Leslie Poling: Today is September 22, 2010. My name is Leslie Poling, and I will be interviewing Master Sergeant Kevin Runyon of the Ohio Army National Guard. The interview is being conducted at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus, Ohio as part of an oral history project by the Ohio Historical Society to preserve the stories and experiences of servicemen and their family members for future generations. Thank you very much for being here. We really appreciate this. For the record, would you say and spell your full name?
Kevin Runyon: My name is Master Sergeant Kevin Runyon. K-E-V-I-N R-U-N-Y-O-N.
P: And could you tell me a little bit about your personal background?
R: My personal background? I was actually born in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in central Ohio. Graduated from New Albany High School in 1986. I’m currently a Registered Nurse, Infection Control Manager for State Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections in Columbus, Ohio. I have a wife, Rhonda, and two children, Oliver and Victor, ages nine and eleven.
P: Do you have any siblings?
R: I have two older brothers and a younger sister.
P: Is anyone in your family in the military or has been in the military?
R: My father served a three year stent, the 101st airborne back in the late ‘50s [1950s], early ’60 [1960s], he’s since passed away.
P: Did that have any influence on you in your enlistment?
R: Yes, somewhat.
P: Did he tell you stories or anything like that?
R: His stories weren’t exactly the soldier stories—more the old time fun soldier stories, but it was interesting to hear his opinion. He was very proud of the fact of being a paratrooper, and it was something that he wished that he would have maybe done a full career like I’m doing right now.
P: What was your impression of the military before you joined?
R: I’ve always loved the military since the time I was five or six years old—playing Army. And I’ve always thought it’s an honorable profession. I believe the brotherhood in the soldiers is probably one of the greatest things you can ever do, so I’ve always had a very, very high opinion of the military.
P: When did you first consider joining?
R: This is kind of funny actually. I’d always knew I would join after high school and to my junior and senior year of high school, I was actually going to be late for school one day, and I needed an excuse for being late, so I went down to the recruiters and actually joined the Army Reserve and therefore, keeping myself eligible for wrestling that week. If I had been late again, I would have been ineligible to wrestle.
P: So it was kind of fate in a way?
R: Yeah, it was. Actually, that enlistment didn’t really work out for me. I just did the basic training between my junior and senior years of high school, and then actually got out of the reserves at that point and reenlisted again in ‘91 [1991] through the Guard and have been in since.
P: Did you have to go through another round of basic training then?
R: Yes, I did. I’m one of the only soldiers you’ll ever meet that has done basic training twice.
P: Which one was easier?
R: I’d say the first one was easier in the fact that I just reacted. The second one, I was put in a leadership position for the entire time where I couldn’t get fired from and was responsible for my platoon and myself as well, so since the time that I’ve first been in the Army, I’ve been in a leadership position and had to suffer the consequences of my peers.
P: You joined the Army first, is that correct?
R: Correct.
P: Why did you choose to join the Army?
R: I can’t swim, so the Navy was definitely out, and I was never really impressed with the Air Force, and it was between the Marines and the Army, and the Army was the route I ended up going.
P: What was your family’s reaction to your decision to join the Army?
R: My family thinks it’s a fantastic decision.
P: What is your military occupational specialty?
R: I am a Sixty-Eight Whiskey [68W], which is a Combat Medic.
P: And what led you to that specialty?
R: At the time of my second enlistment, I was an EMT [Emergency Medical Technician], advanced, going to get my paramedic license and that was something I’d been interested in, and I enrolled as a medic.
P: I’m just going to backtrack for a second. You mentioned your first enlistment didn’t work out. What happened there?
R: Junior and senior year of high school, I came back playing sports. I was actually in the Reserves. There were issues with drill dates versus sporting events. I was a four sport letterman in school, so every weekend was a sporting event. They weren’t as accommodating as I wish they would be, and I was immature at the time, so they offered me a first year separation, and I jumped at the chance.
P: That’s good. What do you remember most about boot camp or basic training?
R: Well, the first time, I remember that it was a little bit more verbal, maybe a little bit more physical in the aspect that the soldiers were treated a little bit more rougher and more physical. I remember that soldiers—it was an opportunity to break down soldiers from their individualism to pull into the team aspect. The second time, more so, was a little bit more communications between the drill sergeants at the time with the soldiers, and there was more of an administrative toughness as opposed to some of the physical toughness would have been back in ’85 [1985] as opposed to 1991.
P: So there was a six year difference then.
R: Yes, there was.
P: What do you feel is the biggest challenge to overcome being in the military?
R: Challenge being in the military right now would be OPTEMPO [Operation Tempo], and that’s operations tempo. Right now, with the two wars going on right now, the soldiers, no matter what their branch is or service—Reserve, Guard, and the Army, Navy, Air Force—there is a real need or OPTEMPO [Operation Tempo] for the soldiers where they’re mission after mission. On the active duty side, the guys on active duty are constantly rotating in and out of the combat zones or other peacekeeping missions or other missions. Same thing with the Guard; right now, we have soldiers that have been on their second and third deployments or covering missions, such as, who has to fall in behind those guys that are gone. So the OPTEMPO [Operation Tempo] right now is there is no one weekend a month anymore for the Reservists or the Guard soldiers. There is a lot more being put on the soldier or service member across the border.
P: So then that affects, probably really disrupts normal life for these guys.
R: Exactly. On the active duty side, starting a family is difficult in this situation. Younger soldiers, younger wives—they’re trying to live in the communities they come into. Move from one state to an Army post, and their family member’s gone. It’s hard for them to get acclimated to friendships and stuff. I mean, there’s a lot that goes on—they do embrace each other, but still there’s issues in regards to that. On the Reserve side of the house, you’re pulling people away from communities where -- I’m a coach. I’m a hockey coach. So, you’ve lost a hockey coach there; you’ve lost a dad; you’ve lost a husband; you’ve lost a neighbor. And it’s a lot of these people that have dual roles. My professional job as well. So when you take these soldiers out for this OPTEMPO [Operation Tempo], you’re decreasing the strength of the community as a whole.
P: So you mentioned that your father was in the military, so that was an influence on you, but do you have any other influences or mentors in your military career?
R: I’m an enlisted soldier. My first, first sergeant that I had in my company was a person who was very motivated and said that the company was the greatest company in the Ohio Army National Guard and the United States Army and possibly the world. And he believed in that, and his attitude—to me—was how an individual should lead. So he is probably one of my biggest mentors; that would be first Sergeant Bloom.
P: You enlisted in the National Guard, and then you went active duty Army, and then you went back to the Guard. Why the change?
R: I wanted to try them all. No I’m just teasing. The time when I enlisted in the Guard, I was a younger soldier, and immature. I’ll freely admit that. And enjoyed all the aspects of being a young man, and so in and out of school, in and out of relationships, and at the point when—my wife actually who I had met during this time—we were in a break up phase, and I said, “I’ll just join the Army and try to get my life straightened away.” And I decided to get as far away from Columbus as possible, so I asked the recruiter, I would enlist if they sent me to Germany, and they did.
P: And then when you came back after you were in Germany, you then went to Kuwait from Germany, is that correct?
R: I transferred from Germany to the 3rd Infantry Division, which is in Fort Stewart, Georgia. At that point, we deployed to Kuwait.
P: So I think before we get into deployment, we’ll talk a little bit about your experiences on state active duty.
R: Okay.
P: Where and when were you sent the first time you were mobilized?
R: The first mission—if you don’t mind, I have some, uh, cheat sheet here on that—I’ve been fortunate. My career is spent in the medical companies here in the state of Ohio, and at the time, we had only had two medical companies in the state, but any mission that goes where you call out troops, they need to have medical support insight. When you fall in to help out on a catastrophe, you bring your support with you so you’re not burned in the community as well once you get there, so with that, you send the medical company with them so have that ability to go on a lot of state missions in regards to that. The first one, I was sent to a blizzard in Southeast Ohio in 1993. I was in Gallipolis.
P: What unit were you a member of?
R: At that time, I was Charlie Company, 237th Forward Support Battalion.
P: What was your unit’s job?
R: It was a medical company providing medical support and evacuation for—our combat mission was to provide medical support and services, trauma support and sick call service and evacuation for the troops. On that particular mission, it was __ took our ambulance down, our Humvee ambulance and its four-wheel capabilities and put the EMS [Emergency Medical Services] from the community inside our ambulance, and we drove their paramedics and assisted them on runs during the blizzard where they couldn’t get to people.
P: And what was your rank?
R: That rank, I believe I was either PFC [Private First Class] or a Specialist.
P: What was your specific job as a member of that unit?
R: I was an ambulance platoon -- I was an ambulance platoon driver or the ambulance medic.
P: So what were your primary duties?
R: First aid. First aid response. Driving an ambulance and evacuation for any troops. Mostly, in that type of unit, you’re pushed forward when you’re an ambulance platoon to support any other combat unit, and you’re assigned to that unit to do the evacuation from the Infantry Company back to the Medical Company in the event of a casualty. So that was my job, to be pushed forward and support the other units.
P: Were there any casualties during this blizzard?
R: During the blizzard, yeah, we had several—you know, we’d run on mostly civilian, and there weren’t soldiers down there working, so heart attacks and strokes, and we actually had one individual we were unable to respond to in time during a cardiac, and the individual actually died up there.
P: How long were you there?
R: I think about, probably five to seven days.
P: What was your first impression when you got there?
R: Lot of snow. It’s cold.
P: Have you seen anything like that before, that type of blizzard?
R: No, maybe ’78 [1978], but I don’t remember much of that though. But when we got down there, just the fact that when we left, we were reporting, there was nobody on the roads, and you have the soldiers, and that’s the mentality of the Guard, and one of the reasons I love it is that everyone’s hunkering down; we jump in our vehicles and report to the armory ‘cause we know that someone needs us somewhere. And just to drive down there with five ambulances we took down, the roads, you know, the only thing that could get through at the time was a Humvee, and just to kind of drive down there was pretty amazing.
P: Now, before the blizzard, it says here that you performed medical support of Argentine citizens.
R: The Guard reserves do missions called MEDRETEs [Medical Readiness Training Exercises], where you’ll go down to other communities or other countries and perform basically medical care missions for humanitarian missions. We went down to Argentina for, I believe, probably 15 to 17 days, and we opened up a clinic each day in a smaller town somewhere in Northern Argentina and provided medical and dental care for citizens there. And I was able to go on that mission and be able to experience that opportunity.
P: What was that like?
R: It was amazing. We flew into Buenos Aires, and then we took a smaller aircraft into a little town called General Mosconi up in the northern part of Argentina on the Bolivian border, and just seeing people that had never seen a Caucasian person in their life. The blonde hair. Just kind of the way that the people came to us. The women thought we were amazing—the Caucasian men with their blonde hair and eyes, and it was just a great experience for a young soldier, trust me.
P: Bet there were lots of, yeah, lots of opportunities for you there.
R: More so, it was interesting to see the communities and the way that people lived in a country that I would never have the opportunity to go. I wasn’t born a rich family by any means, so it was my first opportunity to really do some international travel.
P: Did you have any language training or anything like that beforehand, or was there interpreters?
R: We had interpreters, military interpreters, and we also had fellow guardsmen who knew Spanish, and they were able to help us communicate.
P: What was your job while you were there?
R: Support the—to do patient assessments, and also to do a lot of the labor, as far as setting up the camps as well.
P: Is there any patient or situation that stands out in your mind?
R: There is one, actually. It was a dental patient. Our dentists were in there, and a lot of the only thing you can do wrong—we’re only there for one day, so you can’t do any real reconstructive work or anything like that—so they pulled a lot of teeth, and our dentists, toward the end of that, had pulled a lot of teeth and were physically tired, and they’d asked the medics to come over, and they would teach us how to pull teeth. And there was a little woman—she couldn’t have been more than 5’2”—who needed to have a tooth pulled. The dentist showed me how to do the whole procedure, never really laid hands on the patient. And I was able to numb the patient up and actually pull the tooth myself, and it’s physically demanding, cranking on this little woman’s head. I was amazed by it. Here I was in Argentina, actually pulling somebody’s tooth.
P: Yeah, I could imagine. That would be pretty intense.
R: Yeah.
P: So after the blizzard—the blizzard was in March of ‘93 [1993] —just one month later, you were at the Lucasville Prison riot.
R: Yes.
P: Tell me about that. How did that start?
R: How the Prison riot started?
P: Mhmm.
R: Well, I actually worked for the state prison system, so I’m very familiar with this. It’s three separate gangs that actually planned the riot prior to the actual—it was on Easter Sunday that it started. What happens is, on the holidays in the prison system, you’ll have second and third shifts; you don’t have your most experienced folks. They knew this. You have smaller officer population at the time. They planned it. Part of it was protest prior to treatment. Some people said it was issues regarding the tuberculosis testing that they were starting at the time in the Muslim population. Regardless of the reason, they planned a riot, and they enacted the riot at that time, taking over a cell block. I believe seven staff members were captured at that time as well, and they held the block for what was, at the time, the longest siege of a prison in the history of the United States.
P: How many people were injured total?
R: Injured total? Quite a few just for various different injuries. I believe there was at least five or six inmates killed and one staff member, Officer Vallandingham.
P: What was the outcome of that?
R: The outcome of the riot? Well, some of the negotiations with the inmates were to actually end the riot, and at that point, it was just really in the activities period, and things went back to normal, but they evaluated the actual conditions and their issues they had, and they’ve worked through them, but there was no negotiation other than the riot would stop at that time, so I don’t believe there was anything that was won one way or the other through that.
P: And where did you come in to this? The beginning or the end?
R: At the beginning, they brought in medical support. At that time, they brought in the Infantry, the MPs [Military Police], the engineers, and by the time the National Guard had fallen in there, we’d taken over the fairgrounds just down the road from the prison, and the idea was to support if it was a mass riot. I don’t know the exact numbers that were in a block at the time. Maybe 300 to 500 individuals, just guessing here. So they had enough manpower on there between the troopers, the state troopers, the sheriffs, the prison special response teams, and us. Once again, we were down there to support our folks while they were going in there providing sick call operations, and then if the event was to take down the block by force, we were to go through and support injured staff members first and then inmates afterwards.
P: Did you have any injuries that you assisted with?
R: Not during the actual—it ended peacefully. They negotiated peacefully. Now during that time that we were in the fairgrounds, we played some pretty intense football games between ourselves and the MPs where we were able to injure ourselves pretty decently. But when they actually negotiated the end, there was a medic inmate who actually, at the time, we went out there. I was fortunate I was the first litter team to actually go and grab an inmate at the sight, so the first person that left the captured block was an inmate on my litter. A litter is a cot that we carry the patient out on. So I was actually standing there as the negotiator for the prison was talking to the person who was in charge of the inmates, and they decided that the first people out would be these injured inmates and their medic who had a white t-shirt on that said, “M-E,” backwards, “D-I-C” actually written that they were organized paramilitary themselves. They took over their own writing structures, and then he told me which patient to grab first, and I looked at the guy that was in charge of the whole thing, and he said, “Go.” And at that point, I took my litter team and evacuated the patient back to the medical care and the reprocessing that the prison system had set up.
P: Did you have to go back and get more?
R: Yes, we went back and, I believe, got two more litter patients at that time. And then at that point, all the casualties had been evacuated, and they started in processing the other individuals that had been in the cell block as part of the rioters.
P: So after all that, you enlisted in the Army, active duty, and then you had said earlier that this was the time that you were in a break up phase with your now wife, and you wanted to be sent as far away as maybe you possibly could be at that time, and that was in Germany.
R: Yes.
P: So you were stationed in Germany, and what did they have you do there?
R: I was a medic of a battalion aide station, so once again, a combat medic, and I was supporting a military intelligence unit. It was located on an air field. It was an area of exploitation—military intelligence—where they did aerial photography and radio intercept of communication, so my job was to sick call and trauma operations for individuals on those missions. So it was a pretty good job. It was a decent job as a young medic.
P: How long were you there?
R: I was there for two years.
P: What was your rank at that time?
R: Specialist.
P: Was there any part of your job that you felt you were especially good at or that you enjoyed while you were there?
R: I’m a great medic. I’m one of the best medics you’ll ever meet in your life, and at that time, I earned the Expert Field Medical Badge, which is awarded to less than ten percent of the medics in the Army, where you actually test for—you have to test for it, and you have to do perfect on your test in order to get it, and I’m very proud of the fact that I earned that while I was assigned to this unit. I also supported our nine _____ team, which a 100 mile road march team where you did 25 miles a day for four days, and I was the combat medic on that. I was proud of my support of the guys on my team for that.
P: That’s very impressive. Congratulations. So it was an actual written test? And a practical? And you had to score 100 percent? Is that what you’re saying?
R: On the written test, I believe you could’ve maybe missed a couple questions, but during your practical exams, you had to be on it on each one, and it’s a field medical batch. The entire time, you’re training out there. You’re intense. You train. It’s physical. You go from one event to the next event, and at the end, it culminates in a 12 mile road march in under three hours that you have to do. And if you fail any of the events, you lose. You’re not eligible for the badge.
P: So a 12 mile march, and along the march, would they maybe have situations that you’d have to—
R: No, it’s just—
P: After you’re done, you just walk 12 miles.
R: Yeah, it’s set up. It’s the last morning. You get up at o-dark 30 [referring to any time between midnight and sunrise the next morning ] and do your 12 mile force road march with your rucksack and Kevlar and weapon, and then you have to do it at the 12 mile pace.
P: Did you say under three hours?
R: Under three hours.
P: How much weight do you have on you at that point?
R: I believe it’s about 40 pounds on your pack along with your weapon.
P: Would you say that was your greatest challenge while you were there?
R: What’s that, EFMB [Expert Field Medical Badge]?
P: Yeah.
R: Yes. That and not getting in trouble at this point.
P: So, okay, that’s Germany, and you said you were there for two years?
R: Two years.
P: And then you went back to the U.S. [United States]?
R: Yes.
P: Okay, and from there you were deployed the first time?
R: When I went back to Fort Stewart, and I believe you’ve interviewed my wife, part of the deal was I was going to go Airborne myself, and I put a 4187 [DA Form 4187 – Personnel Action] as a request for an action to happen to go to Airborne school. My wife at that time—I had gotten married while we were there; we got back together and got married on leave—and she said, “If you do that, what kind of unit will you be in?” I said, “I’ll probably be in an African unit.” She says, “Don’t do that just so we can spend more time together.” And I pulled my 4187 was promptly put in the mechanized Infantry unit, and as soon as I got to Fort Stewart, I was soon deployed four months to Kuwait.
P: Now, when was this?
R: It would have been in ‘96 [1996] around January of ‘96 [1996] .
P: Okay, and you said for four months. Why were you deployed?
R: As an operation Intrinsic Action. It was a show of force on the Iraqi border basically. The U.S. [United States] troops would patrol the borders and did maneuvers on the border in order to help some peace. A couple border incidents prior to that where Iraq would come on the border, and at that point, we made an agreement with the Kuwaiti government to stay over there, so it’s post the first Gulf War.
P: What was your first impression of Kuwait when you arrived?
R: It was hot. It was ungodly hot. It was like standing in front of an oven or with a blow dryer blowing on low on your face at all times. It’s just barren.
P: Can you tell me a little bit about the base?
R: Not much about the base ‘cause I spent most of my time in the field while I was there. The Udairi Range, or the desert, at the time, there was a small forward operating base there, and from that point, I was in a medical company there with Forward Support Battalion as well, and on the ammo spittoon, once we got in there and set up, I was sent forward to support an actual tank battalion, so an armored battalion. That time, I was pushed forward with those guys and spent most of my time living in a tent, or actually my vehicle, sleeping in my armored vehicle and a _____ and doing EVAC [evacuation] operations for individuals that were either sick or injured during in that training area. You couldn’t roll wheeled vehicles with patients on it because the terrain was too tough, so you’d have to roll them out on a track vehicle, a heavier track vehicle for patient safety.
P: So you were there for four months. How did you keep in touch with your wife and your family when you were there?
R: Letters. Lots of letters. Really from the time that I went to Germany to the time I came home, I wrote a lot of letters to my wife. Particularly in Kuwait. I believe I was able to make probably two or three phone calls total the entire time I was there. One was via satellite phone when we were actually forward on—one of the officers at the armored battalion was able to allow myself and the other medic to do so.
P: So when you came back from Kuwait, you were then discharged from the Army, and you reenlisted in the National Guard.
R: Right.
P: Why did you choose to leave active duty?
R: The time when my reenlistment was coming up, they have what’s called a Retention NCO [non-commissioned officer], and he asked me while I was in Kuwait while we were pulling the engine out of our track vehicle in the middle of the desert and the grime and the heat and the sand and the oil, and said “Sergeant Runyon, what would it take to keep you in the Army?” And I said, “The MEPS station [Military Entrance Processing Station] in Columbus, Ohio is what it would take.” Two days later, he came back and said, “I’ve got two MEPS stations [Military Entrance Processing Station] in Jackson, Ohio.” And I said, “No thanks. I’m out.” I was just done. I was tired. My time in Germany, I enjoyed the community feel—the small military base and my unit and the tightness that you have when you’re there, sports and stuff. When I came back to Fort Stewart, I didn’t feel the same about that particular unit, so I was ready to go back home and be with my wife.
P: What is a MEPS station [Military Entrance Processing Station]?
R: Military Entrance Processing station. It’s where the soldiers come in and do their initial physicals and stuff. They have medic slots there. I was just really kind of teasing the guy. I didn’t believe he would come back with Jackson, Ohio. That was pretty good work on his part. I got to give him that one.
P: Okay, so you ended up rejoining with the National Guard in ‘96 [1996] ?
R: Right.
P: And in ‘97 [1997], you went down, was it Southeastern Ohio? The Ohio River flooded in ‘97 [1997] .
R: Yes.
P: What was that like?
R: It was amazing. It was one of the true first Armageddon experiences that I’d had with the Guard or the military, where you go in there, and a community’s uprooted and moved. We got in late at night, and I pull in where they push me off to supporting a small community in a small unit there, the high school, and I’m like, “Wow, there’s this trailer park right next to this high school,” and I’d realized that there wasn’t a trailer park. They’d rolled all the trailers up from the river and parked them in the school parking lot. Just the chaos related to that and the inability for people to move or that were stranded and actually truly, truly needed support of all kinds.
P: Were you scared ‘cause you said earlier you couldn’t swim. Were you afraid you’d have to go down to the water?
R: You know, at that point, you kind of get bulletproof. There was a few instances where I would go in front of the vehicle to make sure the road was okay, and on second thought right now, that’s probably not the smartest I could have done.
P: Were there any casualties when you were there?
R: No, we EVAC’d several patients at that time. Actually, I was awarded the Ohio Commendation Medal for it --able to try to get across a bridge that was out and then securing a vehicle to render aid to a cardiac patient and then also to get her medications. So that was really what we were doing there in regards to that, so mostly helping the community, and then also we found a poor public health nurse that was working a clinic by herself, and myself and another medic volunteered to help with vaccinations, tetanus shots, and whatnot for the folks there and help them with some minor injuries at the time.
P: How long were you there?
R: I believe seven days.
P: What city was this?
R: Manchester, Ohio is where we ended up at for most of the time.
P: Well then a couple years after that, you went down to Cincinnati, and sent to help after the tornado there in ‘99 [1999]. What was that like?
R: The tornado, I believe, went through Blue Ash, and it come through in just a swatch right across 71 [State Route 71] and tore up the community pretty well down there. We went down there to support the engineers. A lot of times what will happen is the Guard will send engineer units to help clear the roads and clear off power lines and stuff, and we were the medical support for those who went down as just a one-ambulance team that provide any kind of injuries or help for folks there. Several soldiers even hurt themselves by letting a log fall on them, and civilians—couple injuries related to—cut themselves and we ___ first aide in regards to tendon injuries, but it was, once again, in a place where you’re in a community. You’re standing in the suburbs or a little subdivision that’s just no longer there. It’s pretty amazing.
P: Okay, so between then and—well it looks like there was maybe a four or five year gap in between the tornado and then when you were sent to help after Hurricane Katrina. What were you doing in between?
R: Training, I was training. My role had changed from the soldier that we talked about that went to Germany. It changed when I came back from that to do that—become an NCO [Non-commissioned officer] on active duty and found out what it was like to be responsible for another human being—and take the role very seriously. I came back to the Guard and brought my NCO [Non-commissioned officer] tenants that I’d learned on active duty with me to my unit. So training. Mostly training my soldiers, preparing for war. Things were going on. The Balkans were heating up. This was prior to the, you know obviously, 9/11 [September 11, 2001] stuff, but there’s a lot of stuff that there was opportunity for soldiers to be on missions, so my big focus was to train my soldiers. I worked medicine—I graduated nursing school during that time; I was a paramedic prior to that. My scale’s set, so big thing was to train my soldiers to be the best combat medics as possible.
P: Now where did you go to school again?
R: Columbus State.
P: Columbus State, for both?
R: I started out in paramedic school there and then later on went back to get my RN [Registered Nurse].
P: I think your wife said that you had gone to Franklin?
R: I got my Bachelor’s in Healthcare Administration from Franklin University.
P: And was that more recent?
R: 2005.
P: So then before you went down for Hurricane Katrina.
R: I think I actually graduated after Hurricane Katrina.
P: Where did you go when you were sent to help with Hurricane Katrina?
R: We went down, once again, to support the Ohio Guard. Went down there to support missions. The Guard sent down a whole Infantry Battalion, the 148th —it’s a phenomenal unit—and a couple other associated units. We went down there as part of a passport to provide medical support, and we were in Southwest Mississippi, which actually was where the brunt of the hurricane came through. Fort St. Louis, Picayune, Poplarville, the areas and some of the communities that were really hit hard. We took a team down there and put medics in these four different areas, and then also the 148th was located in New Orleans proper. They weren’t getting very decent medical support; I don’t know who they were assigned to, so we were doing logistical support as taking them medications, and IV fluids, and other things that they needed that we had better access to in Southwest Mississippi, so I spent most of my time driving up and down the border of New Orleans and Mississippi, making sure my guys were where they needed to be and what they needed and also into New Orleans to support the medics from the 148th.
P: What was your first impression of the situation when you arrived there?
R: Well, my first impression even before we arrived was driving down. As we’re driving down, you start to see the chaos, but you also see all the people driving down as well on these streets. And the people from the North to the South to support the church groups, and buses, and crazy looking trucks with stuff strapped to them and boxes everywhere. My thought was, “Once you get down there, how are you going to get gas for your vehicles? Who’s going to support you when you’re down there?” And that’s something people don’t think about when they’re running down to help people out is that, what burden are you going to put on the community? Whereas, the Army, we bring our own. And it was pretty interesting to see that on the way down, and once we got in there, just the—I’d already seen the tornados and floods and the catastrophes—just the sheer size of, from the time we hit, I think, Jackson, Mississippi to the time we got down to the Gulf, just the destruction, maybe 100 miles, one hundred and 50 miles North of where the actual hurricane came in, and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.
P: How long were you there?
R: We were there for, I believe, 28 days.
P: Up here, we just saw what was on the news, and we ended up having—at least in Cincinnati—there was a huge power outage, lots of wind damage, and things like that. I’m sorry, that was from a different hurricane.
R: That was Rita.
P: That was Rita. That’s right. Was it that bad? What we saw on the news—was it really that devastating and bleak and scary when you were there?
R: Like I said, the wind damage and the actually hurricane damage alone in Southwest Mississippi was amazing. We drove down to Fort St. Louis and that’s where the tidal—I don’t know what they call it—where the water comes in and goes back out—I don’t know the terminology for that; it’s not tidal wave—but basically, there was a car lot where all the vehicles had been stacked on each other at that point, and just you can see that gorgeous buildings had been ripped from their foundations. The million dollar homes over on the beaches were nothing but just the platforms of the homes or the concrete over the base of the homes. All the way up through there, just the communities—you couldn’t drive through; the people couldn’t get out of their houses; they couldn’t get to food; they couldn’t get medical care. The tent cities that had been set up in the small communities there for the evacuees—it was just amazing. And the support that was down there and how they, once again, these folks had got down there and pitched their little—whatever they were provided—and just the chaos. It was just chaos everywhere. That was just Southwest Mississippi. Going into New Orleans was something you’d see in the movies, you know, after a nuclear disaster. If you go into a community of a major metropolitan city, and there’s nobody there, you’re driving on a highway that’s four stories high, and you’re stopping, pulling off to the side so you could take pictures on this overpass, and there’s nobody else there. Driving into the town and the MPs [Military Police] wave you in, or some other folks stay back and you’re just able to—it’s desolate; there’s nobody there. That was the city proper, and into the communities, where the 148th were located and the homes that were still under water, and the damage there, and where they’d marked off—they cleared the homes and made sure that there were no dead bodies or people that needed to be EVAC’d. They were spray painting homes. Just, once again, that whole chaos and Apocalyptic feel to it was amazing.
P: So you said you were there for 28 days?
R: Around 28 days, yes.
P: And then let’s see. So that was in 2005. It looks like we’re kind of going to jump back in time a little bit to your deployment to Iraq, which was in ‘96 [1996] .
R: Should have been ‘06 [2006].
P: Well that makes sense. I’m sorry about that.
R: That’s okay.
P: I guess I’m going back in time. Okay, so 2006, we’re chronological still. In 2006, you were deployed again, and you were sent to Iraq. How long were you there?
R: We were on ground for almost a complete year. I came on active duty in the beginning of June to prepare my unit to leave. We left in July for our train up station in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. On September 16 of ‘06 [2006], we flew into the combat zone, and on September 16 of ‘07 [2007], we arrived back in Columbus, Ohio. I know those dates in particular because that’s my birthday.
P: So why were you deployed?
R: I was support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. We were a medical company, 285th Area Support Medical Company, basically providing trauma and sick call support of the combat operations area.
P: And this is in Baghdad?
R: Yes.
P: What types of preparations did you have to make before you were deployed?
R: Personal preparations or military preparations?
P: Both.
R: Personal preparations—there’s a lot. You have to get your family ready for that. At the time, my boys were seven and five, and to let them know that dad’s going to be gone for a year. Financially prepared through your family—making sure that everything’s squared away in that regards. My wife and I, we hired an au pair to assist with her and the kids while I was gone. To prepare for work—make sure___ nobody’s ready to leave their job for an entire year. There’s lots of stuff you want to get cleaned up so that nobody’s falling in on your issues. And then also prepare, making sure that there’s some plan to replace you at work. Just really, everything. When you’re packing up and leaving and not coming home, it’s pretty tough in that sense. As far as the military type, the training. There is a training cycle that you have to do to be validated prior on heading into country. And also making sure that all of our equipment was ready to go into country. We were fielded an entire new medical equipment sets for our company, probably four millions dollars’ worth of equipment that we had to account for. And also prepping my soldiers to going to combat as well.
P: How long is that training?
R: We were ported July 5 to the MOB [Mobilization] station, so, and then left September, so it was almost a three month train-up.
P: Did you have any kind of cultural training as well, or was that maybe—
R: You do. You receive some cultural training. They give you all the books and some of the language, and then how not to be offensive to the nationals. We also have interpreters in the country.
P: What was the unit you were a member of?
R: 285th Area Support Medical Company.
P: How many people were in that?
R: 81.
P: And the whole unit was deployed?
R: I’m sorry, 89. I apologize, 89.
P: That’s okay. The whole unit was deployed?
R: That is the table organization for that unit. We had an over strength that some of those people stayed as a rear detachment, so I think there was probably 26 that stayed back that didn’t deploy for various reasons.
P: What was your first impression of Baghdad when you got there?
R: It was hot. It was just the war machine—coming in there and seeing the, almost the Mad Max feel of it—the vehicles, the heat, the soldiers, and just the entire operations, and just as large as it was.
P: Tell me a little bit about the base.
R: We were actually located on three different bases. I was located on Camp Liberty for the majority of my time I was there. I served as the treatment platoon sergeant and oversaw the three treatment areas. One in Camp Liberty, which is a large base, and then Camp Slayer, which is a smaller base, and then Camp Shield, which is an even smaller remote base on the edge of Sadr City.
P: What were your living conditions like?
R: They weren’t bad. We stayed in basically -- it was a two-man hooch, a trailer. My roommate was a young Second Lieutenant, and we worked opposite shifts, so I’d come home in the evenings, and he would be going to work or gone to work, and so we very rarely saw each other, which was nice to have a little privacy every once in a while.
P: Were there any special guests or entertainment while you were there on base?
R: There were a lot. I didn’t go to those things generally because my soldiers went out to go to one of those concerts or something, I’d stay back and make sure that the clinic had somebody overseeing the clinic and cover them so they could go to that. But yeah—Toby Keith, Kid Rock, Blues Travelers. I’m sure there’s some other ones that I really don’t—I may be a little old and not know these things that kids know either so—there was quite a bit of it. It was pretty impressive. And then some of the talking heads came over as well like Bill O’Reilly and some of the other folks.
P: How did you keep in touch with your family?
R: Computer. It’s amazing. My clinic—there’s a computer there I could email my wife from. And then in my room, there’s actually internet access for the soldiers there. And we would IM [instant message] or send emails to each other.
P: So the times have changed between when you were writing letters back in your days in Kuwait to—was that a ten year difference?
R: Exactly, yeah.
P: That was in ‘96 [1996] .
R: That was ‘96 [1996] .
P: That was ‘96 [1996], okay.
R: Every ten year reunion I have for my high school, I’m in the Middle East. That’s how I remember it.
P: So you did IM [instant message], email. How often did you communicate with your family?
R: Every day. Every day unless I had to travel to the Green Zone or to Camp Shield or somewhere else. I might be off the ‘net for a bit.
P: How did your children handle the deployment?
R: They did real good. I got to give Rhonda props for that. She was there. She was the strength. The boys did real good. My oldest son accepted his role as being the man of the family at the time at age seven. He was there for his mother. They both were honors students in their grades at the time. I’m amazed at how well they did.
P: And they were—the oldest was seven, and the youngest was five?
R: Yes.
P: How did the deployment affect your home life?
R: A lot of the soldiers probably tell you this same thing that you come back and you have to get back and you have to—are you talking about when I came home? Is that what you’re talking about?
P: Or just, no, at the time you were deployed, how it affected your family back home?
R: Just, they were worried. Rhonda was tense, but she had to do all that. She had to be the mother and the father. So it was tough on her in that sense of having to carry those dual roles. Definitely, it’s very tough on the family. People look at the soldiers, “What can we do for the soldiers? What can we do for the soldiers?” I’m so busy on mission there that I don’t need anything done for me. All my needs are taken care of by the military, and it’s the family that really needs the help and that stuff, so it’s tough on them.
P: What issues, events, and/or responsibilities consumed most of your time?
R: Soldiers. My soldiers, for one, I had 51 soldiers assigned to me in that time. We had merged two platoons, and took former treatment platoon, and an ambulance platoon. So I had double the responsibilities that I had prior to that, so soldier issues, the issues that happen in three separate areas and making sure that those were all falling in line for what needed to happen, and dealing with their personal issues and supporting them in those aspects, while long maintaining discipline and hitting our mission. And then our mission would be the provision of sick call and trauma services to individuals in that area. So that kept us pretty busy in regards—that was during the search.
P: What was your rank at this time?
R: Sergeant First Class.
P: During this particular time and this job, is there anything you feel that you especially excelled at?
R: I’m a leader. I’m not ashamed of it to say it. People follow me. They listen to what I say. I believe I’m fair and just in that means, and I can be very difficult and hard. I was able to get my soldiers developed to the point where they assumed leadership abilities and my junior leaders. My soldiers also stepped up as being solid, solid combat medics. I’m very proud of the fact that they were able to run their mission. My teams, my shifts, if I wasn’t there, I knew my clinics were being ran appropriately, and they were taking care of business as they were. So I’m very proud of the fact that I was able to instill what I thought was the appropriate way to run our operations into my junior soldiers down to the youngest private and that our mission was being accomplished in the manner that really shone well on the 285th and the Ohio Army National Guard.
P: Did you ever have any problems being such a good leader and having to be difficult at times. Did you just butt heads with anyone who just couldn’t handle that?
R: Oh, there were a couple. I didn’t lose. My soldiers understood from the get go who was in charge, and they accepted that. A lot of it too was planned heavy for my junior leaders that my squad leaders that they could carry out their mission, their soldiers knowing if something was inappropriate that the squad leaders would have to report to me, so it gave them the abilities to perform their missions well. There were a couple times, but generally, we were able to fix this pretty quickly.
P: Do you feel that there was any part of your job that you weren’t really all that great at or that you didn’t enjoy?
R: Administration. There was the administrative role once you become a senior leader in the military; it’s just unbelievable. It’s a bureaucracy unlike no other. Writing awards. Which I love to write awards for soldiers but just the fact that you have to rewrite them. A non-commissioned officer reports-- just the different reports. There’s just a mountain of paperwork that has to be completed on a continuous basis that never ever, ever stops. So yeah, I’m not a big fan of that. I prefer to do the training of the soldiers and the actual care of themselves, but that has to happen in order for the soldiers to succeed as well, so.
P: How did the locals react to your presence?
R: We were located—there’s three areas on post, so our abilities to communicate with the locals are very limited. We did have a thing called Civilian Military Operation Center which provided a free clinic to the civilians. They’d come into a secured area of the post, so I would try to get my soldiers down there as often as possible to be able to interact with the civilians and kind of get a feel for who they’re there with as opposed to treating the G.I.s and the numerous DoD [Department of Defense] employees or contractors over there. Limited from the individuals I met with, it seemed they were more than happy that we were there.
P: What was the most amazing thing that you saw while you were there?
R: Amazing in what a manner?
P: Well I guess something that—how do I say this—something that blew your mind?
R: Just the enormity of the situation. The machine that is a country at war, the amount of contractors on site, the amount of equipment, just the pure, the chows—four meals a day with all kinds of foods and coolers full of soda and ice cream and just some of the amenities just blow your mind. Of course, the palace complexes. They’re the Saddams’ and Rayen—those were located on the post I was at, Camp Victory, which was next to—you were able to see those palace areas. Some of that stuff was pretty amazing. More than likely, the thing I bring out of this was the defense industry itself over there was pretty amazing, pretty large.
P: Were the palaces at that point—had they been emptied?
R: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. This is probably three years after the initial takeover the palaces. It’s really kind of a tourism event at that time for the soldiers.
P: Did you see combat when you were there?
R: No, just other than rocket attacks, some rocket attacks during that time frame, but no individual or personal combat experience.
P: Was there anything that happened at your base that made you really fearful for your life?
R: We had rocket attacks hit 100 meters from our positions during time. We had mass casualties and stuff. And when you say combat as a medic in that type of situation, we saw combat in the event that we treated casualties, fresh casualties on numerous occasions, so I guess in that sense, you could say combat, but yeah. And of course, the numerous rocket attacks during that time frame, fear for my life and fear for the lives of my soldiers more so.
P: Do you feel that you were well prepared for what you faced?
R: I do. I believe that myself and my soldiers were well prepared, but based on the effort that my unit and my command put into our preparations.
P: How did combat affect the members of your unit?
R: There’s some of us that have had some issues in regards to some of the traumatic events over there. Soldiers, it’s a tense situation regardless, no matter if you’re on the line or walking patrol, we’re in there waiting for the next person to come in that’s injured or the KIAs [Killed in action] that you see. So, some of the soldiers—when they got back—had to seek counseling. Some of the people have developed leadership talents that they never knew they had. They are able to step up and really show some traits that they’ll take for the rest of their lives. So I think as a whole, soldiers are stronger that were over there with me.
P: Were there any that were lost in your unit?
R: No.
P: Were there many wounded?
R: There were no wounded from my unit.
P: Oh, from your unit, there were no wounded.
R: No, but understand that we provided the care for the individuals coming in as well.
P: So this was just a complete medical—you were with a complete medical unit.
R: Yeah, this time.
P: No Infantry.
R: No, this unit was an Area Support Unit Support so an area of operations and casualties are EVAC’d to you.
P: Tell me about any friendships that you formed as a result of your shared experiences in Iraq.
R: With my soldiers?
P: Mhmm.
R: During the time frame, there weren’t friendships. It was very fatherly with the soldiers. I came back. Prior to leaving, I was very hard and it was very strict—strict line of discipline, strict line of communications. And so these folks, there was never any Kevin to Mike kind of conversation. It was always Sergeant First Class Runyon to Sergeant or Specialist whoever I was communicating with. A lot of these guys really, really super performed for me, and every single day, performed for me and came to me, and you can’t be with individuals like that and not grow to adore them. And I absolutely love these soldiers. A lot of them, I’ll communicate with now. I’ve moved on to a different unit. So, one of the kids, I play hockey with now. Several of them, I’ve been to their weddings. I’ll go visit their babies when they’ve had their babies. I have a very, very fond attraction with my soldiers, and some of them, obviously, they’ll call me and ask me for advice and support, so I’m very, very happy about my relationship with most of my soldiers.
P: Out of everything that happened while you were deployed, is there one moment that stands out in your mind?
R: Yeah, I guess there’s a couple issues—or casualties—that rolled in. We had a rocket hit our camp there—a soldier killed. No, actually, they brought her in on a truck, grabbed her out of the truck, took her into our trauma room and started working her, and you knew she was dead at the time, or she was going to die. And just having to deal with that. Another was a KIA [Killed in Action] that had been brought in, which he’d been outside his vehicle when the IED [Improvised explosive device] hit and just dealing with the trauma related to that was for the soldier. And more so, what really got to me as a leader, and a soldier was seeing the other soldiers when they’d come in with their buddies. Just the anguish in their face and having to deal with that and the want to get back out and get payback or seeing young kids that are nineteen, 20 years old that will never be the same. You can see it in their eyes at that time, and that’s something you kind of deal with and live with every day.
P: How did you deal with that personally? What did you do to, I guess maybe, decompress or just try to keep going?
R: Apparently through my therapist right now, I didn’t do such a good job on that, so just internalized a lot of the stuff. You have to be strong. In my opinion, as a leader, you have to be strong in those situations. I put myself in a lot of positions where I could shield my soldiers from that just for the fact that they’re younger; I’ve been around a bit. But I didn’t do the best job of that.
P: So you were strong there, and then when you came back here, it’s like that’s when it all comes out, so you’re working through that now.
R: Exactly, yes.
P: That’s good.
R: My wife asked me to do so. I am.
P: That’s great. Do you recall anything unusual, any sort of unusual or humorous event while you were there?
R: There’s humor every day in the Army. Absolutely, everything’s hilarious. The soldiers. The way soldiers react. A funny one is my medical company—young soldiers, they get 16 weeks of basically medic training when they first come into the Army. Then, they go over, and they go back to college and become whatever they want to be. And a lot of them don’t touch medicine from the day they walk out of the medical training. And one of my soldiers runs and says, “Come here, Sergeant. Come and check this out.” And I go in, and the soldier’s irrigating another soldier’s ear. And my medic says—and basically you take a large bore syringe, and you just squirt water into the ear, and you help clear out debris, ear wax, or whatever. The soldier had the needle on in the ear on this side [right] and the catch basin in the ear on the other side [left], which, to me was hilarious. And I asked her. I said, “Have you ever done this?” And she’s like, “No, I have not.” I was like, “Oh let me show you how—” Just the absurdity—here’s this poor soldier having to deal with that. Just the funniest. That’s one of the funnier stories. There’s tons more, and some I won’t put on camera. Just soldiers being soldiers, and just the way everything can be made light of. They’re pretty good guys.
P: What would you like people to know about this time in history?
R: This time in history, in general?
P: Yeah, in 2006.
R: Just that the soldiers perform. They always will. It doesn’t matter what your political beliefs are or what the underlying reasons are. The soldiers always perform and do it admirably. And I think that we are not in the Vietnam era, but soldiers will always do their best job possible, particularly my soldiers were phenomenal.
P: Is there anything else about your deployment that you’d like to talk about or something that I haven’t asked that maybe you’d like to just put on record?
R: No. Just, like I said, I’m very proud of myself and my unit.
P: Tell me about the day you were sent home from Iraq.
R: It was my birthday. Well, we come back—you clear through, you come back pretty much the way you came out of a country—you go back to Kuwait for a little bit and then you come back to the DEMOBE [Demoblization] station, and then you’re brought back in for a big reception when you get back to your home state or your home community. So we were bused in on my birthday. And go through the whole official ceremony and the hugging and kissing when you get off the bus, which is phenomenal. My wife had been asked if she would mind if a camera crew could follow them, so we actually had a camera crew there during that time frame. I knew it coming, but still, it was a little bizarre and guarded during the, you know, just watching the camera. And then, I was given a police escort home by my community. They met us at the freeway, and lights and sirens all the way, and my neighbors lined up, and tons of people were at my home, so it was a nice experience being received back by that.
P: That had to be really just amazing, and it would have to make you feel really good.
R: There were signs put up everywhere. The neighbors had -- obviously someone had went through and told them--and they actually put an effort into there.
P: Well that speaks heartily. So I guess now we’ll just go ahead and talk about your current position. What is your current job?
R: I’m currently the Senior Medic for the Ohio Army National Guard and Medical Detachment. I’m the First Sergeant of this company, which I deal with the needs of my soldiers. There’s about 151 total soldiers in the unit and making sure their abilities to get promoted are being done. They’re meeting the criteria that it has to be a soldier as far as their physical fitness test, their weight control. I’m also mentoring them with developing the leadership roles. And I’m also the advisor to my commander and the state surgeon as far as enlisting medical operations or how we used to combat medic in these situations. It’s given me an opportunity to go several places already -- I’ve only been in the position since February -- National Convention for National Guard Medicine to see some of the operations there. And then just recently, this last week, I spent ten days in Serbia. We have a state partnership with the Serbian Army: just reviewing medical operations, discussing how things go there, and then we’ll come back and look at how we can strengthen our partnership with Serbia.
P: Are you enjoying this so far? It’s pretty new still.
R: It’s a little bit of both. Once again, being the leadership position, retaining the rank of Master Sergeant, it’s nice. It’s an end of a career; it’s a nice way to leave, but also, it’s taking some of the administrative roles, get you out from some of the actual troop leading. That’s the fun part of the Army—the fun part’s getting out there with your guys and doing stuff and getting a little bit dirty. That’s the point now as you get a little bit older, these administrative roles keep you away from your troops more and more and more.
P: What situations led you to this job?
R: Well, age. The being around, you know, my career. The natural progression—there’s only four EH [Exercise Head?] slots in the state of Ohio for medics, and this is one of them, so if I was going to be promoted, I’ll have to take this position.
P: What’s your greatest challenge?
R: My greatest challenge? OPTEMPO [Operation Tempo]. My guys, our company, we make sure that the soldiers are prepared to go to war as far as their medical readiness. Issues we found when the wars first kicked off as the guardsmen weren’t physically fit to go into combat as far as medical conditions; they weren’t properly screened. So now there’s a requirement that a soldier will get a period health assessment every year. There’s over ten thousand soldiers in the Ohio Army National Guard that need to have these periodic assessments that have to happen through my company. And then also when a soldier deploys, there’s a readiness physicals or assessments that need to be done as well that my company’s responsible for. So I have my guys drill twice a week or two weekends a month on separate teams, and just trying to keep them from burning out from the high OPTEMPO [Operation Tempo] and making sure that their soldier needs are being met. That’s one of the biggest challenges to make sure that they’re not still in mission but they’re still taking care of the stuff that they need to be soldiers and for the promotions and stuff.
P: Do you have a civilian job too, or are you also employed—
R: No. I work at the State Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. I’m the Infection Control Manager.
P: How has your service and military experiences affected your personal life?
R: My personal life? I think that it’s made me the person I am today. One of the largest reasons. That, and my wife. She’s adjusted some of my cultural aspects, and the military has helped refine my discipline and given me some of the tools I need to succeed in my career and other aspects of my life.
P: What significant changes have happened in the military since you first joined?
R: When I first joined the Guard, it was the good old boy, National Guard weekend warrior kind of mentality. One of my first drills with the unit, they had a beer. A soldier was retiring, so they had a party for him there at the unit, and soldiers were drinking beer at the unit and all that stuff. It was actually the state headquarters at the time where our unit was collocated at. You wouldn’t do that nowadays. It’s a more professional organization. It’s to the point where they’ve taken the Guard out of the community and made it more of a, once again, this professional organization, which is kind of sad in the aspect that the armories used to be located in small towns, just people from your community in the same unit, and that kind of that cohesiveness of that, and we’ve got away from that. In order for a soldier to be promoted, they need to leave their unit and go to another unit, and so it’s better for the professional aspect, but we’re losing some of the soldier and minuteman aspect of the National Guard I believe.
P: What do you think is the most important thing that you’ve done in your military service?
R: Most important thing—I think, develop young leaders. I think my squad leaders are the soldiers that have worked underneath me take up some of my pride in the uniform and the duty with them, and I’ve seen them apply it in other situations. I take a lot of pride in seeing those guys out there and kind of selfless service for their soldiers.
P: What’s the average age of these younger soldiers that you’re mentoring?
R: Usually 25 and under is what I took to Iraq, which I tell you, it’s tough keeping up physically with the 25 and under.
P: I could imagine. Is there anything that you’re doing to preserve the history of your experiences for historians and your descendants?
R: I keep all of my stuff. My wife will tell you that I’ve got some—she actually wonders why I keep little pieces of this and that. So I keep all that, and then I tell the stories to my sons. And then of course, I think this, the Historical Society, is amazing.
P: Do you have journals or anything like that that you’ve kept as well?
R: No, not so much.
P: Photos?
R: Lots of photos.
P: You probably show those to your boys too, right?
R: Yeah, when they’re not bored. Other children are totally enthralled with anything you could ever say about the military, my nephews. My children are not so enthralled. They’ve lived it, and it’s not that big of a deal to them. Actually, sometimes they wish we weren’t in the Guard.
P: How long do you plan to stay in—?
R: My enlistment ends in 2013. Depending on where we are as a state, currently our brigade is going to deploy to Iraq, the Infantry Brigade located through 7th Infantry, and the possibilities of deploying with them—I’m sorry, they’re deploying in Afghanistan—and if I deploy with them, I’ll probably end up staying past 2013 for at least a year afterwards.
P: Is there anything else about yourself that other people might not know or that you’d like to share?
R: No, I just—it’s funny it’s almost the split personality is that when I’m at the military, I’m this very straight-laced individual, company line guy, but if you knew me outside of any kind of military operation, you’d know that I’m a cutup, and I have a lot of fun, and it’s a surprise for a lot of individuals that don’t know the two different personalities related to that. It’s kind of neat to see when they figure that out. That’s really it.
P: Well is there anything that I haven’t asked that you would like to talk about? Training or school or anything like that that you want to—
?
R: No, I think you pretty succinct in the career there. Just been real proud. I’m looking forward to, once I do complete it, of having that closure of spending an entire 20 plus years and retiring from an organization that I believe is one of the best organizations in the world.
P: Well, I just want to thank you very much for sharing your story and experiences with us. We really appreciate it.
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