Veterans Month
November 2003
NS Veterans Remember
Lewis Ray
designer
IT
Atlanta
I entered the Army Reserve after graduating high school. My father had served in the Army for 28 years and was a veteran of the Vietnam War. I admired him and his service to our nation, and was proud to join the Army Reserve to challenge myself and follow in his footsteps.
My family was living in Northern Virginia at the time, so I signed up to join a nearby Airborne Pathfinder unit based near Baltimore. Shortly after enlisting, I moved with my family down to South Alabama and shipped off to Fort Benning, Ga., for 19 weeks of Airborne Infantry training. I returned home in November 1989 to attend junior college and requested a transfer in the Army Reserve to an Aviation Maintenance Company based out of Fort Rucker, Ala.
Since I hadn't been trained for any of the specialized helicopter repair skills needed in the aviation unit, I was assigned to a supply job in the motor pool serving as the unit dispatcher and vehicle maintenance clerk. One year later in December 2000, my unit was called to deploy to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Storm.
For a month we prepared for deployment, sharpening our soldering skills and packing crate after crate of helicopter maintenance equipment. In mid-February 2001, we shipped out for parts unknown, Saudi Arabia. As a young man, the experience was an adventure.
Not knowing what was going to happen next or where we might end up, it was much more difficult for my fellow solders who were mothers, fathers, husbands, and wives leaving families and spouses behind. While the experience was exciting for me, it was traumatic for my family back at home, especially for my parents. The worry during that time must have been something only other parents of solders deployed to war understand. My unit spent six months in Saudi Arabia before coming back home to the United States.
I am very proud to have had the opportunity to serve our country and defend the causes of freedom and peace in the world