Posted on 04/09/2006 12:05:22 PM PDT by SandRat
Long separation to Texas, then Afghanistan will stress families
When she learned her soldier husband was going to war, Cate Beech felt a clock start ticking inside her heart. When they wake in the morning, when they glance at each other over dinner, it constantly reminds her that their time together is running out.
"I see couples arguing over little things and I think 'I don't have time for that,' " said Beech, 30, of Marana. "Deployment changes the way you think. You can't worry about the small things."
The Beeches — Cate, Chief Warrant Officer Stephen Beech, a helicopter pilot, and the couple's 12-year-old son, Tommy — are among hundreds of local families facing unusually long separations as a Marana Army National Guard unit leaves for a mission that could keep them away for nearly two years.
More than 450 soldiers attached to the 1-285th Attack Helicopter Battalion will spend about eight months training at Fort Hood in Texas. Then they'll head overseas to serve in the anti-terrorism effort based in Afghanistan.
The unit flies the Apache Longbow attack chopper. The Longbow is sometimes referred to as the Army's "911 aircraft," so dubbed because it's dispatched to virtually every emergency situation, aiding ground troops with precision firepower.
The Tucson-area soldiers are due to start leaving next month. They are based at the Silverbell Heliport in Marana, part of the 1-285th and the Western Army Aviation Training Site.
Most will serve for 22 to 23 months, including training time, just under the legal two-year-limit for a guard call-up, said Col. Patrick McCarville, who oversees Army National Guard aviation programs at state headquarters in Phoenix. The extra time is needed to properly prepare for the mission, he said.
Some families are pulling up stakes in Tucson and moving to Texas for the training period, McCarville said. Others have decided to keep two households going, one here and one there.
"However they do it, it's going to be difficult for them," he said of the deploying troops.
"A lot of them have civilian jobs they are leaving. A lot of them have little babies. The sacrifices these soldiers make just amaze me."
More than a dozen local soldiers volunteered for the long assignment, including Beech. It will be his first time in a war zone, and his family plans to stay in Marana while he's gone.
"It's no big deal," said Beech, 33, of his decision to add his name to the deployment list. "I just wanted to do my part."
Cate Beech, a finance staffer with the Marana Unified School District, knows she'll face some fear and loneliness while her husband is away.
"It's going to be quite challenging when he's overseas. But it's his job," she said.
The Beeches had some explaining to do to their son, a Marana Middle School student.
"He asked me why I have to go," Stephen Beech said. "I told him everyone has to take a turn. Right now there's probably an Apache pilot over there who has a son at home waiting for him. And I need to go so he can have a break and be with his family."
Spc. Brian Clark, 34, a Northwest Side resident, will leave behind wife Terra and kids Cody, 14, and Chelbi, 13, both students at Tortolita Middle School. They, too, will stay in Tucson while he's away.
"It's bad enough I'm leaving. To pull them out of Tucson and make them find a new place to live would only make it harder on them," said Clark, an Apache mechanic for the Guard, who also holds a day job as a military police officer at the Silverbell Heliport.
Staff Sgt. Chad Adams, 29, a Phoenix native who works in the unit's personnel office in Marana, has three children younger than 6, and a new baby on the way. Wife Kelli, 30, is due to give birth in June.
"She wasn't too thrilled when she found out I was leaving. But she understands it's the nature of the business," Adams said. His biggest challenge was breaking the news to Chase, 5, Emilie, 4, and Riley, 2.
"All they know is Daddy's going across the big water to get the bad guy," Adams said. "I don't think they really comprehend how long a year is, or two years."
The impact of deployments reaches far beyond individual families, though.
At the Flowing Wells Baptist Church, about 20 teenagers broke into tears when they learned that one of their youth group leaders was among those deploying, said Lori Kiefer, 38, an administrative worker at the Silverbell Heliport. Her daughter, 15-year-old Kiana, a freshman at Flowing Wells High School, was one of them.
"There was a lot of crying that night. It's hard for the kids to understand," said Kiefer, a former soldier herself. She said she's trying to reassure the teens by reminding them of all the people they know who have returned from war safely.
For now, the clock will keep ticking for the families of the 1-285th.
The Beeches are spending as much time together as possible, taking walks, going to ballgames and riding dirt bikes.
The Clarks are holed up in their living room, watching movies and hanging out.
"There's always the thought of possibly not coming home,' Brian Clark said.
"We all know there's that possibility, so you want to make the best of the time you've got."
"Right now there's probably an Apache pilot over there who has a son at home waiting for him. And I need to go so he can have a break and be with his family."
Chief Warrant Officer Stephen Beech, helicopter pilot
Arizona Guard on alert to go to Ft Hood then Afghanistan.
Nice. What a great way to explain a complicated situation to his son.
BTTT
While I can't say this article was negative in any way, it did almost seem as if in the end, it was raising the question of whether this was something we should be doing. Look at all the heart-ache...
The members of our military and their families have always had to put up with moments like these. I can't tell anyone how much I appreciate it, words don't expres it fully. My heart goes out to them.
Perhaps I'm reading a little too much into it. I do have to admit I have a jaundiced eye when it comes to the media these days. I second-guess their motives constantly.
A 2yr deployment....why doesn't this surprise me......
Hey,....it's from the Arizona Red Star! Carol Ann is the most even handed and conservative reporter they have --- and that's streching it a mite.
Thanks. Then perhaps my take wasn't all that far off the mark. I do have mixed feelings on it though.
Well, it took them long enough.
Piper's Momma's committment is over, isn't it? Any chance they could recall her?
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