Minnesotans connect with loved ones serving amid Middle East turmoil

ST. PAUL, Minn. — More than 550 members of the Minnesota National Guard's 34th Red Bull Infantry Division are deployed in Jordan and Kuwait, but a special operation back here in Minnesota helped bring those soldiers together with their loved ones thousands of miles away.

Several hundred friends and family of deployed National Guard members packed the inside of Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul Saturday.

It wasn't so much the steak lunch bringing them there as it was the opportunity to connect with loved ones abroad over Zoom, like Mike McCauley's son, Joe.

"It is very challenging. It's one thing, the communication. Yeah, we can text, but it's not the same," said Mike McCauley.

Joe McCauley is a sergeant, husband and father of two now stationed in Kuwait working as a satellite communication operator.

"Something he's always wanted to do," said Mike McCauley.

"I really know my daddy's going to come home, but I don't know when," said Joe McCauley's 5-year-old son Calvin.

"Pretty soon," said Joe McCauley's sister, Kelly McCauley.

"There's something special about bringing all of those families of deployed soldiers together to share a meal together," said John Marshall, co-founder of Serving Our Troops.

Marshall has been putting on this event for 20 years now. He said helping people both speak with and see their loved ones over the computer is especially important now, as violence in the Middle East has greatly escalated in just the last week alone.

"I know the soldiers over there, we connect with them pretty regularly. They're feeling that love from Minnesota," said Marshall.

"We know that he's safe, he's supportive over there, and just knowing that this is what they train for and they're prepared," said Mike McCauley.

Joe McCauley has been in Kuwait since February. Family members are now counting down to a return that can't come soon enough.

"We miss him and we know we're going to see him soon," said Mike McCauley.