CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Thousands of military families in Fort Bragg, North Carolina remain nervous as they anxiously wait to see if they get a call that would deploy their loved ones to help U.S. allies in Europe.
The U.S. has already deployed thousands of troops to help support Ukraine and other allies after Russia started its invasion of the sovereign nation. President Joe Biden vows none of the troops will be sent in to fight Russia in combat.
Roughly 3,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg are in Poland, along its border with Ukraine, according to NBC News. Other troops from other U.S. bases are also there in an effort to help refugees fleeing the bomb-riddled country.
"Things are really getting serious over there," Jeanne Etoile Lopez, a military spouse who lives in Fort Bragg, said.
Her husband is undergoing training at Fort Bragg and she knows what it's likely for.
"It's always been joked that Fort Bragg is the president's 911 call," she said, noting how often troops are deployed from her husband's base when a crisis happens.
She's full of anxiety when she thinks about the father of her two small children being sent to a region where an unpredictable Kremlin is waging war on a U.S. ally.
"I don't know if I'm going to get a text message or a call saying -- I have to go," she said.
If her husband gets the call, he could be deployed in a matter of hours, she said.
WCNC Charlotte's Hunter Sáenz asked Governor Roy Cooper if more troops would be sent from Fort Bragg during a news conference he held in Charlotte on Thursday.
"I have not heard -- no. We know that there are Fort Bragg soldiers now over there," Cooper replied. "We want to make sure that we support their families while they're serving our country."
President Biden announced that he authorized more troops to be sent to Russia as he addressed the nation Thursday afternoon. However, he did not specify how many or what bases the troops would be sent from.
For families in Fort Bragg, anticipation grows as a war unfolds.
"You just kind of sit on the edge of your seat like waiting to know -- like is this happening, is this not happening?" Lopez asked. "Like, when can this heaviness end? When can I take this backpack of anxiety off and just kind of breathe."
She, along with other families, asks for the community's kindness and support during the tense times as the U.S. continues to navigate its full response.
Contact Hunter Sáenz at hsaenz@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.