First-time deployer prepares for war

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Nathanael Callon
  • 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
It was a cold, gray April morning as the Airmen lined up outside of the building to prepare for their deployment.

One by one, they escaped the icy wind and shuffled into the building with backpacks, personal belongings and the infamous brown deployment folders in tow.

Small talk quietly buzzed around the dimly-lit room as the NCO in charge called each Airman by name.

"Taylor," asked the technical sergeant, who had already called out about two dozen other names on the roster.

"Here, sir," quickly came the reply from a bright-eyed and energetic young Airman.

Only 20 years old now, he never thought that when he joined the Air Force a little less than two years ago that he would deploy with the 480th Fighter Squadron to Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan.

Football was his passion, and he dreamed of playing for a university near his hometown of Newark, N.J. When he finally realized that the tuition and cost of living on his own was too much for him, Airman 1st Class Daniel Taylor decided to visit a recruiter at the behest of his brother, who worked on C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.

The recruiter gave Taylor a list of jobs available to him. Of them was electrical and environmental systems, and his brother told him that it was the best one on the list. When Taylor asked his brother why he should pick that career field, his brother told him because it would give him the most options if he ever got out of the Air Force.

So after a grueling eight-and-a-half week basic training followed by blistering Texas temperatures at his technical school, he finally made it to Germany.

A lot can be said about an Airman by the stripes on their sleeves. Out of the 50 enlisted Airmen in the room, more than half of them wore three stripes or less. On top of that, more than two-thirds of them have never deployed, and face the unknown of a new environment 4,000 miles from home.

Taylor smirked as he talked about any anxiety that he may have with deploying. He beamed with optimism, and his age added to his invincible demeanor.

"I'm really just excited to get down there and do my job," he said as he watched other members of his unit process through the pre-deployment line. "Everyone talks about deploying and what it's like there, so now I'll actually get to be there and experience it myself."

His coworkers talked about the pride of deploying and contributing to the safety of troops on the ground, and he grinned as his journey to serve while deployed was about to begin.

"I think about it all the time," he said. "Here at Spangdahlem I say, 'I worked on that jet, and it's flying because of me.' It makes me proud knowing that I'm going to deploy and do it now."

He would have loved to play football, but he knows that this is where he's supposed to be. As he grabbed his helmet and all of his belongings, his smile turned serious as reality set in.

This wasn't like any other milestone in his career -- this was war.