Capt. Bart Kemper of the 412th Engineer Command carries his two sons, Mack, 2, and Zack, 2 months, from the 412th Engineer Command Headquarters building after the command’s deployment ceremony Wednesday.(C. TODD SHERMAN/The Vicksburg Post)

About 30 soldiers from the 412th Engineer Command in Vicksburg left this morning for Fort Polk, La., and at a farewell ceremony Wednesday, family members and members of the Vicksburg community gathered to wish them well.

Amber Carson, 17, a Vicksburg High School Gator Girl, said she hasn’t danced at a game without her father in the stands cheering her on.

“It will be hard to be without him my last year of high school,” she said.

Her father, Lt. Col. Charles Carson was among those honored at the farewell ceremony, and 11 members of his family, including his wife and their five children, gathered at the George A. Morris Army Reserve Center on Porters Chapel Road to say goodbye.

“He’s ready to go, he wants to go and we’re behind him,” said Charles Carson’s wife of 18 years, Betty Carson.

Charles Carson served for eight months in Bosnia in 1996 and said the separation from his family is difficult. The couple’s children are 4 to 22 years old.

“My biggest concern is making sure my family is taken care of,” he said.

The couple’s oldest son, Adam, a senior at Jackson State University, filmed home videos of the event.

“We don’t always agree with the foreign policy and the agendas as to why they have to go,” he said. “But we support Dad and pray that he comes home safely.”

Eleven-year-old Aisha Carson, a sixth-grader at Vicksburg Intermediate, said she’ll miss her father while he’s gone and will have American flag stickers on her school notebook and instrument case to remind her of her father.

Charles’ mother, Ernestine Carson, also participated Wednesday.

“I’m nervous for him,” she said. “But I’ll ask the Lord to take care of him and bring him back safe.”

Betty Carson said she thinks that after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the community is more aware of the importance of the soldiers’ jobs.

“He might grow a foot taller while his dad is gone,” said Betty Carson, pointing to the couple’s youngest son, 4-year-old Asher.

“There are a lot of things that Charles might not be here for,” she said. “And giving that up is a gift he gives everybody else.”

The 30 Vicksburg-area soldiers are among the 50 from the 412th across the world being dispatched today. Some are in South Korea, Hawaii and Europe, said Maj. Max Diaz, assistant operations officer for the 412th.

The soldiers have not said where they will go after they gather in Louisiana or if they’ve been told, but the United States is deploying troops across the Persian Gulf area in anticipation of a possible attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Particularly, however, the command will participate in engineering tasks such as constructing roads or building medical facilities, said Melody Harrington, spokesman for the unit.

Another soldier leaving here today was Lt. Col. Ray Moxley, a research civil engineer in the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory.

“I’ll be saying prayers every day, 24 -7,” said his wife, Joyce Moxley. The couple has two children.

Other ERDC employees called to active duty with the 412th Engineer Command are Lt. Col. Steve A. Pranger, a research civil engineer for the ERDC Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, and Capt. Travis A. Mann, a chemical engineer in the ERDC Environmental Laboratory.