Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Jon Cupp | Richmond, Va., native Sgt. 1st Class Gwendolyn Pritchett, a food program manager...... read more read more
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Although she can still remember her 8-year-old little boy coming home with tears in his eyes and a busted chin after falling off his bike, she knows he’s not that little boy anymore, expecting mom to make it all better.
While taking a few moments to reminisce about a now 22-year-old son, Sgt. 1st Class Gwendolyn Pritchett, a food program manager who oversees force management for the 82nd Sustainment Brigade-U.S. Central Command Materiel Recovery Element, waits anxiously from a brigade conference room on Kandahar for a Nov. 27 video-teleconference with her son, Pvt. Dominic Nelson, who has just graduated basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C.
“I know when I see him, I’ll be a big bag of tears,” said Pritchett, who hails from Richmond, Va. “It’s hard and I’m very emotional, because I wanted to be there for him.”
“With the exception of one other prior 15-month deployment to Mosul, Iraq, and this current deployment to Afghanistan, I’ve always been there for my five children ever since they were born,” she added. “I’m curious to see what he looks like now and if he’s lost weight.”
As the video-teleconference started, Pritchett began asking her son a myriad of questions that she says are typical questions only a concerned parent might ask.
“What will you be doing for Thanksgiving? What happened to your hair? Have you contacted your grandmother,” asked Pritchett.
“Yes, ma’am,” answered Nelson, who will be going to advanced individual training at Fort Lee, Va., to become a petroleum supply specialist, sticking to his recently acquired basic trainee decorum.
Along with the personal questions, Pritchett, said she had to ask a few questions that only a concerned senior noncommissioned officer might ask to a new Army professional.
“Have you considered going airborne? How many pushups can you do now? What did you think about the gas chamber?” she asked while giving her son a little advice about furthering his Army career.
For both mother and son, they said the experience talking to each other despite being separated by thousands of miles was worthwhile.
“This feels great and it was a huge surprise,” said Nelson. “I knew my parents weren’t going to make the graduation ceremony, so this was extremely special for me.”
“It’s been fantastic and it was important for me to get to speak to him on the day of his basic training graduation,” said Pritchett. “Being in an Army family is a unique experience and I’m definitely going to encourage him to stay in and hopefully, he can eventually be a sergeant major. The good thing is he has his foot in the door to start a great new career.”
With a job of keeping track of soldier movements throughout the 82nd SB-CMRE, Pritchett, a single mom whose children range in ages 11 to 25, keeps deployment stress low by singing in a church choir and working out at the gyms on Kandahar. Despite the challenges of an extremely busy work schedule during her nine-month deployment, Pritchett said events like the VTC help to keep her resilient.
“Talking to my children keeps my spirits up, and when I go back home I know I’ll reintegrate with them and get back to being a family,” added Pritchett. “That’s what keeps me going.”
| Date Taken: | 11.27.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 12.02.2013 04:43 |
| Story ID: | 117591 |
| Location: | KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AF |
| Hometown: | DAVIS STATION, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | FORT LIBERTY, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 137 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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