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Brother and sister from Dexter experience military life

By CHRIS ROBINETTE
Traveler Correspondent

Like many high school graduates across the nation, Zack Brumback found himself bored after graduation.

"I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school," he said. But he found a cure, the same cure that thousands of other young men and women find when they see the commercials on TV that say "Army Strong," or "The Few, The Proud, The Marines."

"I'll go serve my country," Brumback said to himself. And so he joined the Army.

Three years later Specialist Brumback found himself returning home from a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne. Last Friday, for the first time since his deployment, Brumback was able to make an appearance in his hometown; Dexter, Kan. Friends and family threw a welcome home party for Brumback and his sister, Private Crystal Unger. Unger, 17-years-old, took the same path as Brumback; she enlisted in the Army. She recently completed basic training, and is set to go into duty with the National Guard after she completes her senior year of high school.

The American Legion Riders, a group that makes special efforts to welcome returning soldiers home, made an appearance at the homecoming. They presented Brumback and Unger with flags commemorating their service.

Brumback said he spent the first five months of his time in Afghanistan driving the trucks that supplied the front-line infantry. The supplies would be airdropped on Brumback's position. Brumback and his fellow soldiers would then gather the supplies, load them on the trucks and drive them the five or six kilometers to the front lines.

Brumback got his chance to fight on the front lines when a new infantry platoon opened up. He volunteered and became a gunner on a humvee.

The platoon's missions included distributing humanitarian rations, detaining suspicious and threatening locals, and patrolling.

The 82nd Airborne served as a quick reaction force for the Afghani theatre, deploying to whatever hotspot flared up. Brumback's unit traveled all over Afghanistan.

The unit found itself engaged with the Taliban fighters throughout the entire deployment, Brumback said.

Some of the most difficult aspects of deployment were the lack of basic commodities, like toilet paper, and the time spent away from home, said Brumback. The care packages, letters and hometown newspapers helped him cope with the distance, he said.

The tension of a combat zone affected the soldiers too. He remembers "not knowing if you were going to make it to the next day."

But the unit's return to the United States in April brought its own challenges. Brumback said he had to reacquaint himself with the bathroom after 15 months of using a trench.

The separation, though over for the time being, leaves lingering effects on returning soldiers.

"Life back home didn't stop because you were gone," said Brumback.

Brumback is likely to return to Afghanistan on another deployment. He has mixed feelings, but he said he wants to return.

"It sucked, but I had some of the most fun."

He believes in the mission.

"I believe it's a fight that needs to be fought," he said. To those with deployed loved ones, Brumback simply said that they could support their soldiers with care-packages and items from home.

A solder's deployment leaves two parties affected, the soldier, and on the other side of the world, the family.

Reba Harth, Brumback's mother, recalls the constant worrying. She said that every time she saw a soldier in uniform, or an American flag, it was a reminder that her son was far from home and in danger.

"When it's your kid you think about it everyday, and you pray about it everyday," said Harth, fighting back tears.

But she said she understands her son's decision. "He fully believes in what he's doing."

To the thousands of other parents with deployed sons and daughters, Harth recommends that they "pray a lot and be positive."

Unger, like her brother before her, realizes that she might be called upon to deploy.

"Deployment is not too scary," she said. "It's something that every soldier has to go through."

She is optimistic about the prospect. "I'm looking to get my piece," she said.

ABOVE: Zach Brumback and Crystal Unger are surrounded by friends and family at a homecoming celebration over the weekend.