43
18 leave Valley for Afghanistan
Photo
Air Force Reserve Staff Sgt. Nadia Costick hugs her mother Noeleen Costick, both of Austintown, before deployment with the 910th Airlift Wing to Afghanistan on Tuesday morning from Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna. This is her second overseas deployment.
Photo
Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Jim Evans of Rootstown talks about his deployment with the 910th Airlift Wing to Afghanistan on Tuesday.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VIENNA
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” the title of a popular holiday song, is the hope of 18 Air Force reservists with the 910th Airlift Wing here who left for a six-month tour in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Southwest Asia.
“Come home safely” was the theme of the families and loved ones they left behind Tuesday.
“We will pray for her safe return,” said Noeleen and Joseph Costick of Austintown, parents of 21-year-old Staff Sgt. Nadia Costick, who’s making her second deployment to the Middle East.
The 18 deployed reservists, 16 of them members of the 76th Aerial Port Squadron and two assigned to the 910th Logistics Readiness Squadron, provide cargo handling, passenger services and ramp services for air-terminal operations centers.
Sgt. Costick said it was easier to prepare this time because of her previous experience. For instance, she has to special-order gloves because her hands are small.
“It is very difficult,” said her sister, Josie Costick. “I don’t really think about it too much until a couple of days before she leaves. She’s going to be gone a long time. It worries me.”
“We’re a military family,” said Joseph Costick, who served eight years in the Army and works at Yellow and Roadway Corp. “When she was in Iraq, she worked with children through the Girl Scout program,” he said of his daughter, who is a junior at Youngstown State University studying respiratory health care.
“We are very proud of her, and she is proud of herself. She has talked about making the Reserve a career,” said her mother.
This is the sixth deployment for Master Sgt. Jim Evans of Rootstown, but this is the first time he has left as a relatively newlywed. Besides his mother, Becky Pittman of Beloit, and his niece Ryley Pittman, who were there to see him off, he is leaving behind his wife of four months, Hope, formerly of Cleveland and Chicago.
“It never gets old-hat because of the safety concerns,” said his mother. “But I know he’s doing what he thinks is right for his country.”
“I’m very proud of him,” said Hope, who said she will look to her friends and her husband’s family for support.
“I’ll just take it one day at a time. His being away for so long will make me want to be with him even more,” she added.
Deployment always puts stress on family and civilian employers, said Pittman, who praised his employer, A. Duie Pyle Freight in Streetsboro for their support and understanding.