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Mother, son in same Guard unit headed to Iraq

TEANECK, N.J. — Mother-and-son soldiers are set to go to Iraq in the same New Jersey National Guard unit.

Sgt. Carmen Villegas, a 46-year-old combat medic, was transferred two weeks ago to the same Teaneck-based unit as her son, Sgt. Felipe Diaz.

Diaz told The Record of Bergen County that he was given the task of introducing the newest sergeant at the 250th Brigade Support Battalion’s Foxtrot Company. “This is my mom,” the 29-year-old Paterson police officer said, laughing as he recalled the moment.

The two will be among more than 2,800 soldiers of the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team who are heading to Iraq in September. It’ll be New Jersey’s largest overseas deployment of Guard soldiers since World War II.

New Jersey Guard spokesman Kryn Westhoven was hard-pressed to think of another instance when a mother and son have been in the same company.

“This is definitely unique,” Westhoven said.

“You hear about dads and brothers going to war,” Diaz said. “To hear about a mom — it’s different.”

Villegas worked for eight years as an oncology nurse at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson. She told The Record that she had planned to retire from the Guard in June, but changed her mind when she heard of the Iraq deployment.

“It’s like a family to me,” Villegas said of the Guard, which she joined in 1979 when Diaz was an infant.

Villegas said it was difficult to think that her son was going with her.

“God forbid something happens to him. I keep running that through my mind,” Villegas said.

Besides her son, she’ll have to worry about a husband. Villegas this Wednesday is marrying Victor Hernandez, a sergeant in a National Guard helicopter unit based near Trenton. He’s scheduled to go to Iraq in January.