Photo By Maj. Gretel Weiskopf | Senior Airman Andrew Service tightens a valve on a water generator in Joint Task Force...... read more read more
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By Gretel Sharpee
Joint Task Force Guantanamo
"It's not really optional; it is just something you have to do." Those words could have come from any of the hundreds of troopers serving Joint Task Force Guantanamo when talking about being deployed. However, these words came from one Airman who had to miss something very special in order to deploy to U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay.
On Aug. 31, 2008, Senior Airman Andrew Service, 474th Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, here since mid-July, found out that his second son, Andrew, was born in his home state of Louisiana.
Service, a utilities journeyman with the 474th, describes his daily duties as mostly preventive maintenance. He and the other Airmen in his section ensure the water, electrical and sewer needs of Camp Justice flow uninterrupted.
Service is a part of the Louisiana Air National Guard; he has worked with the other members of his unit since he came into the Air National Guard four years ago.
"I'd like to do 20 [years]," Service said. "It is good pay and a lot of fun ... On drill weekends a police officer and engineer will pick me up at my door and say 'Let's go to work' and I'm a plumber!"
Another reason why Service values the Air National Guard is that fellow Airmen families helped his wife during the hurricane that came close to where they live.
"I was ready to go home on emergency leave when other family members came and helped out my wife," said Service.
Although Service has had a lot on his mind with his wife and new son at home, Service says he knows just getting the work done that his unit is here to do will make time fly.
"It was hard always wanting to know how [my wife] was doing, but [she] was very understanding and it is just something you have to do," said Service. "Here, there was so much to do – I just kept working, making the time go by fast."
| Date Taken: | 01.16.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 01.19.2009 10:14 |
| Story ID: | 29019 |
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| Web Views: | 235 |
| Downloads: | 183 |
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