Troops will train in Kansas before going overseas

AUGUSTA – Before saying goodbye to Maine for a year to help train the Afghan army to fight the Taliban, Maj. Joshua Doscinski said goodbye early Wednesday to his wife, Sarah, and their children, Isaiah, 3, and 4-month-old Luke.

He left them at home in Temple.

“We thought it would be easier,” Doscinski said hours later as folks snapped photos at the Augusta armory and hollered to be heard over a band’s rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

“The boys don’t understand, only that Daddy’s going away,” he said. And Sarah? “She’s not too happy with the Army right now.”

Doscinski, who served with the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion in Iraq, was handpicked to lead a group of 17 Maine guardsmen as they train in Kansas and head to Afghanistan. About half of his men volunteered. Others, like him, were ordered to go.

By early April, Doscinski’s 16 soldiers and a separate two-man team from the Maine Guard plan to be living and fighting alongside Afghan soldiers.

“Your mission is pretty straightforward: Train the Afghan National Army,” Maj. Gen. Bill Libby told the group Wednesday.

For months, the soldiers have been getting themselves trained for the assignment. They underwent survival training with Marines, endured several live-fire exercises and took hand-to-hand combat classes.

They’ll receive more instruction before their boots touch Afghan soil. Wednesday’s journey will take them first to Fort Riley, Kan., where they will join about 350 other officers and non-commissioned officers who will go to Afghanistan.

The details of the mission were still uncertain on Wednesday.

“I don’t know if we’ll be together or separated,” Doscinski said.

As they prepared to march into the armory, Doscinski laughed with his guys. It was by design.

“We have a long, difficult road ahead of us,” he said. And since all the men in the unit are leaders in their own right, some of the gung-ho formalities could be jettisoned for now, he said. “We can be a little more casual.”

The serious nature of the mission – or the likelihood that the men will be in harm’s way – was not lost on Libby or Wednesday’s crowd. Chaplain Earl Weigelt prayed for safety.

Attendees at the ceremony, meant for family and friends, took little prompting to bow their heads or place their hands on their hearts as the national anthem played.

The hundreds who gathered filled every seat. They were joined by members of the Patriot Guard and the Maine State Police. Libby said he was heartened by the turnout, even as support for the war may be weakening.

“The one thing that’s not eroding is support for the troops,” Libby said.