WILLIAMSPORT -- The upcoming PA National Guard deployment will mobilize more than a thousand troops, many from our area.
One of those servicemen, Williamsport Police Captain Michael Orwig, was saying some final goodbyes at City Hall before he leaves for the Middle East on this day.
Orwig has been on the force nearly three decades. He was in the Marines Corps before that and will be deployed overseas for the third time to serve with the Pennsylvania National Guard this month.
"First I went to Iraq, I was away from home for a year and a half for that," said Orwig.
Then Orwig, a platoon sergeant in the 103rd Armor Battalion, served a tour in Afghanistan and came home in 2008. Now Orwig is headed back; this time to Kuwait.
"Being my third time, I'm not as anxious as I was in the first time or the second," said Orwig.
While he is away serving his country, Orwig's fellow officers said they will pray for his safe return but know he will fit right in, as he has always been a natural leader.
"That's just who he is, he's always been that way. Captain Orwig has always been in a position of service and leadership," said Captain Tim Miller.
Orwig hopes he will be back from the mission to Kuwait by this time next year and hopes everyone returns with him.
"Keep the unit and guardsmen in your prayers, they're doing a hard job. The state can be proud of them. They are pulling their share for these conflicts in the world."
About 1,500 men and women of the Pennsylvania National Guard will be deployed to Kuwait in the coming months, more than half of them are from our area. Orwig and his fellow guardsmen will have a deployment ceremony this weekend at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Williamsport before shipping overseas.