Each of the four mayors of Newton County towns and cities signed the Army Community Covenant declaring their support for the soldiers of the 1-204th Air Defense Artillery Battalion who are being deployed to Washington D.C

The Army Community Covenant is designed to develop partnerships between community leaders and the Army. The signing in Newton is the first in the Magnolia State. Some of the biggest support for today's signing came from Clint Sampson, the store manager at the Newton Wal-Mart.

Clint Sampson says regardless of whether or not there is a blood relation between the community members and the soldiers from their area, the troops are his brothers and sisters and he hopes others will see it the same way. The community's support of troops has a special meaning for Sampson, whose brother Carl was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq five years ago.