By CHARLY MARKWART
PRINCETON — Anyone who knows him knows that the roots of Will Thompson's passionate patriotism run very deep.
And, for the Treatment Section Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge with the National Guard's 1/150 Armored Reconnaissance Squadron, it isn't hard to trace just where those red, white and blue origins were planted. For this Princeton resident, love of country is simply in the bloodlines.
“It's really just in my family,” said Thompson, home recently on R&R; from a second deployment in Baghdad. “My mom has a wall in her home dedicated to all of our family members who have served in the military. I've had a lot of family influence that way; two of my uncles were a very big influence on me; my brother served in the Air Force and my sister in the Navy. We're just a military family.”
Since March of 1989, Will has been carrying on that Thompson family legacy of patriotism, honor and bravery. That's when he first joined the West Virginia Army National Guard, from where he would go on to serve years of active military duty before eventually becoming a member of the 1/150th, based out of Bluefield. Now, he is serving his third overseas deployment and second in Iraq, where since last December he has run a miniature emergency room and express care center as a combat medic.
“It's an emergency room where we deal with traumas, sick people, express care, and kind of just everything over there,” he explained. “Whatever comes though our doors, we take care of, and it can be a stressful job. It's always stressful because you're away from home, but with the soldiers we have now, you don't worry about doing your job, because when the bullets are flying around you, you know the guy to your right and to your left knows what he's doing. That's a trust you have to have in the soldiers around you.”
It may have been his own blood family that inspired him to join the military, but it's that family of fellow soldiers, and the unbreakable bond that he shares with them that has kept Thompson in service for his country for the past 20 years.
“The biggest thing is definitely the brotherhood with the guys I serve with,” he said. “It's different; they're not family as in blood kin, but when you serve with people so long, there's a certain bond you feel toward them. Only one percent of the American population serves in the military, so with anyone who has, you automatically feel that sense of brotherhood and family.”
That strong sense of family is a feeling also common to Thompson on the home front, where he is tied not only to his close relatives, but also to his extended family of co-workers at Princeton Community Hospital, where he works as a licensed practical nurse.
“It's like a big family here, too, for sure,” he said. “My wife works here, and my sister-in-law, and some of the people I've been friends with for years work here. My next-door neighbor is my boss. I think that's why we don't move, because with both of us being LPNs, we could move to Charlotte or somewhere and make probably double the money, but, we don't, because here, you have family and friends working with you who know when you're going through hard times and always want to help. It's a big family atmosphere, and I'd do anything for the people I work with here, just like I'd do anything for my soldiers.”
In fact, Thompson finds many similarities between his work at PCH and his military service. In both jobs, he says, he gets the opportunity to spend his days helping others. And, neither job could be completed without the support of the dependable people around him.
“Military life and working here are somewhat similar, and that's why I like both jobs,” he said. “Here at the hospital, the stuff we work around is no joking matter; it's diseases and infections that could end your career, or end your life. It's kind of like a combat zone up here in that we're fighting against diseases and sickness, and in that way I see civilian nursing and military service as almost similar. Both are very hard jobs, and God bless the people who do them.”
The difference between his two beloved jobs, though, is that in one, he gets to go home every night to his wife, Suzanne, and their two young children, while in the other, he goes for months at a time communicating with his loved ones only through telephone lines and Internet connections.
“The toughest part of being in the military is being away from my family,” he said. “The first time I was deployed, my son was only two-and-a-half weeks old, and now, he's six and my daughter is two, so it's even harder. The other day when I left the room and shut the door, my daughter cried for me, and that makes it hard, knowing that they're probably going to cry for me until I get home in a couple of months.”
That's why they packed so much togetherness into the two weeks Will spent home on R&R.; Before he left for Baghdad yesterday, the family celebrated not only Halloween, but Thanksgiving, Christmas and even the high school reunion that Thompson missed earlier this year.
“We called it 'Daddy's Thanksgiving' and 'Daddy's Christmas', because I won't be home to celebrate on those holidays with them,” said Thompson. “Then, some of my friends and classmates threw me a mini reunion, and that was a great time. I'm just blessed to have friends, family and neighbors who do things like that and take care of my family when I'm gone. They mow the grass, change the light bulbs, just anything that needs done, and that makes me feel good, knowing they're taking care of my family. That's what drives me to do what I do, I guess.”
Strong support like that, and communication technology that allows him to stay linked to his family while overseas makes deployment easier for Thompson, but he's still looking forward to the quickly approaching day when he will be home with them for good. His deployment will end in just a couple of months, and in July of 2010, he will retire from the National Guard.
“I'm ready to go fishing,” he said. “I'm looking forward to being home with my wife and children. Next July, I'll have 21 years of service in, and I'm ready for retirement.”
Even when that day of military retirement arrives, though, there'll still be no doubt about that passionate patriotism that has always made it's home in Thompson's heart.
“The big thing is that, I serve God first, and then my country,” he said. “I'm an American, and I feel it's my duty to serve in the military. If we're not willing to sacrifice for this country, then how will it get better, or grow? That song that says 'if you don't love it; leave it,' I stand by that. I'm pretty much a patriot; my whole family's that way, and that's how I'll always be.”
— Contact CharLy Markwart at cmarkwart@ptonline.net.
