Home, Sweet Home—

Soldiers Return From Deployment

By Nancy K. Crevier

Being deployed overseas is a difficult job, but two armed service reservists who have recently returned home from missions in Afghanistan and Kuwait would agree that it is the families left holding down the fort back home who have the more difficult position.

Master Sergeant James Rebman, United States Air Force Reserves, returned to Newtown on May 21 after serving four months in Bagram, Afghanistan. His regiment was attached to a contract company that handled mail and cargo to the remote bases, and M.Sgt Rebman was in charge of loading the cargo planes. “Our mission was to deal with the civilian planes and load up the planes as long as there was daylight,” he said. That could mean a 12- or 13-hour day, depending on the weather.

After serving six years with the Navy, M.Sgt Rebman joined the USAF Reserves 12 years ago. “At that time, I really never thought we would be deployed during a war. But after 9/11, I had no problem being deployed,” he said. His first tour took him to Kathar in 2002. This last tour was semivolunteer for M.Sgt Rebman, who elected to go based on the others in the group. “The people that were going influenced my decision to go. If I’m going to be deployed, I thought, I want to be with these guys.”

The base on which he was stationed was relatively safe, he said, but the monotony of the days and missing his family was hard. “The hours are long and it’s very routine, the same thing every day. You know you’re missing things back home — you miss your freedom, you miss your family and there was not a lot of social activity,” he said. He was particularly grateful when the local VFW sent him a barbeque and charcoal. “We got some steaks and had a barbeque one Saturday night midtour. It just changed the morale a little bit, it was something different. So we did that a couple of times. In nicer weather, we could walk over to the Exchange for a cup of coffee for a change of pace, and there were a couple of places like Burger King on base. But pretty much, it was the same thing every day.”

Visits from USO tour personalities put him in direct contact with famous people, he said. While they waited for small planes to take them out to the remote areas, M.Sgt Rebman shot the breeze with the likes of country singer Toby Keith, Yankees team member Jeff Nelson, NASCAR driver Randy LaJoie, and others. “That was sort of fun, and made for a change,” he said.

As M.Sgt Rebman counted down the final days of his tour, he most looked forward to returning to the New England climate. “I couldn’t wait to see the green trees, the green grass. Bagram is just a big valley surrounded by mountains; there is nothing there. You see one tree here, maybe, another tree there. It is brown everywhere. I looked forward to clean air,” he said. High temperatures, dust storms the last few weeks, and wind made the climate very unpleasant.

Still, he said, he thinks that his deployment was far harder for his wife, Veronica, and children, James, 14, and Kate, 13. “Over there, I only had to worry about one person — me. [Veronica] had to deal with everything back home, drive the kids to soccer, to dance, to whatever, do the shopping, cooking, take care of the house, and deal with anything that came up,” said M.Sgt Rebman. “It was really reassuring to know that she can handle this military life. She is capable of making decisions and the kids step up. I’m proud of her,” he said. It made his days of deployment easier, he said, knowing that he could depend on Veronica to keep the family life going smoothly. “I didn’t have to worry, and not all of the guys over there could say that,” he said.

He is looking forward to the simple pleasures of civilian life, like yard work, getting his boat ready for summer, and other small home projects before returning to work later this month as an electronics technician at the federal prison in Danbury. “I can say that I truly appreciate our freedom and the way we live here after serving overseas,” said M.Sgt Rebman.

An Officer’s Responsibility

Commander Charles Kirol, US Navy Reserves, was mobilized August 31 to Williamsburg, Va., for training, and left in November for Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. He has been in the Navy since he was 19 years old, serving 13 years active duty and the past seven years in the reserves.

“After 9/11, I knew I’d be called. I had promised [my wife] Evelyn that I would never volunteer, but that if I was called, I would go. I feel this is my responsibility, especially as an officer,” said Commander Kirol. He was asked to go, and served in the Mediterranean from November 2001 to September 2002.

This deployment found him second in command to 689 troops serving under Captain Ron MacLaren. Their unit had detachments in five bases in Kuwait and two bases in Iraq, and as a commander of the Navy Expeditionary Logistical Support Group (NAVELSG) Forward GOLF, Operation Enduring Freedom, he oversaw the handling of all gear coming into and out for the countries, “from bullets to beans to bombs,” he said. They hoisted helicopters on and off of ships and received the huge Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles designed to withstand IEDs. His duties also entailed visiting forward operating bases in Iraq, as well as those in Kuwait.

While he felt very safe on bases in Kuwait, the travel to Iraq bases was a little more nerve-wracking for Commander Kirol, not necessarily due to snipers or IEDs. “I think the most dangerous part of the whole operation was traveling base to base. Locals would just drive on to the roads in the dark from anywhere in the desert. When you are traveling at 80 mph, it can result in some pretty horrible accidents,” he said.

Day to day, it was pretty routine, though, he said. “We were very busy, working 5 am to 10 pm most days.”

Even so, Commander Kirol thinks his days were probably easier than what his wife, Lynn, and daughters Jacqui, 17, and Morgan, 13, endured. “I left her with quite a bit on her plate,” he said. They had started remodeling the kitchen and it was still mostly gutted when he was called up. Seven days before he left, his youngest daughter had ACL surgery and was on crutches, and the arrival of a new puppy that they had decided to get coincided with his being away. “I left Lynn grilling outside and ordering take out, with one daughter feeling pretty emotional because she couldn’t play soccer, and a puppy that needed to go to obedience school. It was a bit of a mess. She finished it all, dealt with the contractors, took care of the girls,” he said.

“My days are scheduled. At home, Lynn is dealing with the girls and their emotions, contractors, life changes, so many variables. She made this deployment easier for me,” including, said Commander Kirol, the news that his 92 year-old grandmother had passed away.

Just before Christmas, Commander Kirol returned home on leave for his grandmother’s funeral. “I was home for about ten days, but I felt weird for about eight of them, I’d say. I felt guilty that everyone who worked for me was over there, and I needed to be back so I could leave the ‘right’ way. I know that wasn’t easy for my family,” said Commander Kirol.

Tears come to her eyes when Lynn Kirol hears her husband talk about all that she did while he was away and how important the support he got from her and the girls was to him. “He has been out more as a reservist than when he was in active duty,”  she said, “but I signed up for this when I married him. The biggest thing was that the girls missed him. He is very involved with them,” said Mrs Kirol.

She and her husband are used to making decisions together, she said, so she missed having him around when she had to deal with little crises. A good network of friends and families was essential to getting through the months, and as a marathon runner, she was able to alleviate some stress by hitting the pavement.

Commander Kirol made a point for calling home, if even for just a few minutes each day, and he and his daughter Jacqui worked through the college application process via e-mail.

He returned home May 28, and was back at his civilian job at GE in Danbury on June 2. The transition from military life to civilian life is a big adjustment, he said. Learning to relax again will take awhile. “You have to realize that the change of command doesn’t walk in the door with you,” he said.

“There’s no doubt it’s harder for him, mentally and emotionally. Because he’s such a leader, it’s hard for him to not be in charge. I’m just happy he’s home and can share our everyday life. He can go to Jacqui’s graduation,” said Mrs Kirol.

“I knew I’d be coming home to a stable environment. She doesn’t do things the way I’d do them, maybe, but we come through and intersect on the other side. I can’t even tell you how happy I am to be home.”