By Deb Wuethrich, Tecumseh Herald (Michigan)
After nearly a year away from her job as a Tecumseh police officer while serving in the United States Army Reserves in Kuwait, Kelley Hissong came back to work on Monday, Nov. 29. City staffers attended a brief reception for her that afternoon to welcome Kelley back and to ask questions about her tour of duty in the transportation unit near Iraq’s border.
There was the heat - with 120-degree days the norm. Kelley told of Kuwaiti nationals who worked on the base at which she was stationed but who took a midday break. “They came in on rickety buses and around one you’d see a bunch of them underneath the bus sleeping,” she said. Her unit transported tanks into Iraq as well as refurbished military vehicles and some others donated by an auto company for use by the Iraqi government.
Kelley never personally went into Iraq - although she tried with one convoy trip but was turned back at the border due to the Nepalese members of the convoy being refused entry. She knew that the stories that come back to the United States seem to be all about “body counts,” yet a lot of good was being done in the rebuilding of a country. She said schools were getting reopened and troops were doing things like asking family members to send useful items they could give to the Iraqi children. “I heard stories of kids on the side of the road giving the soldiers the thumbs-up sign,” she said.
She also told of a street sign that she took a photograph of to show to people back home. “It was a regular street sign and someone had written ‘God Bless the U.S. Troops’ on it, so it’s a permanent part of the marker,” she said. “They also celebrate Liberation Day - the day the U.S. pushed Iraqi troops out of the country [during the Gulf War].”
Kelley is part of the 766th Transportation Battalion of South Bend, Indiana, which flew back into Georgia on Oct. 12 and then into South Bend on Oct. 17. Her family, which includes her husband Gregg, son Zachary, 6, and daughter Emily, almost 3, traveled to South Bend to meet her. When asked what the first thing she did after returning, Kelley brightened up and said, “Spent time with my kids. They grew up quite a bit while I was gone.” She left her job Dec. 1 of last year and went to Kuwait in February. She was happy that the anticipated year-and-a-half stay was shortened, because she was at a point that she “needed” to come home, having not taken any leave during her stay. After returning to their Jackson home, she took Zachary to school and he showed her the important sites in his life: the gym, the cafeteria, his classroom.
During her absence Gregg, who’d just completed a year of duty in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prior to Kelley’s deployment, managed the household and took care of the children with some help from Kelley’s sister and other friends. “He did good,” Kelley said. She said he survived getting their son enrolled in school as well as his sixth birthday party with all the trimmings and said she is proud of him. She’s very happy to be home to celebrate Emily’s third birthday next month. While she missed some of what people call “the terrible twos,” Gregg told her Emily saved some up just for Kelley. She wasn’t talking when Kelley left, nor when she returned, but during the past month she just started jabbering while the family was together during the time Kelley had accumulated prior to having to return to work.
When city workers asked if there was any chance that Kelley might have to go back, she said it was possible. She has seven years to go before she can retire from the Reserves. Since she was promoted from a captain to a major while there, however, she must look for a unit that has a position opening and said in the Reserves, which is federal, soldiers can transfer most anywhere if they are willing to travel. “I’m trying to get a transfer into a unit that goes to Germany,” she said. “Gregg and his sister have already said they’d go over there with me.” Gregg retired from the military in April.
Kelley said what she most missed about her job was the opportunity to interact with the community through job responsibilities such as car seat checks and talking to groups of kids during activities such as job shadowing days. Tecumseh Police Chief Mack Haun said he’s just glad to have her back safely. She’ll spend the first couple of weeks riding with Officer Scott Smith. “When you’re gone that long, you have to ride with another officer for awhile,” Haun said. “We’ve also obtained in-car computers since she left so she’ll have to learn to operate those, but she’s pretty computer savvy so I don’t expect any problems.”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Kelley quipped from the sidelines. “I already pushed all the buttons this morning and nothing happened.”