Father and daughter preparing for deployment

Heidi Schultz remembers shining her dad’s military boots when she was a kid and thinking how cool it was that he was a member of the National Guard.

“He used to tell me that everyone thought his boots were the best,” she said. But she jokingly admitted he was probably just telling her that to make her feel good.

She also remembers her dad bringing home MREs (meals ready to eat), which basically consist of freeze-dried packaged ingredients. She thought they were delicious.

Heidi and her dad, Jim Schultz, are members of the Hastings-based National Guard unit and will deploy together at the end of the month to Ft. Sill, Okla., and a few weeks later, to Iraq. It will be Heidi’s second tour there and Jim’s first. The unit is expected to be gone for about a year.

The father and daughter will be leaving behind their wife and mother, Lori, and sons and brothers Peter, a freshman at Hastings High School, and Andrew, a junior at HHS.

Jim and Heidi aren’t sure how closely they’ll work together while overseas, and likely won’t know that until they get there, Heidi said.

“There’s no guarantee we’ll see each other every day,” Jim said.

Their battalion’s mission is essentially to keep 140 helicopters in working order, and because of that, members of the battalion will likely be spread throughout Iraq, Jim said.

They don’t have a say in where they’re sent or who they’re partnered with, but given the choice, Jim said he’d like to work alongside Heidi.

“I would. I mean, why not?” Jim said.

Heidi smiled at the question and said, “I’m going to plead the fifth on this one.” She did say, however, she’d be willing to give it a “test trial.”

Jim joined the National Guard for the first time in 1984 in Nebraska as a way to help pay for college. He was in various National Guard units for the next 11 years, but when his kids got to be ages 11, 5 and 2, he didn’t want to be away from them, so he quit the guard.

When Heidi was faced with the same dilemma of how she was going to pay for college, she followed in her dad’s footsteps and joined the National Guard.

Heidi was first deployed to Iraq in 2004, when she was 19. She had been attending the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse but left school when her unit was called up. The deployment “blindsided” Heidi and her family.

“I called home in February and said ‘Mom we’ve just been put on alert,’” Heidi said. “Three weeks later, we were gone.”

Heidi’s enlistment inspired Jim to rejoin the National Guard, which he did in fall 2003. He requested placement in Heidi’s unit, Hastings-based Charlie Company of the 834th Aviation Support Battalion.

“A big reason I rejoined was to be with Heidi,” Jim said.

Ironically, Jim’s decision to join again came too late for him to be a part of the unit’s 2004 deployment to Iraq.

“When Heidi left, it was bittersweet for Jim,” Lori said. “He felt like he was being left behind, and you don’t like to see your daughter go and you get left behind.”

Heidi’s enlistment with the National Guard was up in January 2008, but she signed on for another three years of service so she could deploy to Iraq with her dad.

Jim said he’s proud of Heidi’s service in the guard.

“It’s Heidi’s way she’s chosen to do community service,” Jim said. “You’re not forced to; she chose it. I think that’s a great choice Heidi made.”

Lori, who said Heidi’s first deployment was “a tough 18 months,” is keeping a positive outlook on the upcoming deployment.

She said she has a great “church family” and exceptional friends, co-workers and neighbors who will help get her through the deployment. One neighbor already offered to teach Peter how to drive a stick shift. He’ll get his driver’s license while Heidi and Jim are gone.

Andrew will graduate from HHS next June, and Lori has already accepted the fact that Jim and Heidi won’t be home for his graduation, but she’s hopeful they’ll be home in time for his graduation party next summer.

If Peter and Andrew think they’ll be able to get away with more with their dad and older sister gone, Lori said they should think again.

“They’re going to have more moms and dads watching them than ever before,” she said.

Jim said Lori is the “rock of our family” and credits her with keeping the family positive.

Peter and Andrew are both involved in sports and other school activities, and that won’t change during the deployment. Staying busy is one way the family will deal with the separation.

“I’ll just look for a quick e-mail (from Heidi and Jim) saying ‘We’re OK and we’re busy,’ and I’ll send them back a quick e-mail saying ‘We’re OK and we’re busy,’” Lori said.

Peter said he tries not to think about the bad parts of the deployment. He said he thinks of it as his family being temporarily split. In his eyes, he’s simply losing one sibling and one parent for a little while. Andrew, too, said he tries not to think about it and is resigned to letting the deployment play out.

While the unit was only given a few weeks’ notice before its last deployment, Heidi said they’ve known about the upcoming deployment for about a year now and have been able to prepare themselves.

Heidi has gotten Jim ready for what he can expect, Jim said. Heidi didn’t have that luxury when she was first deployed and said it felt like she was “going into the unknown.”

Despite the new surroundings during her first deployment, Heidi said she was often comforted by a thought that occurred to her when she looked into the night sky.

“I knew they (her family) were looking at the same sky,” she said. “It puts everything in perspective.”

Lori, who was about 6,000 miles away in her backyard in Hastings, had the same thought during Heidi’s deployment. The two never talked about it until recently, but they were comforted by the knowledge that they both were seeing the same moon at night.

One of the hardest parts of Heidi’s first deployment was the transition back to civilian life after living the “Army life” for 18 months.

“I didn’t forget how to do everyday stuff,” Heidi said. “It’s just a struggle to pick up your life.”

Heidi left the U.S. a 19-year-old college student and returned a 21-year-old veteran.

“The family expects the same person to come back as the one who left, but that person is gone,” Jim said.

“You can’t expect a switch to flip and be back to normal,” Heidi said.

Though life will be far from normal for Heidi and Jim when they’re in Iraq, they will have a few creature comforts that will help them maintain a sense of normalcy when they’re there.

Both have Slingboxes on their computers, which will allow them to watch cable TV anywhere they have Internet access. E-mail will allow them to stay connected to their family back home.

Aside from Jim and Heidi’s absence, there’ll be other changes at home for the rest of the family. Peter and Andrew have agreed to take care of Heidi’s cat, Delta, who is already having issues with finding the litter box.

“We’re not an animal family but to be a part of the team, we’re going to do it,” Lori said. “We’re going to take care of the cat.”

Keith Grauman The Hastings Star-Gazette
Published Thursday, May 15, 2008