PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo.  (6/28/11) – A farewell ceremony was held in honor of the U.S. Army’s Space Support Team 15, 1st Space Battalion, U.S. Army and ARSST 28, 117th Space Battalion, Colorado Army National Guard here, June 28.

The two units will be deploying separately to Afghanistan to provide space-based support to that theater of operations.

While these two teams are not deploying together, their departures are close enough to honor them in the same ceremony.

More than 100 family, friends and fellow service members attended the ceremony to wish the two teams farewell.

ARSST 28 consists of Maj. Joseph Verser, Capt. William Meyer, Staff Sgt. Will Eger, Spc. Steven Gathof, Spc. Kristopher Joyce, Spc. Luis Varnes-Sierra.

“Units in an all-volunteer Army like our own are made up of many more than the six patriots who you see standing before you,” said Lt. Col Jesse Morehouse, commander 117th Space Battalion. “All Soldiers who serve in the National Guard serve with the support of both their families and their employers.”

A hallmark of ARSST departure and return ceremonies is the exchange of the mission coin. This coin is presented by the battalion commander to the deploying team officer in charge for safekeeping. Then, upon a safe return, the OIC returns the coin to his respective battalion commander. The coin is then placed on a plaque honoring that team’s deployment. Each team’s officer in charge was presented his mission coin by his respective battalion commander.

Prior to ending the ceremony Verser was promoted to the rank of major. His wife, Beth, had the honor of tacking on his new rank with a punch that sent the new major backward a bit. After that, Staff Sgt. Eger Spc. Joyce and Spc. Varnes-Sierra were presented with their Basic Space badges.

“Work hard and don’t complain,” was the advice given to Joyce by his father, Command Sgt. Maj Richard Joyce, the U.S. Northern Command commandant. Joyce has two other sons in the COARNG, Spc. Philip Joyce, 540th Network Support Company and Sgt. Jeremiah Joyce of the 928th Area Medical Support Company.

Today’s ceremony was a bittersweet moment for Spc. Joyce’s mother Claudia. While she was saying goodbye to one son, she was saying hello to the other. Jeremiah was returning from Afghanistan the day prior to Kristopher departing. With tear filled eyes, Claudia readily admitted that seeing her sons off to war once was far harder than seeing her husband off on his three tours to Iraq.

The family was hoping to have a small family reunion with Jeremiah who was scheduled to return from Afghanistan on his mid-tour leave the day prior to Kristopher shipping out. As it turned out, Jeremiah wasn’t able to make it home in time, but the two brothers were able to meet each other at the airport to spend a little time together before going their separate ways.  

Since 2002, the 117th Space Battalion has had at least one of its nine ARSSTs or two Commercial Imagery Teams deployed overseas.