Tom never considered whether his actions would keep him from reenlisting.
He knew he didn't want the mechanics under him on the move. Movement in vehicles was a predictable danger. The enemy would attack. Each convoy averaged six I.E.D attacks in the western province of Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
The majority of Improvised Explosive Devices only caused the fraying of nerves. However, they often damaged vehicles, caused injuries, and sometimes killed soldiers.
He and his mechanics were in 331 Signal Company out of Ft. Riley, KS. 331's job was to provide communication, first for the 82nd Airborne Division, then for the marines. Their equipment was primarily stationary and spread throughout the Ar Ramadi area.
The mechanics kept that equipment operational while scrounging scrap metal and up-armoring the vehicles as incoming enemy mortars often landed randomly around them. He then traveled to them. He brought them parts, mail, equipment, and the rare opportunity to rest.
In those early war days, all he had to do was walk up to a convoy and ask, "Got room for a mechanic?" Like medics, there's always room for a mechanic.
Thanks to those IEDs, Tom got to meet a few of those medics, always briefly. As soon as they walked away, he was gone. He always had a mission to finish.
That deployment was his longest. He didn't see his family for 13 months. He refused to leave his soldiers. He said he would have been away for too long. His mechanics were not expendable, and no one would get the opportunity to think otherwise.
I write this letter as Tom undergoes bilateral hip replacement surgery. Was it the IED that picked up his HUMMWV and slammed it back down that broke his back? Or was it the one that blew out the doors? Or was it one of the attacks he still has yet to tell me about?
The breaks in his back changed his spine. That has led to wear on the hips. If one of those medics had tied him down or given him a sedative when he was in their care, he would have woke up mad and taken the triage bed with him. His mechanics were not expendable. He brought every single one of his soldiers home.
Tom was just a mid-level NCO. As a Motor Sergeant for a signal company, he gave no thought to his career. He cared little of re-enlistment and the financial bonuses offered. He shrugged off the injuries he received.
Tom did right by his soldiers. He made the right decisions. He did right by his country. Every single one of his mechanics came home.
Please, be like my husband, Thomas H. Cushing.
Do right by Kansans. Vote YES on Article V Convention of States. Bring our government back home.
