82ndtrooper
07-18-2008, 02:12
I served with Lt. Col Messmer in the 3/319th 82nd Airborne. TR knows him well. Good story.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/07/14/0714boyscout.html
Deborah Cannon
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Lt. Col. Gerry Messmer has spent most of his leave from Iraq as an assistant leader at the Lost Pines Boy Scout Camp near Bastrop. In fact, the whole family is there. He waits for lunch with his son Jason, 15, and wife, Cathy, on Wednesday. The Messmers live near Fort Hood.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Like many soldiers at war, Lt. Col. Gerry Messmer marks the passage of time by moments he's missed.
Measured by the calendar, his deployment to Iraq will last until March, 15 dusty months livedaway fromhis home near Fort Hood.
Measured in moments, that's two Christmas mornings when his family opens presents without him. That's a wedding anniversary celebrated over the phone. And that's him learning, by e-mail, that his 10-year-old daughter, Lucy, has taken up a Texas tradition and twirled her first baton.
At a leafy Boy Scout camp an hour east of Austin, near Bastrop, Messmer hoped to capture a few moments with his family before they passed without him. A Scout leader since his older son joined 12 years ago, Messmer is spending 12 of his 18 days of leave at Lost Pines Boy Scout Camp, serving as an assistant leader for Troop 177.
"It's my oldest son's last camp as a Boy Scout," Messmer said, relaxing near the camp's replica of an 1800s-era cabin. "It was important not to miss it."
His wife and daughter were there as well.
Messmer estimates that since late 2001, he has been away from his family nearly two-thirds of the time, with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and the Philippines. After a decade of volunteering at his two sons' Scout camps — where he watched them use skills he taught them — he missed the camp two years ago and last summer.
When he left for Iraq in November, it looked as if he would miss a third year in a row.
He was sent to Baghdad with the roughly 20,000 soldiers from Fort Hood's 4th Infantry Division. He manages the budget of about $1.2 billion for reconstructing the city and surrounding province, a job he equates to being a "pseudo city administrator" — getting roads paved, schools built and electrical lines run within the province, which is home to 8.5 million people.
Messmer insists that conditions in Iraq are better than the American public believes, pointing to drops in insurgent attacks and deaths as a key measure, one that he and other military officials say makes political progress possible.
"We won't win by pulling a trigger," Messmer said. "The key to success is rebuilding. ... At the end of the day, they want the same kinds of things we want."
Messmer, who is 43 and resembles a calmer version of comedian Kevin James, said he was pleasantly surprised when he learned that he would be home on leave at the same time his boys were going to Scout camp.
During his leave, he is spending only a few nights sleeping in his bed at home, and the camp doesn't have the benefit of air conditioning during the 100-degree days. But he says the family has fewer distractions there than at home, despite the more than 350 boys running to and fro.
On Messmer's first night in camp, most of those boys gathered and watched as Messmer, wearing the cocked hat he dons for historical re-enactments, demonstrated the use of a Revolutionary War-era musket.
His wife, Cathy, and daughter, Lucy, wore blue Colonial-era dresses and bonnets. Sons Gerry IV, 17, and Jason, 15, helped explain to boys around them various aspects of Revolutionary War life.
"This time," the older Gerry Messmer said, "at least I didn't get anyone asking me if I was a pirate."
On Wednesday afternoon, his third day in camp, Messmer's duties were light. He helped shepherd the troop's dozen boys, who range in age from 11 to 17, between their various activities. He promised to help one with his rifle shooting.
But mainly he spent time with his wife and daughter, who frequently pulled out a neon-green string to demonstrate her mastery of the game Cat's Cradle.
"I miss him," Lucy said as she wound the string around her fingers and nodded to her father. "I just miss sitting on the couch with him or going fishing and doing daddy-daughter stuff."
When Gerry Messmer is away, Cathy Messmer said, she takes over as head of the household. Her career, making custom embroidery, is suited to the transient Army life that the family had given up and then resumed on Sept. 10, 2001.
The timing of her husband's decision to rejoin the active-duty Army — one day before terrorists struck and changed the lives of every military family — is not lost on Cathy Messmer, 42.
"I have been the person who organizes and makes everything happen" while my husband is away, Cathy Messmer said, her words tinged with an upstate New York accent. "With two teenage boys and my daughter, it's nice to have him back and for me not to have to be in control all the time."
"With Mom here without Dad, me and my older brother have to step up and help out," said Jason Messmer, whose freshman and sophomore years of high school will pass while his father is serving in Iraq.
His older brother, Gerry IV, learned about cars from his father. With the help of a family friend, he recently bought his first car, a cherry red 1970 Ford Mustang. The older Gerry Messmer hopes to help his son tinker with the engine before leaving early Thursday morning.
Gerry Messmer IV, who has ambitions of studying agriculture at Texas A&M University next year, reacted stoically to questions about his father returning to Baghdad.
"I don't think about him being in danger because then I can't get anything done. He's out there for everybody else, so I try to be supportive of him and his cause," Gerry Messmer IV said. "But it's going to be a long next seven months."
A few minutes later, he headed to the camp's pool to resume his lifeguard training.
On Friday, at the camp's closing ceremony, Gerry Messmer sat with his oldest son, daughter and wife as camp leaders announced to the boys gathered around the massive campfire that Jason had been selected for the Order of the Arrow, the Scouts' national honor society. The Messmers chatted while Jason and about 20 other boys were led off into the woods for a private talk about the responsibilities of order membership.
Afterward, Jason rejoined the family. It was the first time they had all been gathered for a closing ceremony.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/07/14/0714boyscout.html
Deborah Cannon
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Lt. Col. Gerry Messmer has spent most of his leave from Iraq as an assistant leader at the Lost Pines Boy Scout Camp near Bastrop. In fact, the whole family is there. He waits for lunch with his son Jason, 15, and wife, Cathy, on Wednesday. The Messmers live near Fort Hood.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Like many soldiers at war, Lt. Col. Gerry Messmer marks the passage of time by moments he's missed.
Measured by the calendar, his deployment to Iraq will last until March, 15 dusty months livedaway fromhis home near Fort Hood.
Measured in moments, that's two Christmas mornings when his family opens presents without him. That's a wedding anniversary celebrated over the phone. And that's him learning, by e-mail, that his 10-year-old daughter, Lucy, has taken up a Texas tradition and twirled her first baton.
At a leafy Boy Scout camp an hour east of Austin, near Bastrop, Messmer hoped to capture a few moments with his family before they passed without him. A Scout leader since his older son joined 12 years ago, Messmer is spending 12 of his 18 days of leave at Lost Pines Boy Scout Camp, serving as an assistant leader for Troop 177.
"It's my oldest son's last camp as a Boy Scout," Messmer said, relaxing near the camp's replica of an 1800s-era cabin. "It was important not to miss it."
His wife and daughter were there as well.
Messmer estimates that since late 2001, he has been away from his family nearly two-thirds of the time, with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and the Philippines. After a decade of volunteering at his two sons' Scout camps — where he watched them use skills he taught them — he missed the camp two years ago and last summer.
When he left for Iraq in November, it looked as if he would miss a third year in a row.
He was sent to Baghdad with the roughly 20,000 soldiers from Fort Hood's 4th Infantry Division. He manages the budget of about $1.2 billion for reconstructing the city and surrounding province, a job he equates to being a "pseudo city administrator" — getting roads paved, schools built and electrical lines run within the province, which is home to 8.5 million people.
Messmer insists that conditions in Iraq are better than the American public believes, pointing to drops in insurgent attacks and deaths as a key measure, one that he and other military officials say makes political progress possible.
"We won't win by pulling a trigger," Messmer said. "The key to success is rebuilding. ... At the end of the day, they want the same kinds of things we want."
Messmer, who is 43 and resembles a calmer version of comedian Kevin James, said he was pleasantly surprised when he learned that he would be home on leave at the same time his boys were going to Scout camp.
During his leave, he is spending only a few nights sleeping in his bed at home, and the camp doesn't have the benefit of air conditioning during the 100-degree days. But he says the family has fewer distractions there than at home, despite the more than 350 boys running to and fro.
On Messmer's first night in camp, most of those boys gathered and watched as Messmer, wearing the cocked hat he dons for historical re-enactments, demonstrated the use of a Revolutionary War-era musket.
His wife, Cathy, and daughter, Lucy, wore blue Colonial-era dresses and bonnets. Sons Gerry IV, 17, and Jason, 15, helped explain to boys around them various aspects of Revolutionary War life.
"This time," the older Gerry Messmer said, "at least I didn't get anyone asking me if I was a pirate."
On Wednesday afternoon, his third day in camp, Messmer's duties were light. He helped shepherd the troop's dozen boys, who range in age from 11 to 17, between their various activities. He promised to help one with his rifle shooting.
But mainly he spent time with his wife and daughter, who frequently pulled out a neon-green string to demonstrate her mastery of the game Cat's Cradle.
"I miss him," Lucy said as she wound the string around her fingers and nodded to her father. "I just miss sitting on the couch with him or going fishing and doing daddy-daughter stuff."
When Gerry Messmer is away, Cathy Messmer said, she takes over as head of the household. Her career, making custom embroidery, is suited to the transient Army life that the family had given up and then resumed on Sept. 10, 2001.
The timing of her husband's decision to rejoin the active-duty Army — one day before terrorists struck and changed the lives of every military family — is not lost on Cathy Messmer, 42.
"I have been the person who organizes and makes everything happen" while my husband is away, Cathy Messmer said, her words tinged with an upstate New York accent. "With two teenage boys and my daughter, it's nice to have him back and for me not to have to be in control all the time."
"With Mom here without Dad, me and my older brother have to step up and help out," said Jason Messmer, whose freshman and sophomore years of high school will pass while his father is serving in Iraq.
His older brother, Gerry IV, learned about cars from his father. With the help of a family friend, he recently bought his first car, a cherry red 1970 Ford Mustang. The older Gerry Messmer hopes to help his son tinker with the engine before leaving early Thursday morning.
Gerry Messmer IV, who has ambitions of studying agriculture at Texas A&M University next year, reacted stoically to questions about his father returning to Baghdad.
"I don't think about him being in danger because then I can't get anything done. He's out there for everybody else, so I try to be supportive of him and his cause," Gerry Messmer IV said. "But it's going to be a long next seven months."
A few minutes later, he headed to the camp's pool to resume his lifeguard training.
On Friday, at the camp's closing ceremony, Gerry Messmer sat with his oldest son, daughter and wife as camp leaders announced to the boys gathered around the massive campfire that Jason had been selected for the Order of the Arrow, the Scouts' national honor society. The Messmers chatted while Jason and about 20 other boys were led off into the woods for a private talk about the responsibilities of order membership.
Afterward, Jason rejoined the family. It was the first time they had all been gathered for a closing ceremony.