Mother, son serve together at Navistar

Photo By Sgt. Robert Adams | CAMP NAVISTAR, Kuwait (Sept. 13, 2005) - Sgt. Ryan Brown and his mother, Cpl. Julie Robertson, 172nd Military Police Battalion, are currently serving their country together at Camp Navistar. The rest of their family is back home in Vermont.  

09.28.2005

Courtesy Story

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Spc. Robert Adams
CFLCC PAO/11th PAD

CAMP NAVISTAR, Kuwait - Many servicemembers keep in touch with their family, especially their mothers, whenever they can during a deployment to keep them from worrying. Whether it's a letter, photograph, package or telephone call, just hearing from them is important.

One mother and son are able to not only communicate but see each other whenever they want ever since deploying together to Kuwait in January with the 172nd Military Police Battalion, Task Force Green Mountain.

With two separate missions at Camp Navistar, Cpl. Julie Robertson, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 172nd MP Bn. unit armorer, and Sgt. Ryan Brown, Company A, 172nd MP Bn. security forces, keep an eye on each other as often as they can. "We are very fortunate to be in the same unit and to be at the same camp in theater," Brown said. "I feel better that I'm here and not somewhere else while she is deployed â?¦ so I know what's going on."

This isn't the first deployment for Brown, a former active-duty Army ranger who deployed with the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division to Afghanistan for Operation Anaconda from 2001 to 2002. Now he is protecting Navistar with the security force team, which houses not only his military family but his mother as well. "I feel really safe that he is on camp with me," Robertson said. But it's not like Robertson is new to the Army and needs her son to survive.

Though this is her first deployment, Robertson spent four years in active duty before joining the National Guard, where she has accumulated almost six more years of service. Though at times some people lightly tease them over the fact that they are at the same camp, they both enjoy the laughs and each others" friendship. "He harasses me. He pulls rank on me," Robertson said jokingly. "We are not in the same chain of command, so we don't have to worry about that."

The fun doesn't stop there between the two.

Brown usually gives his mom a card on holidays, but not your usual ones. For Christmas, he gave her a card that had Happy Thanksgiving crossed out and Merry Christmas written in its place, Robertson said. Though there isn't much for a mother and son to do together at Navistar, the two get the chance to eat meals together whenever their missions have them on downtime at the same time. "It is nice to know that he is on camp and that we can share a meal together," Robertson said.

On a recent rest and recuperation trip back to Vermont, Robertson got the chance to visit the rest of her family and tell them of her experience. "I had a great welcome home from everybody. They asked about Ryan and how he is doing," Robertson said. "It is a relief for them to know we are together."

When the two redeploy in a couple months, they will return to their regular lives and jobs which keep them close by. Robertson, who works at a country store, will be able to see her daughter and two other sons, Brown will return to his fiancé and job as a carpenter when he redeploys.

The two said that they get to see each other just as much back home as they get to at Navistar, so they will have plenty of time to relax and recount their experience together. "This is something you can look back on and say that you experienced this with one of your kids," Robertson said. "And years from now, though he doesn't find it as amusing as I do, he might get the humor of it," Robertson said of her son. As they broke out in laughter, Brown said, "We will look back and laugh and laugh."

• Date Taken: 09.28.2005
• Date Posted: 09.28.2005 17:48
• Story ID: 3142