ISAF senior enlisted service member visits troops at Camp Spann

Photo By Chief Warrant Officer Brian Henriksen | U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Capel, the International Security Assistance Force command sergeant major, speaks to ISAF service members at Freedom Chapel Jan. 25, 2012. Soldiers with 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are heading home to Baumholder, Germany, after a yearlong deployment to northern Afghanistan.  

CAMP MIKE SPANN, AFGHANISTAN

01.25.2012

Story by Staff Sgt. Christopher Klutts 

170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team

CAMP MIKE SPANN, Afghanistan – U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Capel, the International Security Assistance Force command sergeant major, met with ISAF service members at Freedom Chapel here Jan. 25.

The visit came as U.S. Army soldiers with 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are returning home to Baumholder, Germany, after a yearlong deployment to northern Afghanistan.

“They sent me up here to tell the men and women getting ready to go home that our nation could not be more proud of you and your service. Your sacrifice, the conditions you had to operate in up here and around Afghanistan, the things you missed over your 12-month tour, and the things you’ll never see again,” Capel said.

Capel told U.S., German and Croatian service members about a recent story of a soldier’s sacrifice. He said a staff sergeant, deployed to Afghanistan, talked to his wife for 12 hours while she gave birth to their newborn child.

“Some people will never be able to comprehend the sacrifice that you go through every day. They will never be able to see it, because it’s not them. You’ll never be able to go back and make up that birthday, that Thanksgiving and that Christmas you missed. We call it sacrifice.

“Why do we do what we do? We have loved ones back at home, loved ones around the world that depend on us to protect freedom for them every day,” he said.

Capel said he remembered the state of fear that Americans in particular lived in following the attacks on 9/11. He contrasted his experience at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport immediately after the attacks with a flight he took this year around Christmas.

“I got so frustrated. It was so crowded. I almost missed my plane because I couldn’t get to my gate. But as I did get to my gate and got on the plane, I wasn’t frustrated anymore. I thought about what really matters in life. What really mattered was that people were at the airport flying to see their grandkids … they didn’t have a worry in the world. They wanted to get on that plane and fly.

“Sometime around 9/11, I went through the same airport. There was nobody in my way. There was nobody flying. Everyone was afraid. The security that you have provided for the people around the world, they can get on any plane they want to and they can be damn safe, because we are standing on the front line.”

• Date Taken: 01.25.2012
• Date Posted: 01.26.2012 03:47
• Story ID: 82848
• Location: CAMP MIKE SPANN, AF