Poughkeepsie Father and Son Prepare for New York Army National Guard Kuwait Deployment

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Chief Warrant Officer Edward Deguisto III (right) and his son, Sgt. Edward DeGuisto IV, at Fort Hood, Texas in training for their deployment to Kuwait. (photo by 42nd CAB Public Affairs)

FORT HOOD, TEXAS (10/29/2013)(readMedia)-- New York Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer Edward Deguisto III and his son Sgt. Edward DeGuisto IV, both of Poughkeepsie, are training together here to deploy to Kuwait later this year.

Both men are members of the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade, which will replace a Texas Army National Guard unit in Kuwait and then conduct several joint exercises with nations in the region, and maintain an American presence there.

While they're preparing to trade one arid place for another, the DeGuistos aren't concerned, because for the first time in their military careers, they're deploying together.

"You're not sitting there worrying," said the elder DeGuisto, whose other son, Pfc. Sebastian Deguisto, is an active duty Marine. "I know where they are now. It gives you a little piece of mind."

The DeGuistos are just one of several pairs of family members who belong to the Latham-based 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade .

The DeGuistos both have an extensive military history. The elder DeGuisto served six years in the Marine Corps before becoming a warrant officer in the Army National Guard as a UH-1 Huey pilot.

He flew Hueys from 1988 until the Army National Guard switched to UH-60 Blackhawks in 1997. He reflected on how his sons followed him into the military.

"I'd come home and find my helmets and my uniforms out in the yard," he said, smiling. "They were always playing with the stuff. They made their decision to go into the Marines at an early age."

Edward DeGuisto IV, now a Blackhawk crew chief, served five years in the Marine Corps before enlisting in the Army National Guard. Pfc Sebastian DeGuisto is serving at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina.

As aviators Soldiers, father and son have traveled across the world on missions, the elder DeGuisto recalled.

"We started traveling with the guard, going overseas for short tours, in 1993," he said. "I've been to Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. We were everywhere, from the Panama border to the southern border of Mexico."

(Story by 1st Lt. Jean Kratzer and Spc. Harley Jelis, 42nd CAB Public Affairs)