Sgt. Eric Leclerc, of North Providence, spends time with his fiancée, Gemma Illiano, before leaving yesterday.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

NORTH KINGSTOWN — Milton Letender, 13, and his brother John Rock, 9, stood ramrod straight without blinking when their uncle Rene Menard bent over to place medals around their necks yesterday. Milton wore his uncle’s old Army jacket and John wore Menard’s old Air Force jacket.

They stood in line with other children in a cavernous hangar at the Quonset Air National Guard Base as dozens of people looked on. The Rhode Island Air National Guard gave them the medals because they have family members being deployed overseas.

In about an hour, Menard of the 282nd Combat Communications Squadron and 21 other men would get on a plane that would take them to Virginia and later overseas to Iraq, Afghanistan and Qatar for 120 days or more. A total of 42 members of the squadron would eventually go. Anticipating yesterday’s snowstorm the Guard moved up the departure to the morning and held a deployment ceremony at the hangar for them and their families.

The boys, who have been living with Menard and his wife, Jayme, in Glocester, will be helping their aunt, who just had foot surgery, by feeding and walking Misty, the family dog, and doing laundry. Milton gave Menard his pillow to take with him overseas. John wrote him a letter that Menard can’t read until he gets to his destination. The letter says, “I love you and I miss you and I’ll see you soon,” John said.

Jayme, a certified nursing assistant in the emergency room at Roger Williams Hospital, said she’s a bit nervous about her husband going. He turns 35 today. “I’m a little nervous but very proud. I’m going to be very happy when he comes home,” she said.

Before he left, Menard, who works as a computer technician at Rhode Island Hospital, said he showed the boys how to retrieve and send e-mail so they can communicate with him.

In the days before he was to be deployed, Manny Arias, 29, of the 282nd, did the things he likes to do best: He spent time with his family. He went bowling. He ate his favorite meals.

“Can’t you tell I like to eat?” he said pointing to himself good naturedly. Although he favors his mother’s Dominican food and lasagna, he had a Uno’s pizza with spinach, tomato and gorgonzola cheese on Friday night, he said.

Yesterday morning, he was in his fatigues standing in the middle of the hangar with his girlfriend, Yesenia Gonzalez, 24, and his parents, Juana and Jose Arias, and his sister Karina.

“We’ll be sending a lot of e-mails and hopefully we’ll have a Web cam,” Gonzalez said. “We’ll do care packages, Sour Patch Kids. That’s what he likes.”

Arias is a service representative with the Social Security Administration. He joined the Guard when he graduated from Central High School.

It’s his second tour of duty. “I’m excited, anxious. I want to do my job, come back, lose weight,” he said, laughing. He had a medallion of San Miguel for protection tucked inside his shirt.

The soft smile Vannou Barbosa had on her face faded to worry as someone announced that the bus was coming to pick up the men to bring them to their plane. Vannou, who works with College Crusade of Rhode Island, held on tightly to Jose Barbosa, a first lieutenant with the of the 281st Combat Communications unit, her college sweetheart from the University of Rhode Island.

It is his first deployment. He is an engineer with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport. They have two children, Isaac, 3, and Talina, 6 months.

“I’m very nervous. It’s hard,” Vannou said. “Isaac is already asking for his daddy.”

tpina@projo.com