When the Southern belle starts to sing the national anthem tonight under an evening sky and a sign that reads “Remember Our Troops,” and children’s eyes widen in awe at the fireworks exploding overhead, Senior Master Sgt. Edgar Mahan will be waking up in Afghanistan to a workday just like any other.
The 51-year-old airman with the 188th fighter wing out of Fort Smith is no stranger to missing holidays with his family during deployment, as this is his fourthtour overseas.
Coming from a family of military men, he said it feels wonderful to know that he’s one of the many that people back home are honoring today. There will be no fireworks or elaborate display of American pride on his base, in deference to the locals. He’s more than willing to make that sacrifice so that others have the freedom to celebrate, he said.
But he asks for people back in Arkansas to remember one thing before they put hands over hearts and join inthe national anthem tonight.
“Just remember, we are still at war over here. We are not done yet. There are still people here fighting. We’ve been here a long time. People kind of forget we are here, but we are still here,” he said. “Forget the politics and just remember that we are here because we chose to be here.”
Others he knows from the 188th fighter wing security forces who are deployed in an undisclosed location in southwest Asia had the same sentiment.
“Back home, it’s all fireworks and cookouts, but over here there will be none of that,” said Tech Sgt. Kevin Jones, 29, of Pottsville. “We aren’t sure what’s going to happen on the Fourth over here. There won’t be no partying going on or anything like that. It’s going to be the for-real deal.”
His comrade, Senior Airman Evan Davis, 23, of Greenwood, hopes to at least get to celebrate the holiday with a special dinner after a 15-hour workday. The servicemen will try to find something to make the day feel like home, such as having hot wings or a more Southern American meal to eat, he said.
In a satellite phone call earlier this week, the men talked about how the meaning of the Fourth of July changed when they became the ones others honored on the holiday.
“This is my third deployment,” said Master Sgt. David Passen, 40, of Van Buren. “Back in the first 12 years, before I started deploying, it was just another holiday, but now I know. Coming over here, doing this, it’s just kind of gave it more of a reason. It showed me why I do this - to protect people.”
Tech Sgt. Travis Sharp, 34, of Alma, talked about how most people think of fireworks and cookouts when they think of the Fourth of July, but deployed servicemen “get to see both sides of it.”
Sharp’s two children - Ava, 6, and Hudson, 3, - don’t understand the true meaning of the holiday yet, he said. The best way neighbors can honor his service is making sure that the children and his wife, Becca, are taken care of.
“Just people checking onour family and making sure they are doing all right means the most. Like a friend of mine is mowing our yard, or if something breaks down, he’ll be there,” Sharp said.
Seaman Caleb Holland, 21, of Bryant, doesn’t have a wife or kids, but the support he receives from his family, friends and others he doesn’t know but who send care packages and kind words “means everything” to him, he said.
Holland is an aviation boatswain’s mate airman recruit in the Navy aboard the USS George Washington, which leaves its home port in Yokosuka, Japan, for six months at a time. This is his first deployment and it will be a year or two before he sees his family again.
“It’s very hard to be away from your family. You are soused to having a face-to-face conversation and now it’s only a phone conversation or a text message,” he said. “But you know you are doing a good deed and it will be worthwhile seeing them again.”
Tonight here in Arkansas when the patriotic songs are played, it won’t take long for the family of Mahan, the airman from Van Buren deployed in Afghanistan, to shed tears, said his wife, Julie Mahan.
Like her husband, she has just one message for others to keep in mind as they are celebrating tonight.
“There are people dying over there. We are forgetting that. So definitely keep praying that they can have peace and they can come home,” she said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 07/04/2013