Photo By Sgt. David Bryant | Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christy Clements, Headquarters and Support Company, and her...... read more read more
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BASRAH, Iraq – Mother’s Day has come and gone, and many a deployed soldier regrets he was unable to be home with his wife or mother. It’s just one of many special days soldiers give up to serve their nation in a time of need.
Spc. Brent Murray, a division human resources specialist from Bravo Company, 36th Division Special Troops Battalion, was unable to spend the day with his wife. But the 23-year-old native of Elgin, Texas, was able to make Mother’s Day a very special one for his mom.
That’s because Murray’s mother happens to be the 36th DSTB administrative human resources officer.
“My first thought was, ‘He’s not going without me.’ The one thing I can do, and I don’t know why I thought this, was that I can protect him,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christy Clements, Headquarters and Support Company, of her oldest son. “That’s really not a reality, because it would actually be the other way around if anything. But it’s just that instinct taking over! I made sure he wasn’t going to go without me.”
The 6-foot-2-inch Murray dwarfs his petite mother by almost a foot. And while Clements’ motherly instincts may be to protect her young, her son said it’s a toss-up as to who worries more about whom.
“What I worry about the most is when [the indirect fire alarm] goes off,” said Murray. “Most people think, ‘Is it coming for me?’ And I’m thinking, ‘Hopefully she’s not at the mayor’s cell in that wooden box, or hopefully she’s at her [combat housing unit] or somewhere else near a hardened shelter.’ I don’t ever think about myself, I just worry about whether she’s all right.”
Regardless, spending time with his mother in the “cradle of civilization” has been a unique experience, he added.
“I’ve been in the same unit, I’ve been part of the division, since I came into the National Guard, so we’ve always worked in the same building,” said Murray, who has now been in the Texas Army National Guard for three years. “But the thought of deploying with her was nice; it was reassuring. Because I knew that I’d be taken care of and I could take care of her.”
For Clements, who is also from Elgin, the opportunity to deploy with her son has helped her feel like she’s recovered some of the time she lost with him on her last deployment, an 18-month tour in Kosovo that occurred during Murray’s senior year of high school.
“For a young man that’s a very important milestone, and it was the first time I’d really left him for a long period of time. It was really devastating for me at first,” she said. “So we have date night every Thursday – we go out and eat at the finest restaurant on [Contingency Operating Base] Basra, the dining facility, and we watch a movie or just do something. Everybody knows that on Thursday nights I’m off-limits – they don’t touch me – because that’s our dedicated time.”
Clements added that she never expected her son to follow along in her shoes – not only by joining the military, but also by serving in the same battalion as her and in the same military occupational specialty.
“I try to give him his space, because no one likes to have their mother crowding them, but his work ethic – his professionalism – is above reproach from everyone I come in contact with,” she said. “They tell me what a fine young man I’ve raised, which really swells my head I guess. But I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had great kids, and I’m very fortunate that I get to spend this time away from family with family.”
Strangely enough, Murray said his mother had no influence on his choice of an MOS. In fact, he had originally had no intention of joining the military at all. His mother began her 25-year military career in the Marine Corps as a radio communications operator, where she met and married his father, another Marine. His father passed away of Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer in 1996, and was promoted to staff sergeant on his deathbed.
“I was at my father’s gravesite and I made a promise to him – I told him that there is going to be a Staff Sgt. Murray in the Army, so I joined the Guard,” Murray said. “When I went to the recruiting station and scored high on the [armed services vocational aptitude battery test], I could have done anything. But the recruiter knew my mom and told me about being a ‘forty-two alpha,’ and told me it had a $20,000 sign-on bonus. I was like, sure.”
The job fit nicely with the customer service jobs he’d been working as a civilian, which is what he enjoys doing, Murray added. “It is almost a natural thing for me to strike up conversations. I like people, so that’s what kind of turned me to the forty-two alpha arena. Mom actually didn’t have an influence on that one.”
Clements still gets a double take from her fellow soldiers when they find out Murray is her son, though, she said with a laugh. “They ask me how I delivered such a large individual. It wasn’t that difficult, really – he wasn’t that large at the time!”
“He’s grown up to be a young man; he’s not my baby anymore,” she added. “But professionally speaking, he does what he’s supposed to do; we never have to compromise anything, because that’s just the kind of integrity we’ve always established. My heart is just full – I couldn’t be prouder of the man he is today.”
| Date Taken: | 06.22.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.29.2011 04:09 |
| Story ID: | 72922 |
| Location: | BASRA, IQ |
| Web Views: | 142 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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