Lawrenceville-based Guardsmen coming home

By Ralph Ellis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Donna Blair will do her duty next week.

The widow of Georgia National Guard 1st Sgt. John Blair plans to greet members of her husband’s Lawrenceville-based company when they return to Georgia from Afghanistan.

“One of the guys from overseas asked me to dismiss John’s guys at the final formation,” she said Friday. “I’m trying to decide if I’m tough enough to do it.”

John Blair of Calhoun was killed June 20 by an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade during an ambush. He was one of eight members of the Georgia National Guard 48th Brigade Combat Team who died in Afghanistan. Donna Blair was profiled in a Feb. 21 front page story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

About 3,200 members of the  48th  will return in waves return through April. They will land at Hunter Army Airfield and be bused to Fort Stewart. Members of Alpha Company, based in Lawrenceville, will arrive Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.

Donna Blair plans to go to Fort Stewart on Wednesday, when most of Alpha Company returns, even though it will strain her emotions. In a way she’ll be carrying out her husband’s orders. As first sergeant, he was responsible for making sure the men in his unit were taken care of.

“I choose not to let these guys be forgotten,” she said.

On Monday, Blair will travel to Frankfort, Ky., for a ceremony at the state capitol honoring her husband and other soldiers killed overseas. John Blair grew up in Harlan, Ky.

In Lawrenceville, John Blair will be honored June 5 when the local armory is named after him. The city will also put on a parade to honor all the men in the company.

Starting in February 2009, the 48th was deployed Afghanistan to train that country's police and security forces, a key part of U.S. plans to stabilize that country. The first members of the 48th started coming home in late February.