Major Michael Haley, a major in the South Carolina Army National Guard, was deployed to Africa in June 2023, four months after Nikki Haley announced her bid for presidency. “We have both lived a life of service, and so when he goes off to deploy, my support is completely with him,” Nikki said at a deployment event, the AP reported. With Michael’s mission with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade in the Horn of Africa set to last a year, he will be gone for most of the campaign.
This isn’t the first time Michael, who joined the National Guard in 2006, has been deployed. Then a captain, he was also sent to Afghanistan in 2013, when Nikki was South Carolina governor. “We are a proud military family who understands the sacrifices any family goes through when a loved one is serving his or her country,” she said in a statement, Politico reported. His deployment also lasted a year. Michael was proud to serve his country. “It is important to me to be able to give back,” he said in a statement to NBC News.
However, he admittedly struggled with the thought of being away from Nikki and their two children. “But in the end, I can’t help but to think giving one year along with my fellow soldiers, as many have done before me, to secure a life of freedom for my family is well worth all that comes with it.”
