Deployed Guardsman Thanks
His Employer this Holiday Season
1st Sgt. MATTHEW STRASSER
Iowa Army National
Guard
At Thanksgiving time, Americans are reminded to think about
everything we're thankful for. When you're serving overseas, you think about it
every day. For most of us out here, the most important thing in life is our
families -- for me, my wife and two sons.
With my family thousands of miles away in Iowa,
being unable to spend time with my sons or help my wife out is a constant
worry. In
Afghanistan
,
it can be hard to focus on the job at hand if you're constantly thinking about
how your family is coping without you. More than ever, I appreciate and value
the things that people do, no matter how large or small, to help my family in
my absence.
The care packages and letters I receive from people all over
the country help remind me why I serve my country, but the support that people
offer my family provides me with peace of mind.
Each act of kindness and support for them means one less
moment I spend worrying about them. To anyone who has ever provided help or
kindness to a service member's family, on behalf of all of us, I say thank you.
One of the crucial areas of support for the 1.1 million of
us who are National Guard and Reserve service members comes from those who
employ us.
My job with the Iowa Army National Guard isn't my only job.
Before my deployment, I was one of only two employees at Augustine & Sons,
a 150-year-old family farm in Rose Hill, Iowa.
Since starting my job there five years ago, I have been
deployed twice, nearly half my time of employment, putting a tremendous strain
on the Augustines' resources.
All the while, Dan and Mike Augustine, the farm's owners,
have shown absolute support for my service to the state and to the Army --
helping me (and, more important, my family) in so many ways that it is
impossible to express my thanks adequately.
To Mike, Dan and their families: Thank you for letting me
come and go during my last few weeks of work so I could spend as much time with
my family as possible. Thank you for allowing my family to live on the farm
during my first deployment, rent free.
Thank you for taking my boys fishing, watching their sports
games while I'm gone and fixing their dirt bikes. Thank you for watching them when
they're sick so my wife, Jessica, can go to work, and
for flowers on our kitchen table when she's had a rough day. Thank you for
plowing winter's snow from the drive and for taking time away from your own
families to help mine.
There aren't many ways beyond saying thank you for me to
show the Augustines how much I appreciate their
unceasing support at a time when my family has needed it most.
However, as a reservist, I was eligible to give them public
recognition by nominating them for the Secretary of Defense Employer Support
Freedom Award. And it gave me great pride when I learned that they were chosen
nationally as one of 15 recipients of the 2007 award.
They came to Washington
in September to receive the award and met with the president, the vice
president and the secretary of defense. The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, Gen. James Cartwright, presented the award to them at a dinner that
Jessica and our boys attended.
I could not have dreamed of a better way to thank the Augustines for all they have done for me.
This Thanksgiving, I thank Mike Augustine, Dan Augustine and
every employer around the nation who has made the effort to support the needs
of our service members and their family members. What you do allows us to do
what we do with total commitment and the confidence that our families and our
jobs will be safe.
I encourage all my fellow National Guard and Reserve service
members and their families to take the time to thank those employers who do go
above and beyond in supporting us by nominating them for the 2008 Secretary of
Defense Employer Support Freedom Award.
To nominate an employer click here….. http://esgr.org/fap.asp?p=form2007
