thedrifter
01-03-09, 08:01 PM
MND-B Soldier rejoins Army after 38 year break in service
By Sgt. Whitney Houston
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - Soldiers' reasons for serving their country are varied and often deeply rooted. When asked why they joined the service, many Soldiers will reply with long and complicated stories of how they came to wear the Army uniform.
Maj. Robert Sexton, a native of Cleveland, who serves as a physician with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division - Baghdad, has a story about why he serves today that spans three continents and four decades.
During the Vietnam War era, Soldiers often came home to a less-than-warm welcome, confronted with protests, strikes and turmoil.
Sexton was one such Soldier, having served an honorable tour in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago, returning home to social upheaval in the United States. Shortly after he left the service, he and his Family moved to his wife's native country, Guatemala, due to the commotion happening around the country.
"I went into the service when I was 17 years old and was in Vietnam from '68 through '69, and I turned 19 while I was over there. I was in a unit attached to the 101st Airborne (Division), and we worked with the Republic of Korea troops on Army boats as a support unit doing transport, insertion, and evacuation," Sexton said. "We were not assaulters; we were defensive all the way. We were constantly up and down the rivers and canals."
"Then I got out of the Army in 1970, when I was 20, and had a 38 year break in service," said Sexton. "My wife and I decided in 1972 that we were going to go back to my wife's country because we were not happy in the United States. There were a lot of war protests, everything was upside down. They were closing universities and going on strike, which was kind of upsetting coming out of the military."
Soon after he and his Family moved to Central America, Sexton started working many jobs to support them but eventually decided to realize his desires and go through medical school there in Guatemala.
"I had always thought about medical school, but because we were just married and right out of the Army and we had two kids, I had to work two and three jobs all of the time: landscaping, painting houses, there just was no time for studies," Sexton said. "But it had always stuck in the back of my mind, and I don't know why, but we visited a medical school down in Guatemala and they had an open-door policy.
He didn't think he would make it through that first year of medical school because of the language barrier. However, because medical terminology, especially with the basic sciences, is pretty much the same in every language. He made it through, even as the number of students was thinned down from over 1,200 first-year students to 120.
Sexton eventually finished medical school in Guatemala and gained his residency and had planned on staying there and starting up a practice. However, he said, violence and turmoil seemed to follow him from Asia down into Guatemala.
"Guys chased my wife on a motorcycle one time because she was kind of a leader at the Instituto Guatemalteco Americano, and that was sort of the reason that we decided to come back in 1981 because things were getting so rough down there," Sexton said. "Our oldest two (children) witnessed an assassination right outside our house: two guys with machine guns, eighty rounds in each one of them, and there were kidnappings as well. I had already finished medical school and had everything set up. I had my residency and was playing on two ball teams, so I didn't ever plan on leaving."
When they moved back to the states, he went through the necessary channels and regained his residency and was licensed to practice medicine in several states. Eventually, he ended up in Tucson, Ariz., where he practiced as a neonatologist, a doctor who works in intensive care for newborn babies, and started a private emergency medical practice with a close friend.
Following nearly two decades of success in Tucson, Sexton and his Family began undergoing a transformation of sorts as two of his sons joined the Marine Corps, both at 17 years of age, as he had done in his youth. He said their decisions came as a surprise to Sexton because he never mentioned the military as he raised his children through the years. His sons joining the Armed Forces, among other things, inspired him to want to make a contribution in some manner to the same cause his sons had so willingly taken up.
"Our youngest boy joined the Marines two years ago, and he was 17 when he joined," said Sexton. "Our third son joined the Marines in 1997 right out of high school, 17 years old as well. And in 2003 he was due to get out, he had three weeks left on his contract; however, he insisted on going to Iraq so he extended himself and went into Iraq on the first wave."
Their decisions to join the Marines surprised and moved Sexton because they never talked about the military at home and he thought his children would get through high school and then go on to college. He began to feel the tug of inspiration.
"My two sons inspired me," he said. "Then, two years later after reading what the Army had done over there, I got more and more inspired with everything I read."
Coming to the conclusion that the fight against terror would be one of long duration, he said he felt he was physically able to still make a contribution with his experience and medical knowledge. He accepted a commission to the Army in November 2007 and has been serving as a doctor in Baghdad since October.
"I joined 13 months ago, November of last year. I figured we have less than one percent of the American people in the service, and some of those people are going to need a break sometime - and that's what I aim to do. I'm still physically fit. I thought I could make a contribution," Sexton said.
Sexton's decision to rejoin the Army after a 38-year break in service leaves him little possibility of earning a military retirement because of his age. His simply lives with the satisfaction that he is making a contribution to a noble cause while he still can, believing that he is right where he should be.
He works incessantly to bring medical care and training to needy areas in Baghdad, working with Iraqi Security Forces and Iraqi doctors on combined medical engagements where Iraqi medical professionals go to areas where medical clinics have not been established to treat patients for a day under the supervision of U.S. medical personnel. Sexton works with the five companies in his battalion that are attached to various brigade combat teams throughout MND-B to help build medical capacity in their areas by engaging local Iraqi medical agents through such events as CMEs.
"He blows us away. He's pushing 60, and he's more physically fit than some of the younger guys here," said 1st Sgt. George Guerra, a native of Oxnard, Calif., who serves as the senior enlisted leader with HHC, 425th CA Bn. "We hardly ever see him because he's always gone doing these combined medical engagements.
"He's really into his work and he loves it. He just wants to get out and do this work with the Iraqi people."
Sexton said he finds great satisfaction helping Iraqis by providing them with needed medical care and expressed a desire to go to other places with the Army when his tour is over where he could use his experience to help human beings.
"I'll be going to Afghanistan next year with my old unit," Sexton said. "After Afghanistan, I would like to go to the Horn of Africa because that's where I think Civil Affairs probably shines the most. I would like to do tours in Central and South America because of the language, and I wouldn't mind going to the Philippines."
Sexton's selfless view on life is something that has developed throughout years of conflict and eventual dedication to the medical profession and typifies a life of service that many desire at heart but few have the possibility to achieve. Surely in his endeavors to help fellow humans, his experience and outlook on life will spread to the men and women who serve around him, and he will re-inspire those who initially inspired him to be where he is today.
Ellie
By Sgt. Whitney Houston
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - Soldiers' reasons for serving their country are varied and often deeply rooted. When asked why they joined the service, many Soldiers will reply with long and complicated stories of how they came to wear the Army uniform.
Maj. Robert Sexton, a native of Cleveland, who serves as a physician with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division - Baghdad, has a story about why he serves today that spans three continents and four decades.
During the Vietnam War era, Soldiers often came home to a less-than-warm welcome, confronted with protests, strikes and turmoil.
Sexton was one such Soldier, having served an honorable tour in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago, returning home to social upheaval in the United States. Shortly after he left the service, he and his Family moved to his wife's native country, Guatemala, due to the commotion happening around the country.
"I went into the service when I was 17 years old and was in Vietnam from '68 through '69, and I turned 19 while I was over there. I was in a unit attached to the 101st Airborne (Division), and we worked with the Republic of Korea troops on Army boats as a support unit doing transport, insertion, and evacuation," Sexton said. "We were not assaulters; we were defensive all the way. We were constantly up and down the rivers and canals."
"Then I got out of the Army in 1970, when I was 20, and had a 38 year break in service," said Sexton. "My wife and I decided in 1972 that we were going to go back to my wife's country because we were not happy in the United States. There were a lot of war protests, everything was upside down. They were closing universities and going on strike, which was kind of upsetting coming out of the military."
Soon after he and his Family moved to Central America, Sexton started working many jobs to support them but eventually decided to realize his desires and go through medical school there in Guatemala.
"I had always thought about medical school, but because we were just married and right out of the Army and we had two kids, I had to work two and three jobs all of the time: landscaping, painting houses, there just was no time for studies," Sexton said. "But it had always stuck in the back of my mind, and I don't know why, but we visited a medical school down in Guatemala and they had an open-door policy.
He didn't think he would make it through that first year of medical school because of the language barrier. However, because medical terminology, especially with the basic sciences, is pretty much the same in every language. He made it through, even as the number of students was thinned down from over 1,200 first-year students to 120.
Sexton eventually finished medical school in Guatemala and gained his residency and had planned on staying there and starting up a practice. However, he said, violence and turmoil seemed to follow him from Asia down into Guatemala.
"Guys chased my wife on a motorcycle one time because she was kind of a leader at the Instituto Guatemalteco Americano, and that was sort of the reason that we decided to come back in 1981 because things were getting so rough down there," Sexton said. "Our oldest two (children) witnessed an assassination right outside our house: two guys with machine guns, eighty rounds in each one of them, and there were kidnappings as well. I had already finished medical school and had everything set up. I had my residency and was playing on two ball teams, so I didn't ever plan on leaving."
When they moved back to the states, he went through the necessary channels and regained his residency and was licensed to practice medicine in several states. Eventually, he ended up in Tucson, Ariz., where he practiced as a neonatologist, a doctor who works in intensive care for newborn babies, and started a private emergency medical practice with a close friend.
Following nearly two decades of success in Tucson, Sexton and his Family began undergoing a transformation of sorts as two of his sons joined the Marine Corps, both at 17 years of age, as he had done in his youth. He said their decisions came as a surprise to Sexton because he never mentioned the military as he raised his children through the years. His sons joining the Armed Forces, among other things, inspired him to want to make a contribution in some manner to the same cause his sons had so willingly taken up.
"Our youngest boy joined the Marines two years ago, and he was 17 when he joined," said Sexton. "Our third son joined the Marines in 1997 right out of high school, 17 years old as well. And in 2003 he was due to get out, he had three weeks left on his contract; however, he insisted on going to Iraq so he extended himself and went into Iraq on the first wave."
Their decisions to join the Marines surprised and moved Sexton because they never talked about the military at home and he thought his children would get through high school and then go on to college. He began to feel the tug of inspiration.
"My two sons inspired me," he said. "Then, two years later after reading what the Army had done over there, I got more and more inspired with everything I read."
Coming to the conclusion that the fight against terror would be one of long duration, he said he felt he was physically able to still make a contribution with his experience and medical knowledge. He accepted a commission to the Army in November 2007 and has been serving as a doctor in Baghdad since October.
"I joined 13 months ago, November of last year. I figured we have less than one percent of the American people in the service, and some of those people are going to need a break sometime - and that's what I aim to do. I'm still physically fit. I thought I could make a contribution," Sexton said.
Sexton's decision to rejoin the Army after a 38-year break in service leaves him little possibility of earning a military retirement because of his age. His simply lives with the satisfaction that he is making a contribution to a noble cause while he still can, believing that he is right where he should be.
He works incessantly to bring medical care and training to needy areas in Baghdad, working with Iraqi Security Forces and Iraqi doctors on combined medical engagements where Iraqi medical professionals go to areas where medical clinics have not been established to treat patients for a day under the supervision of U.S. medical personnel. Sexton works with the five companies in his battalion that are attached to various brigade combat teams throughout MND-B to help build medical capacity in their areas by engaging local Iraqi medical agents through such events as CMEs.
"He blows us away. He's pushing 60, and he's more physically fit than some of the younger guys here," said 1st Sgt. George Guerra, a native of Oxnard, Calif., who serves as the senior enlisted leader with HHC, 425th CA Bn. "We hardly ever see him because he's always gone doing these combined medical engagements.
"He's really into his work and he loves it. He just wants to get out and do this work with the Iraqi people."
Sexton said he finds great satisfaction helping Iraqis by providing them with needed medical care and expressed a desire to go to other places with the Army when his tour is over where he could use his experience to help human beings.
"I'll be going to Afghanistan next year with my old unit," Sexton said. "After Afghanistan, I would like to go to the Horn of Africa because that's where I think Civil Affairs probably shines the most. I would like to do tours in Central and South America because of the language, and I wouldn't mind going to the Philippines."
Sexton's selfless view on life is something that has developed throughout years of conflict and eventual dedication to the medical profession and typifies a life of service that many desire at heart but few have the possibility to achieve. Surely in his endeavors to help fellow humans, his experience and outlook on life will spread to the men and women who serve around him, and he will re-inspire those who initially inspired him to be where he is today.
Ellie