Post Members Deploy

April 17, 2007

Wendy Tomczak and Shawn Rogers, who are were at the American Legion in Shippensburg on Friday, April 13, are preparing to serve in Iraq. Miranda Roy/Special to The Sentine

Wendy Tomczak is a 58-year-old nurse. Shaun Rogers is 27 and is a recruiter for an employment agency.

The Shippensburg residents have more in common than meets the eye, however.

In the words of American Legion Post 223 Commander Dick Guyer, Tomczak and Rogers share the distinction as a modern day warriors” - members of National Guard units that bolster America's military strength.

Both are preparing to leave civilian life behind soon for a rotation to Iraq.

Both will leave children behind.

Both say an irrepressible sense of patriotism is the reason for their years of military service.

Fourth time to combat zone

Lt. Col. Tomczak is a flight nurse in the West Virginia Air National Guard 167th Air Medical Evacuation Squadron.

Her departure date is not nailed down yet,” but it's coming up fast. Tomczak says she anticipates her deployment to begin shortly after the May 5 wedding of her 29-year-old daughter Nicole in Virginia Beach.

Scheduling the wedding around her impending deployment has been a challenge. Tomczak says the family is working on its third choice of a date for the big event.

Iraq is Tomczak's fourth trip to a combat zone in more than 21 years of military service.

A Shippensburg Area Senior High School graduate, Tomczak was introduced to war in a one-year stint as an active duty U.S. Army nurse in Vietnam in 1970-71.

She was walking in the footsteps of her mother - Charlotte& Peggy” Strayer - who was an Army nurse in 1944.

I started out going to nursing school,” Tomczak says,then decided on the Army. I guess it was the next natural step.”

She left the active-duty Army, got married, had babies and then divorced,” Tomczak says, gravitating back to the military in 1988 with the persuasion and encouragement of her closest friend.

She was joining, and she talked me into going along with her to the recruiting station,” Tomczak recalls. I thought ‘why not' and went along. The promise of travel and exotic destinations was all it took. That was in September 1988. I was sworn into the guard in May 1989.”

Desert Shield, Afghanistan

Eighteen months later she was on her way to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in support of Operation Desert Shield. That mission lasted just five weeks, but she was back in Riyadh in January 1991 for Operation Desert Storm.

That mission was also short - completed by the end of March.

There wasn't much for us to do, which is fortunate, because when we're busy that means people are getting hurt, ”Tomczak says.

Her luck changed in 2002 when she arrived in Afghanistan on Christmas Eve for what was scheduled to be a 90-day rotation.

We were supposed to be home in March 2003, but things got busy, our replacements were deployed elsewhere and we ended up staying nine months,” Tomczak says.

There are a lot of reasons Tomczak has remained in the Guard. She admits that the benefits are great.

The money is always nice,” she admits. I think anyone who says the money or the education benefits aren't part of it, is probably not telling the whole story. But, a prime reason is that I have a patriotic streak. We have the best country in the world, and if I can give something back, then I need to do that.”

Tomczak says her mother's support was also a crucial factor when she decided to join the Guard in 1988.

When I decided, I sat down with my children and my mother. They had to know it was a commitment on my part, but I don't think any of us had any vague thoughts that life in the National Guard would change so much … that we would be deployed so often.”

Third-generation military

When Tomczak went to Saudi Arabia the first time, her daughter was 12 and her son was 14. Her mother took the kids.

The children have both emulated their mom.

Eric, 31, is now in the U.S. Navy.

Nicole is a civilian nurse at Portsmouth Navy Base in Virginia, She's a third-generation nurse, preparing to marry a Navy boy” as her mother gets ready to ship to Iraq.

Tomczak says of her daughter, Her plan was to become a physician's assistant, but in her fourth year of college she changed her mind. I told her it was genetic.”

Proud to be a soldier

Rogers is a sergeant and a mechanic in an infantry unit - the 29th Infantry Division. He's slotted for 12 months in Iraq, but a change in Pentagon policy announced this week could stretch that to 15 months.

A Maryland native, he calls Shippensburg home now, and says, Shippensburg is an awesome town.”

When he deploys, he will leave behind not just three youngsters, but his best friend - his wife Heather.

A 10-year veteran of the Army National Guard, Rogers admits his emotions are on a roller coaster as he makes the final arrangements- including a will - for his departure to a war zone.

I'm scared to death to be going into a hot zone, but I'm proud and excited,” he says.I'm sick to my stomach to be leaving my kids, but I'm proud to be a soldier, and I'm good at my Army job.”

Rogers says he and his wife sat down last year and discussed the prospect of his re-enlistment because it's about our family, not just me.”

Wife is his backbone

He calls Heather his rock” and says they agreed on his re-enlistment, depending on open communication, the support of family and faith in God to weather the potential hardship.

My wife has been my backbone through this all, and she will be until the day I leave,” Rogers says. I love the Army, that's why I stayed in. I'm there for the same reason I was 10 years ago: The red, white and blue.”

He's enjoyed the benefits along the way - specifically money for college tuition and travel. He says he's been to Panama, Germany and Ireland on training missions.

His previous active duty was in a 1991 peacekeeping mission in Bosnia that began nine days after America's Sept. 11 disaster, and in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina.

The news of his Iraq deployment was a different sort of news, Rogers concedes.

It took a while for me to break it down for myself when I got the call,” Rogers says.

No book on leaving

He's spent a lot of time trying to prepare his oldest child since then. He figures his 5-month-old daughter Laurel and 2-year-old son Peyton are probably too young to grasp the impact of his absence.

The elder son, Caeden, will be 4 in August, and Rogers is trying to brace him for the temporary loss of his father.

It's one subject the Army doesn't have a book for, Rogers says.

We took a ride in the truck and I reminded him that my job is to help people,” Rogers explains. &#8220He said to me, ‘I help people, too' and I told him that I was going away and would need his help while I'm gone.

Rogers says his son took to the part readily.

When we got home, he stopped in the kitchen and stood with his hands on his hips and said ‘I'm the boss of this family now.'”