384th deployed to Afghanistan

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) 135 service members from the 384th Military Police Battalion will be deploying to Afghanistan.

The deployment ceremony was held at the 122nd Fighter Wing Headquarters at 2:00 p.m. on Friday. The 384th is scheduled to leave civilian life for one year.  They'll be supporting the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

At the ceremony Friday, there were mixed emotions.  For some, they've been waiting all their lives to deploy.  For others, they were nervous about leaving.  The Bennett family was nervous to see their soldier leave.  This was Chaplain Brice Bennett's first time deploying.  His grandmother, Melba Edwards, said Bennett always wanted to be in the military.

"He has been wanting to be in the Army all of his life," Melba Edwards explained, "He loves playing Army and then he just decided to be the Chaplain."

Bennett is the Chaplain for the 384th Military Police Battalion.  He graduated from Taylor University at the age of 19.  He has been married for nine years and has four children.  Bennett said it has been difficult to say goodbye to his family.

"My wife and I have done pretty well," Bennett said, "Obviously with some of my older kids they're having a little bit of a rough time with it but we've been sitting them down and telling them exactly what Daddy's going to be doing. My two youngest ones they're still kind of at that age where they're like okay he's leaving but he'll be back."