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The Fort Jackson "Exodus"
Some 700 soldiers from Fort Jackson leave through Columbia Metropolitan Airport on December 19. It's known as the "exodus."
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Soldiers enjoy a break with snacks and video games while waiting to board flights from the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.
Photo by Mary Ann Chastain
The Christmas rush for USO South Carolina is called “exodus”—an annual migration of some 15,000 troops from Fort Jackson. About 700 of these soldiers pass through the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in a 36-hour period in mid-December.
The USO responds by handing out care packages to these traveling soldiers headed home for the holidays.
Employees from Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative, working with Leadership Lexington County, helped prepare for exodus by collecting the travel-sized items for these care packages last fall. MCEC employees who helped included LLC Class of 2013 members Matt Porth, Lee Ayers and Shannon Hughes and LLC board member Larry Micol, a 2012 LLC graduate.