After almost six weeks of training at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, the members of the Virgin Islands National Guard are taking a quick break from training before going on their way to Kosovo for a 15-month peace-keeping mission.
St. Thomas resident Sgt. Llewellyn Edinborough Jr. said goodbye in August to his mother Eleanore Leseuer and little sister Shakyra Frett at Cyril E. King Airport.
On the morning he left St. Thomas, Edinborough stopped on his way to CEKA for a farewell bowl of goat water, but said that he hadn’t found any in Indiana.
A four-day pass in Atlanta will be his last stop before Kosovo. Edinborough sends a "shout out to his mother and little sister."
Also deploying to Kosovo is Spec. Carlyn Jno-Baptiste, who lives in Fredriksted on St. Croix. When she is not with the VING, Jno-Baptiste is a sales and leasing consultant with Caribbean Auto Mart.
With the VING, Jno-Baptiste puts her skills to work in supply as part of the support team for the 661st Military Police Company.
"It’s a peaceful mission," Jno-Baptiste said, noting "In case it gets hostile, we’ve been trained to support the mission, but lets hope it never gets to that."
Although she’s been in the VING for 27 years, this is Jno-Baptiste’s first deployment. It is also a first deployment for the 24-year-old Edinborough.
Edinburough and Jno-Baptiste said that at Camp Atterbury, they and fellow National Guard members had learned some language skills but weren’t quite conversational yet in the local lingo.
"We’ve been training rigorously," Edinborough said. "We’ve learned to say ‘hi’ and ‘what’s your name.’ "
Edinborough said that a big change for the troops from the Virgin Islands would be the weather.
"I’ve heard it gets to 20 [degrees] below," Edinborough said.
Acknowledging a big difference in culture between Kosovo and the Virgin Islands, Edinborough said that the VING was going to do it’s best to be ambassadors of the Virgin Islands.
Jno-Baptiste agreed.
"We are going to make the Virgin Islands proud," she said.
Jno-Baptiste wanted to say hello to her husband Nicolas Jno-Baptiste and her entire family and her good friends and co-workers Maggie and Sandy at Caribbean Auto Mart.