Courtesy Photo | Before leaving Camp Atterbury for deployment in 2009, 1st Sgt. Bob Hempstead, the...... read more read more
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CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Ind.- While it is difficult to send anyone into harm's way to serve his or her country, it is especially taxing when that someone is your daughter. First Sgt. Robert Hempstead, company first sergeant for the 1313th Engineer Company encountered this quandary. The Indiana National Guard's 1313th Engineer Company out of Columbus, Ind., recently returned from a tour in Iraq and in that same company was Hempstead's daughter Crystal.
"This sort of thing is unusual and caused some initial concern among the command group," said Robert Hempstead of Columbus, Ind. "She was part of 1413th Engineer Company as a mechanic. When she heard of the deployment, she came to me and asked to go. We were short mechanics, so we took her," he said.
Sgt. Crystal Hempstead, also of Columbus, said in her opinion, it didn't seem to be a big issue.
"Because there was such a rank difference, it wasn't like I was going to be working directly with him," said Crystal.
"I think he handled it very well," she said. "It was frustrating because it was almost like he was harder on me than everybody else. There was definitely no favoritism anywhere," she said.
Crystal said people often told her she was fortunate to deploy with family and she didn't necessarily agree.
"We're in a combat zone! Do you really want your parents to go to a combat zone?," she said. "Just as much as it tore him up for me to be there, it was upsetting to me to that he was there," said Crystal. "Honestly, I didn't like seeing him there."
Avoiding the pitfall of being protective wasn't easy, but experience as a noncommissioned officer gave Robert the perspective to trust the tools available to his daughter.
"I had to flip the switch with her, but I did that with all of [the Soldiers of the 1313th]," he said. "To say that I wasn't concerned about her would be a lie, but to say I wasn't concerned about all of them would also be a lie."
Robert is proud of his daughter's ambition and looks forward to her progression as a Soldier and a young woman.
"She's an E-5 now and she's 22 years old. She has a very good opportunity to work at the Patriot Academy. She's finishing her degree. She doesn't need me as much as she thinks she does," he said.
"A perfect example: I was in the last [movement] to leave Mosul; she was on the second [movement]. I was like 12 hours after her. I didn't get into Al Asad until [10 p.m.] and she'd been there all day.
"She came into the tent where I was at and gave me a hug because I wasn't where she knew I [was supposed to] be. It was harder on her than it was on me, I'm sure, because I was her security blanket. But I have to walk away now and she knows that. Her promotion takes her away from me, which is the way it should be. I know she's going to be a first sergeant someday," he said.
Although her father might disagree, Crystal said she would deploy with dad again.
"He is a good first sergeant and he definitely knows what he is doing. In that aspect, I would serve with him again, but it would always be in the back of my mind that my dad is overseas again and I would rather him not be. But it is his career as much as it is mine and that is just part of it."
The 1313th Engineer Company is currently finishing its demobilization process at Camp Atterbury and is scheduled to return home May 20.
| Date Taken: | 05.19.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 05.19.2010 19:09 |
| Story ID: | 49973 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 271 |
| Downloads: | 195 |
This work, Father Daughter Duo Return From Iraq, by SFC David Bruce, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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