The Renewal of a Life

The beginning of an adventure, an experience we soldiers will never forget. June 2007, we were on our way to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.  We stowed our gear in the underneath compartment of the charter buses.  Some of us listened to iPods, some slept, others watched a movie, and others stared out the window while watching Chicago go by.   We all wonder what the next year will be like for us. 

Since the age of eighteen, I have always wanted to serve my country; however, I have always talked myself out of it. Then at thirty-two years of age, on April 25, 2001, I went to the recruiting office for the Army National Guard. The next thing I knew, I had signed on the dotted line. I was to leave for basic training in Fort Jackson, SC on January 22, 2002.   The events of September 11, 2001, made me want to go even more.  On this tragic day, my dad called me and asked me, “Are you ready to go?” I told him, “Yes, however, I will not because I need to go to basic training.” Shortly afterwards, my mom called and asked, “Can you get out now!” I replied, “No and I definitely do not want to, now!”

Fort McCoy, Wisconsin in May

Despite the unpredictable weather, we adapted, dealt with the weather and went forth with our training. We qualified with our M-16s with and without our gas masks; conducted a simulation of urban ops training; and sat through tedious classroom training. The training went smoothly and quickly without any major “fragos” (army lingo), which pleased us.

A week before we deployed to the undisclosed location, we were allowed to visit with our families and significant others for a weekend. Most of us went to the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend. It was great to spend time with my family before I left for my deployment.

Three months later at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin

We got up at four-thirty in the morning to stack our duffel bags outside and clean the barracks. As we waited for the bus to take us to the airfield, we smoked and joked (a saying, we soldiers say). A few of us kept quiet, and thought of “the unknown” that awaited us. The buses pulled up and parked. We grabbed the duffels, stacked them in the underneath compartments of the bus. We grabbed our carry-on bags and boarded the buses. It was approximately a thirty- minute drive to the airfield. We “hurry up and wait” again at the airfield for the plane, and a few family members and friends came to the airfield to say good-bye, again. The rest of us found a spot in the hanger and “while we waited to fly eighteen hours to Kuwait, and we plopped ourselves down” and slept. I have to say that it is not a very comfortable or fun flight. It took approximately a month from when we arrived to adjust to the climate, and to get ourselves mentally adjusted. There were times that loneliness and the heat took a toll on us. As we learn to drive in sandstorms, and with the Kuwaiti drivers, it was another thing to adjust too. Then when we left our base to go to another, it would be clear out. However, by the time to head “home” it was not. Let and behold there was a sandstorm and we could not leave a base until it cleared up from the sandstorm, this frustrated us because there were times we were out on mission at another base, on our way home to our base. However, we could not leave, due to safety issues. Then it began to feel like home to most of us. I met a few navy personnel and began to hang out with them in turn it made time go by quicker. In the middle of our deployment, we lost one of our own. Our mission stopped for approximately two weeks to deal with our loss.