From SPC Roshonda Y. Thurston
Today I am serving my seventh month of a one-year deployment in Iraq. I am the supply specialist in the 314th Public Affairs Operations Center, an Army Reserve unit from Birmingham, Alabama. I was cross-leveled into the unit last year a few months before we mobilized, but this story goes back even further…six years ago when I was a 19-year-old Soldier.
I grew up in St. Lucie County in Florida as a troublemaker, but I had the sense to join the Army after high school, thanks to the encouragement of SGM John Brunson, a friend of my mother. When I was growing up, he was like a father, and I admired his military service. He told me about the Army – he got to travel, he had a job he was proud of, and the pay wasn’t bad either. My life was going nowhere fast, so I joined.
I went to basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina in January 2004, supply training at Fort Lee, Virginia three months later, and my first duty assignment at Fort Drum, New York, that summer. It was not long, however, before trouble found me again. I was pregnant.
I was discharged from the Army and returned home to Florida. I had told myself that I did not want to end up like this, but there I was – 21 years old, about to become a mother, and without much of a future. One thing that got me through all of this was something I tell to others in similar situations, “It could be worse.”
On April 13, 2005, I gave birth to my son, Xavion Lamar Thurston at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center. He was 6 pounds and 7.5 ounces of change in my life. I know it sounds like a cliché, but he made me rethink everything I was doing (or not doing). Knowing he was there, depending on me, made me calm down and gave me a focus. He truly became the center of my life. It was like I had found another part of me.
If you are a young girl who has trouble in her life now, don’t think a baby is going to turn your life around. Someone I am close to back home is in jail today while her two kids are living with someone else. They only get to see their mom on visiting days. I guess I was lucky.
Even though I was starting to change my life, it was not easy, and I could never have done it alone. My mom Sharri and my younger brother Courtney were my “built-in babysitters” back then (and are now while I am deployed). Their support allowed me to get a job as a technician at a mental health institution in St. Lucie County. Getting to help the patients made me thankful that I had my right mind and that I had chosen a right path before it was too late. I saw some who were strung out on cocaine with one foot in the grave — and some were kids my own age. Even though it was sad, I got satisfaction knowing there was something I could do to help them.
Another thing I did to turn my life around was join the Army Reserve in early 2006. The 3220th Garrison Support Unit from West Palm Beach had a vacancy for a supply specialist, and I wanted to give the military another try. I had to start out as a private all over again, but I dealt with that setback.
Over the next two years I found more than a military unit; I also found a new family that looked out for my best interests and helped me make a better life for me and my son. SSG Lorette Innocent and SGT Renea Thomas are both in my unit, and both work in law enforcement in their full-time civilian jobs. They have helped me learn valuable lessons like controlling my emotions and taking one day at time.
Another Soldier who helped me get where I am today – literally – is LTC Gloria Thomas, from the regional command in Birmingham. About a year ago, she called me with an offer I could not refuse. I like to tell people I was “volun-told” I was on a list of people who could be going to Iraq with the 314th. She said the deployment would be good for me, and that the Soldiers in the unit were good people. With a young son, I was not excited about it, but I told her, “If I have to go, I will.”
I guess that must have stuck in her head because I got a call that same evening from 1SG Jeremiah Glassford welcoming me to the 314th and giving me my flight information to get to Birmingham.
So here I am now in the 314th PAOC, serving as the unit’s supply specialist. Over the past 10 months with them (seven of them mobilized) I feel I have continued to grow. I’ve had the help of unit members like 1SG Glassford and SGT Emily Anderson, as well as people I have met here in Baghdad like SCPO Theodore Traylor and Mr. Brandon Joseph. With their support, I’ve continued my journey to being a better Solder, a better friend and a better mom. Today, I am less impatient than I was even a year ago, I don’t let my pride get in my way and, most importantly, I am able help others. Along the way, the unit commander even presented me an Army Achievement Medal for my hard work in preparing the unit for its overseas mission.
Someone asked me recently what I would say to the 19-year-old Roshonda Thurston if she were here today in Iraq. I had to stop and think about it. The one thing I would not do is ignore her. That happened to me too many times, and I know how she would feel – as if she did not matter and depressed.
I know I have it in me now to help this troublemaker. I think I would let her know she could trust me to help her, that I was always available, and that I would be non-judgmental. I’d tell her to avoid peer pressure, and keep her eyes focused on what is most important. I’d probably also tell her to keep working hard in the Army Reserve because it could be an opportunity for her to gain more confidence and self-discipline, and have more doors opened for her.
And, where will I be five years from now? I will be the confident and financially-stable mother of a wonderful 9-year-old son who will know his mother loves him, even when she is thousands of miles away on her next deployment.
Here I am at Fort Dix, New Jersey, just before the 314th PAOC left for Baghdad. Don't mess with me!
Here is my Xavion.
