Photo By Spc. Kiyoshi Freeman | From left to right, Sgt. Abbi Erisman from Mountain Home, Ark., and Sgt. Shandy...... read more read more
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By Kiyoshi Freeman
3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)
Sgt. Erisman and Sgt. Erisman are both mechanics. They have similar Arkansas twangs and freckled faces. They look alike, they talk alike, and, even without the nametags, there's no mistake. The two Soldiers are brother and sister.
"We pretty well knew we were going to be [deployed] together," said Sgt. Shandy Erisman, a mechanic with 2nd Battalion, 153rd Infantry Regiment and native of Little Rock, Ark.
While the pair said they were comforted by the idea of going together, not everyone in their family shared their optimism.
"I know Mom hates it," said Sgt. Abbi Erisman, a mechanic with 2nd Bn., 153rd Inf. Regt. and native of Mountain Home, Ark. "She has her oldest [Shandy] and then her baby [Abbi] going to war, to combat. Especially an infantry unit when we're mechanics."
The 2nd Bn., 153rd Inf. Regt., though, was called upon to do an unusual mission for infantrymen: escorting convoys around Anbar province. A mission it needed Soldiers like the Erismans to support.
Over nine months, the Arkansas National Guardsmen escorted more than 40,000 trucks carrying nearly 100 million gallons of high-grade fuel. Their efforts sustained coalition operations throughout western Iraq, said Lt. Col. John Stewart, the commanding officer of 2nd Bn., 153rd Inf. Regt.
The unit's military vehicles travelled a combined total of 2.6 million miles, and they had to be kept in working order by Soldiers like the Erismans.
One Sgt. Erisman remained at the motor pool, turning wrenches; the other went out on convoys with a wrecker, a truck designed to recover vehicles.
It was Abbi, the youngest daughter in the Erisman family, who was in that wrecker pulling Humvees out of soft sand – what she called "moon dust" – and repairing broken down trucks.
"Being a mechanic, we don't usually do any of this infantry training," Abbi said, referring to all the mobilization training the 2nd Bn., 153rd Inf. Regt., went through at Camp Shelby, Ark . "That was really cool, to experience what these guys go through."
Abbi said it was more difficult to convince the infantrymen to accept her and the other female support personnel into their ranks.
"They didn't know what to expect," she said. "They didn't want to talk to us, to socialize. So we pretty much had to prove ourselves."
For Abbi, the way to win an infantryman's respect was through the sights of a weapon. She shot expert on every weapons system, which went a long way to breaking down those walls, she said.
In between missions, it was helpful to have someone for moral support, even if their schedules didn't allow them to spend a lot of time together.
"We would see each other in passing, a friendly nod or something of that nature to keep our spirits up," Shandy said.
Brother and sister were there for each other for support when Shandy's best friend died of cancer back home, or when Abbi needed professional advice from one non-commissioned officer to another – even though she technically outranks her older brother, she said with a smile.
"I'm actually really proud of her, for everything she's done out here," Shandy said. "Stepping out and going on the road, I'm very proud of her and the things she's accomplished."
After the 2nd Bn., 153rd Inf. Regt., returns home and demobilizes, Abbi said she plans to return to her factory job making hydraulic hoses.
Shandy said, "I'm looking forward to going home and just spending time with the wife," a woman he married before the deployment and spent only eight nights with since he left for Iraq.
| Date Taken: | 12.15.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 12.15.2008 01:14 |
| Story ID: | 27686 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 284 |
| Downloads: | 256 |
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