A Father’s Day tribute to a Citizen-Soldier

Photo By Valerie Palacios | Sgt. 1st Class Paul Morado with his family. He teaches the same values and patriotism to his children that he learned from his father.  

SAN ANTONIO, TX, UNITED STATES

06.21.2015

Courtesy Story

412th Theater Engineer Command

By Sgt. 1st Class Mary Burch
4th Sustainment Command

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - As the men and women of the 4th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) prepare for their deployment, they celebrate Father’s Day and fatherhood — male parenting and the contributions that fathers make in the lives of their children.

Both mothers and fathers deploying make sacrifices in missing treasured events in their children’s lives, but June 21, we remember in our hearts and minds the special role of the father.

Sgt. 1st Class Paul David Morado is preparing for deployment with the 4th ESC based at Fort Sam Houston. He is the civil affairs noncommissioned officer in charge of his team and his job is to advise the 4th ESC commander on cultural affairs.

He has two children, a seven-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. He lives in San Antonio with them and his wife, an elementary school teacher.

As a father, he said, his most important role is to be a good role model for his children. Most importantly, he wants to instill in them the values he was taught as a child.

“The most important value for them to learn is hard work. You can’t be afraid of getting your knuckles scraped,” he said.

That was a value his father instilled in him.

“He was always there to provide, he was just a good provider and hard worker.”

Morado said that he feels most rewarded as a father when he sees his children doing the things on their own that he has taught them.

“Like they remember your guidance, and you see them executing it. That’s a good feeling because you know that they are living by that,” he said.

“The special thing about being a Dad is that no matter what your problems are, you need to rise above them to meet the bar of your children’s expectations,” he said.

Other values Morado thinks are important for a father to instill in his children are patience and integrity.

“It is important for your children to watch you have patience and integrity in your actions with other people and your businesses,” he said.

The most challenging aspect of being a parent, he said, is not getting upset and “blowing up” for the wrong reasons.

“I worry about [my children’s] interaction with people and not recognizing people’s personalities,” he said.

“My daughter does that. She’ll want to take charge of things, and she needs to share. So that’s a challenge. Just making sure that I don’t get upset when I see them doing something wrong—but, that it’s more of a mentoring thing.”

He said his wife gets upset when he treats his family like soldiers.

“I have to treat them with a different level of respect, and not be so intense,” he said.

Morado deployed in 2003 and 2005 to Afghanistan.

“I didn’t have any children for my first two deployments,” he said. “This one, being a third, I am now a father, and I have a sense of guilt about leaving them, and regret, missing out on some of those moments that I’ll be gone,” he said.

He will try to stay disciplined and focused on the mission, he said, so the time will go by quickly.

“I feel secure that [my family] supports me and what I’m doing, but I definitely feel guilty for leaving,” he said.

The things he will miss most about his children are when he wakes his son up in the morning, like his Mom used to gently, sweetly wake him up when he was young. He will miss how his daughter hangs on the back of his neck, and murmurs something sweet below her breath and stubbornly refuses to repeat it as a tease.

Morado believes his Army service is rewarding and will be beneficial to his civilian career.

“The education and experience,” he said,” can really help you develop and lead to a good civilian career.The networking it provides are all things that I didn’t know I would get out of it starting out.”

To make the transition easier for other deploying fathers, he gives this advice.

“Get the children involved. Talk to your children about where you’re going. Really make them a part of it by explaining to them where you are and what you are doing,” he said.

“They may not know a lot of it, but they know that Dad goes to help people; and that he cares about people, and he wants to protect America.”

• Date Taken: 06.21.2015
• Date Posted: 06.21.2015 22:35
• Story ID: 167594
• Location: SAN ANTONIO, TX, US