As the national anthem reverberated throughout a theater at Miami Dade College's North Campus, the families of 175 soldiers prepared to say goodbye amid the pomp and circumstance that surrounded the deployment ceremony for a battalion heading to Afghanistan.
At a time when the country is preoccupied with the state of the economy, the battalion commander focused on this one percent.
"I want to talk to you about American’s true one percenters. The one percent or less of our population who that chooses to voluntarily serve their country," said Battalion Commander LTC. William S. Schaper.
Despite the danger awaiting them in the Middle East these men and women said they were ready.
"I’m serving my country. I’m paying forth the effort. I’m paying it back," said soldier Jose Marrero.
But words were harder to come by for his wife, Audrey, whose emotion prevented her from commenting at the ceremony.
"I feel very anxious but I hope for a safe return for the entire battalion and their families to be safe while they’re there," said Sohaira Lopez, another wife of a soldier.
While the troops will hope to return safely, when they do they'll also look to get back into the civilian workforce, something that is especially challenging for veterans as they have higher unemploment numbers than the rest of the population.
Governor Rick Scott, who was in attendance, addressed the issue.
"Our state is getting back to work and we hope unemployment will have continued to drop. We also have a program called Hiring Heroes to really put an effort into hiring veterans," Scott said.
The governor thanked the departing soldiers for making a sacrifice for the rest of the country.
“This is a very special event because we have soldiers who are defending our liberty and thank God we have them,” he said.
Before heading to the Middle East, the soldiers will spend about six weeks of training at Fort Bliss in Texas.
