SPRINGDALE — Senior Airman Romeo Gil Jr. awoke early one morning last month to the sound of mortar rounds raining upon the air base in Afghanistan where he was stationed.
“I honestly thought I was going to die,” Gil said, adding it was the scariest moment of his three-month deployment with the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 188th Fighter Wing.
Gil and others rushed to a bunker and stayed until the all-clear signal.
At A Glance
Air Strike
On Aug. 21, during Romeo Gil’s time at Bagram Air Base, rocket fire from insurgents damaged the parked transport plane used by Gen. Martin Dempsey, U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was asleep in his quarters at the time and was not injured. Two base service members were slightly wounded in the attack.
Source: Staff report
That was Oct. 5. In a journal he kept during his time abroad, Gil’s entry for that date reads in part, “God was with us this morning.”
Gil returned last week to his job as a physical education instructional assistant at Parson Hills Elementary School in Springdale, one month after returning to Arkansas. He said the whistling of those incoming mortar rounds is a sound he can’t forget.
He reflected on his time at the Bagram Air Base, one of the largest U.S. military bases in Afghanistan, and said despite the occasional scares, he wouldn’t hesitate to return.
“We were ready to leave, but I would go back and do it again,” he said.
Gil, 37, was there to perform maintenance on A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter jets. He worked 12-hour shifts every day except for the four days he had off, he said.
This is his second year working at Parson Hills. He and Wayne Bolin, assistant principal, are the only men on the school’s staff. Gil previously worked at Westwood Elementary School for six years.
Debbie Hardwick-Smith, Parson Hills principal. was surprised when Gil came into her office in June to say he was deploying.
“I said, ‘Does your mother know?’ He said no,” Hardwick-Smith said.
Gil corresponded with some of the students while abroad. The school sent him some items he requested, including Cheetos and Ramen soup.
Gil presented Hardwick-Smith a U.S. flag flown in Afghanistan during a Veterans Day ceremony at the school Nov. 9. The school staff intends to have it framed, she said.
Gil said he is heartened by the ways students have reacted to him since he returned.
“They’ll get it mixed up a little, call me the Army guy,” he said. “Some say, ‘I want to be like you when I grow up.’ I guess they just see it as, ‘That’s really cool what he did.’ That’s really touching. It makes me feel good.”
He said he’s not trying to draw attention to himself. Serving his country is something he wanted to do, he said.
Gil brought back several keepsakes from Afghanistan. One is a commemorative coin made in honor of Operation Enduring Freedom. He carries it everywhere he goes.
Gil said there isn’t much media coverage of what’s happening overseas.
“Just don’t forget Afghanistan. Don’t forget the troops who are there,” he said. “They’re giving everything they’ve got.”