Off the I-15

Throughout the 58th Engineering Company’s deployment, the Desert Dispatch will check in with the Harters. Robert deployed with the company, leaving his wife, Betty, and their son, John, 13, back at Fort Irwin. Stay tuned to the Desert Dispatch and the Off the I-15 blog.

At around 5 p.m. on Saturday night, Betty Harter said goodbye to her husband, Robert outside the gym at Fort Irwin. Robert, Betty, and their son, John, 13, had spent much of the day together, even if it was just standing in line together as Robert waited to fill out last minute paperwork. Then Robert and the 162 other soldiers of the 58th Engineering Company boarded buses on their first leg of their journey to Iraq.

She said some of the wives broke down in tears when the buses pulled away. Betty kept herself busy during the last hours before Robert left. It didn’t sink in for her until she arrived home later Saturday night, exhausted.

“It’s kind of hard,” Betty said. “You know, it’s going to be a long haul.”
Immediately, Betty said, the family began to talk about the latest news coming from their loved ones. Where were they? How was the flight? When they were going to land in Kuwait? Betty learned all she needed to know from a photo of Robert holding a cup of coffee on his way through the Bangor International Airport in Bangor, Maine.

“He’s a coffee drinker,” she said. “When I saw him with that cup of coffee, I know that he was OK.”

On Monday, Robert called Betty to let her know he had safely landed in Kuwait.

Sgt. Robert Harter with a cup of coffee in the Bangor International Airport in Bangor, Maine. The photo was taken by a troop greeter and posted online at www.mainetroopgreeters.com

For more photos of the “Red Devils” passing through the Bangor International Airport, check out www.mainetroopergreeters.com. The 58th troopers arrived at the airport early Sunday morning and were met by a group of people to greet them and send them on their way to Iraq. The group has been greeting soldiers, either leaving or returning to the U.S., since Desert Storm in 1991.