support Squadron left Friday on a 120-day deployment to Bagram Air Base.
“It’s separation from family that is tough,” said Technical Sgt. Mark Brown of Youngstown, for whom this is the third deployment of his 22 years in the Air Force Reserve.
Brown said he and his wife, Amanda, said goodbye privately before the sending-off ceremony Friday. “She said it would be too much for her,” said Brown, who played basketball for Youngstown State University from 1976 to 1980 under the late Dom Rosselli. “This is what we signed up for,” he said.
Brown, who has worked 29 years for the Social Security Administration in Youngstown, has six children and 11 grandchildren.
“I’m apprehensive, but I’m willing to do this. It will be a learning experience for all of us. This is what we signed up for,” Brown said.
“I’m excited and ready to go and do my job and come back safely; but it is sad to leave my family behind,” said Technical Sgt. James L. Pegg Jr., holding his 14-month-old son, Jimmy.
“This is his second deployment, but it is much different this time because we are married and have a baby,” said Pegg’s wife, the former Lynn Bukofchan.
Pegg, the son of James and Jessica Pegg Sr. of Howland and a 1990 graduate of Howland High School, served in the Marine Corps from 1990 to 1994 and has been in the Air Force Reserve since 1998. He is food service manager at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
Lynn, the daughter of JoAnne Bukofchan of Vienna and the late Donald Bukofchan, is a 1998 graduate of Mathews High School.
“I’m thankful we have Web cams issued to us. We’ll be able to keep connected and James and Jimmy will be able to see each other,” Lynn said.
alcorn@vindy.com