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May 6, 2005
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| One of the Minnesota Air National Guard's Duluth-based F-16C jet fighters. The airplanes are one of the most advanced fighters in the world. Duluth was issued the recent model aircraft two years ago, and is, for the first time, taking the airplanes into a combat situation. (MPR Photo/Bob Kelleher) |
Duluth, Minn. — Bob Wolfe's young family visited the Duluth Air Guard base recently. Bob, in Minnesota Air Guard camouflage, his wife Paula, and three energetic boys mobbed an outdoor picnic table in the afternoon sun. Just a stone's throw away, across the chain link fence, stood a row of sleek, grey warplanes. They're the F-16 fighter jets soon to be on patrol over Iraq. Technical Sergeant Wolfe is leaving for war. He's an F-16 mechanic.
Wolfe's wife, Paula, has plenty to worry about.
On the top of the list might be the plumbing.
"You know what tends to happen, the first week somebody leaves: about five things in your house break," says Paula Wolfe. "That's what I think about is, 'What's not going to work?' that kind of thing. He was gone in February and the shower was leaking, and he came home. He was home 30 minutes and he was downstairs. I'm like, 'You've got to fix this! The basement's flooding!' The water was flowing freely from the basement ceiling."
Bob and Paula are both military brats. They met on a base in Alaska. Bob Wolfe's been in the service for 17 years; first as a traditional part-time guardsman, and now full time. It's not unusual for Bob to be going away. Short missions are typical: a few weeks here and there. There were training missions in the southwest United States and drug intervention duty in South America. But this time, the mission involves potential combat, and Paula says, Bob will be gone for months.
"I think it will be different this time, yes," says Paula. "Plus it's a little more stressful, because before, it was not times of trouble. It was just going over to other countries to do his two weeks or whatever. And now it's, well, war."
The Air Guard base has been in Duluth since the 1940s, but its members have never before deployed to a war. That hit home Sunday, at a farewell ceremony attended by more than 2000 people.
"I could see these young women," Paula says. "There were some mothers. But I could see these girls and they were crying. And I felt bad for them, because my thought was they've obviously they've never experienced it before, or they've just taken it more to heart. I mean that's a hard age to be. The one girl that comes to mind looks like she was about 17, I don't know. And you saw some teary eyed women there that were obviously distressed. So, they're feeling it."
The hardest thing about service must be parents who have to leave kids. Some young mothers are going overseas. In the Wolfe family, it's a young father. With Bob gone, Paula will be a single parent for the three boys.
"It does add pressure," says Paula. "He takes them to some of their evening (programs) ... they're in karate, so he usually takes them to and from there. So, that's something I'll be doing. And just, you know, when I say 'I need you to take the kids and hang out with them,' there won't be that person to do that, so it does make a difference. Any questions you have when you want to ask somebody. I'm lucky I have family in the area and I can call them."
The deployment is something the boys think about, even if they don't say so. Five year old Evan seemed oblivious, enjoying the sunny day and the airplanes overhead. Twelve year old Ian didn't want to talk about it. Ten year old Alec echoes his father's commitment.
"Well, like I said to my mom when we were in the car, I'm not going to be that comfortable with it, but if he has to go, he has to go," Alec says.
It leaves Bob Wolfe with mixed emotions. First, he's prepared to serve.
"Actually, I'm looking forward to it," Wolfe says. "We're all prepared to actually do this. This is the mission. That's the reason we've joined the military, (we've) volunteered to actually support the U.S. and whatever endeavors we have."
But he's not looking forward to time away from the family.
"If it was just leaving my wife behind it would be a lot easier," Wolfe says. "She's a big girl. But leaving the boys behind, there's a sense of loss of, you know, time that you have with your children. And knowing that they're missing you and thinking about you. You know, the little comments that they make choke you up, and you really want to be with them."
And he's going to a war zone. Wolfe is a mechanic, so he can expect to serve in just about as safe a location as there is in such a volatile region.
"I know that there are quite a few people there actually protecting the base, and they're doing the best that they can," Wolfe says. "And I feel very confident in what they're doing because they're relying on me to do the same job."
Paula's message to her husband is to stay safe; and stay put.
"Stay on the base," Paula says. "That's what I said.
Bob says the base should be safe, but Paula still worries.
"One-hundred-and-twenty people have died over (in) Baghdad, Iraq, in just the last week from the insurgencies. And I was thinking to myself, I have no idea because I don't know exactly where he will be, you know, that's how close that really is. But you just hope he stays behind the big, couple mile perimeter they're going to put around the airplanes. Then I just told him 'stay there.' That's it."
More than half the 148th will remain in Duluth, assigned air defense over the United States. The others are being shipping out in waves, to be spread among 11 locations worldwide. Most are destined for a so far un-named base, with about half of the wing's F-16's. The first group, Minnesota Air National Guard civilian employees, flew out this week. The others will follow soon.
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