As Wisconsin families sit down for a big Thanksgiving meal today, some will be missing loved ones who are deployed.
About 350 Wisconsin National Guard members are serving overseas this holiday season – most in Afghanistan.
One person who knows what troops are feeling today is Bryan Mohoric of Sheboygan, a first sergeant with the 108th Forward Support Company. Mohoric deployed twice to support the war in Iraq and missed two Thanksgivings with his family.
“We were lucky that they provided a really good Thanksgiving for us. Obviously, it’s not the same as being at home, but they provided everything that normally we would eat, like the turkey, cranberry stuffing. So, we had it with my soldiers. We all sat together. We all ate together. So I was lucky I was able to be with my guys both times to enjoy Thanksgiving,” Mohoric says.
“People miss their families and we try not to make it so we were constantly thinking about (home) because on that day people would have a tendency to get depressed. So we talked about football. We talked about our day. We talked about just enjoying the company that we had with each other,” he says.
Mohoric says troops watched football games on base on Thanksgiving day, and were able to make free phone calls back home.
“The biggest thing I missed obviously was missing my wife and my daughter and just sitting around the table and just talking about whatever came up. I missed my one buddy’s mom’s deviled eggs. She made the best deviled eggs, so I kind of missed that. Biggest thing was just missing being with the family and spending time with them,” he says.
Mohoric says on this Thanksgiving, he’ll be thinking of the hundreds of Wisconsin National Guard soldiers and airmen who are serving overseas.
“Absolutely, because a lot of them I deployed with a couple of times. Many of those soldiers I’ve been overseas with, so obviously I think about them every day and especially on Thanksgiving. I know what they are going through, but they’ll be home soon and I’ll be one of the first to congratulate them when they come back,” he says.