An unlikely homecoming

Courtesy Photo | Chief Warrant Officer 3 Bunnaro Sun (center), Royal Cambodian Armed Forces teaches Sgt. Putheara Sok (left), 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Casey, Korea, how to use a field-improvised fire starting tool as part of the jungle survival training phase of Exercise Angkor Sentinel 2015. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Renon, Idaho Army National Guard)  

KAMPONG SPEU PROVINCE, CAMBODIA

03.20.2015

Courtesy Story

116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team

KAMPONG SPEU PROVINCE, Cambodia – When Soldiers contemplate an overseas deployment, most are faced with spending time in a foreign, unfamiliar country, far from anything remotely associated with home. For some service members, the exact opposite is true.

Such is the case for Sgt. Putheara Sok, of the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Casey, Korea, who was born in Cambodia in 1984. As a naturalized U.S. citizen, Sok's return to Cambodia could be seen as a homecoming of sorts.

So while many of his fellow Soldiers anticipated spending time thousands of miles from home, Sok was in the fortuitous position of returning to the country of his birth for Exercise Angkor Sentinel 2015.

Angkor Sentinel is an annual bilateral exercise sponsored by U.S. Army Pacific Command and hosted by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces that focuses on providing humanitarian assistance and responding to disasters. This year is the sixth iteration of the exercise, and the first year Sgt Sok has participated.

The most obvious advantage for Sok, while in Cambodia, is his ability to understand his native language, Khmer. It allowed him to resolve problems caused by the language barrier when no official interpreters were available. It was also a welcome opportunity for Sok to visit with his parents and in-laws when he flew into Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city.

For Sok the road to immigration and citizenship was a long process that began with attaining a Green Card in the Diversity Immigrant Visa lottery in April, 2007. The annual lottery affords approximately fifty thousand foreign nations the opportunity to immigrate to the U.S. with a Permanent Resident Card.

An interview at the U.S. embassy verified his graduation from high school, lack of a criminal record and the validity of his marriage to his wife, Mary Putheara. Once he was approved for a Green Card and entrance into the U.S., he and his wife left their native Cambodia for Kentucky and, later, Indiana.

At his embassy interview, Sok was asked what he intended to do in the U.S. once he immigrated. He said without delay “I want to join the United States Army!”

After the birth of his first son, in October 2009, he made that dream a reality by enlisting as a Combat Engineer and being assigned to a duty station in Korea.

After a deployment to Afghanistan, and a short tour at Fort Riley, Kansas, Sok and his wife had a second son and he was reassigned back to Camp Casey, Korea. The proximity of Korea to Cambodia also gave him the ability to sponsor his mother for several months as a dependent visitor. While assigned to Korea, Sok took the United States Citizenship Test and was awarded his citizenship in 2010.

When he returns to his home station, Sok will be greeted by his wife, who is expecting twins. It will end a deployment to a country very familiar to both of them; where their families and friends remain.

For Sok, the opportunity to train alongside the RCAF during Angkor Sentinel 2015 provided him a personal opportunity to give back to his native land in a way that the majority of American Soldiers could not realize. For him, it is a personal mission that rewards him in ways words cannot express.

• Date Taken: 03.20.2015
• Date Posted: 03.26.2015 05:04
• Story ID: 158134
• Location: KAMPONG SPEU PROVINCE, KH
• Hometown: CAMP CASEY, KR