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Friends and family of the Maine National Guard and state officials packed the University of Maine Collins Center for the Arts Monday for a ceremony to bid farewell to the members of the Brewer-based Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry before they head out of Maine to finish their training and leave for Afghanistan next year.
Bravo Company is scheduled to leave for Indiana after a holiday break, where its members will complete four to six weeks of training. Afterward, they will head to Afghanistan. Monday’s ceremony included Governor John Baldacci, Maj. Gen. John W. Libby and representatives from Maine’s two senators — Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. UMaine President Robert Kennedy was unable to attend.
“We are pleased, and I might say proud, to host you here at the Collins Center for the Arts,” said Dean of Students Robert Dana. “We develop here leaders and create knowledge, and it is because of you that we can do that.”
“We will welcome you back here to this soil very soon,” Dana said.
The 172nd Infantry, which includes other New England-based companies, has not yet made its departure date public.
Baldacci and Libby also offered words of praise and told the soldiers and their families they collectively represent the best of Maine. Capt. Paul Bosse, the leader of Bravo Company, shed tears as he thanked everyone who supported him and the soldiers he commands. Bosse earned a history degree at UMaine and graduated from the university’s ROTC program.
“They are superbly equipped and superbly trained,” Libby said.
Libby said Maine’s National Guard is “blessed” by resources that Snowe and Collins helped make available to its members. He said it is his duty to provide for the soldiers of Bravo Company and even offered his home phone number to the audience, encouraging them to call him if they have concerns or suggestions to help their friends or family who serve.
Libby said Bravo Company’s mission is “easy” because of the quality of its soldiers.
“The job that’s difficult is the job that’s left behind,” Libby said.
Bosse, in reference to Tom Brokaw’s novel — “The Greatest Generation” — said, “I wonder what Mr. Brokaw will say about us” in the future.
“The greatest of this generation are the soldiers and marines,” Bosse said.
Baldacci told Bravo Company its members “reflect the values with which” they were raised and that “we will eagerly await your return.”
“We will continue to support you, your efforts,” Baldacci said.
“Bravo Company … when you find yourself on the battlefield with bayonets fixed, remember this: Our history as Mainers tells us without hesitation we’ll give ’em cold steel,” Bosse said.
The Maine National Guard has deployed more than 2,300 soldiers to the Middle East since 2001. Nine have died.
