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CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq, March 26, 2007 -- There is no lack of experience in the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Iowa Army National Guard soldiers stationed here. There are 10 Guardsmen with more than 25 years of service. They include Chief Warrant Officer Stephen Swisher of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Staff Sgt. Stephen Johnson of Dubuque, Iowa, who have 30 and 29 years of service; and 1st Sgt. Thomas Newton of Waterloo, Iowa, Sgt. 1st Class James Plambeck of Persia, Iowa, Sgt. 1st Class Joel Laird of Des Moines, Iowa, and Sgt. 1st Class Donald Gilbert of Waverly, Iowa., who each have more than 27 years of service. This also is the first deployment for Swisher, Plambeck, Laird and Gilbert. “I never dreamt I would stay in this long,” Swisher, the battalion’s maintenance technician, said with several laughs. The 47-year old Swisher, a married father of three, enlisted in the Guard, Dec. 1, 1976, at age 16. His parents had to sign a waiver for him to enlist. He said the supervisor of the furniture store he worked in and a Guardsman advised him to join the Guard. Swisher was a noncommissioned officer from 1981 until 1999, earning the rank of master sergeant in 1992. He became a warrant officer in 1999. He has worked as a full-time guard technician for the last 28 years at the Council Bluffs field maintenance shop, one of more than 10 in the state. He said becoming a warrant officer was one of his goals before leaving the Guard. “I did what I said I wanted to do,” he said. “It feels like one helluva accomplishment. I’ve done my best.” What are his plans after this deployment? He said he wants to “drive on” for at least another year. “It all depends on the technician program,” he said. “If it has something good to offer, I’ll probably stick around.” Johnson, 55, who served in the Army from 1969 until 1972, has to “stick around.” He extended his enlistment for six years in 2004 after more than 20 years in the Guard. He said he joined the Army as an engineer during the Vietnam War to “do something for his country” and at the same time earn money for college with the G.I. Bill. He was very close to being sent to Vietnam instead of South Korea. He said while at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., 25 engineers left for Vietnam the first month. In the second month, 23 soldiers left for Vietnam and he and another soldier were deployed to South Korea. Johnson, a married father of two, joined the Guard in 1984 on a one-year trial program. He said he enjoys the Guard because he is able to do something different. When not deployed which has been three times, he is in his 30th year as a revenue agent for the Iowa Department of Revenue. In his storied Guard career, Johnson has worked in several fields, including administrative and supply. Here he is the battalion’s liaison for convoy operations between several Army units. “It was nice to get away from my civilian job a little bit and do something different,” he listed as one of his reasons for staying in the Guard. “I just like doing it. To me it was a stress relief from my regular job.” Johnson’s relatives also have liked serving in the military. His cousin served 27 years in the 82nd Airborne Division, his father served aboard a Landing Ship, Tank during the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France, in World War II, and his cousin is a major in the Iowa National Guard. Laird, 44, also has strong family ties with the military. His father was a full-time Guard recruiter. Laird, the maintenance control noncommissioned officer for the battalion’s motor pool, definitely made his father proud. |
