SENSE OF COMMUNITY: Master Sgt. Greg Stumpff and Son Zach Serve Their Country Together, Pt.1

RANDY: As one of the largest units in the Missouri National Guard, the 1107th Aviation Group, Bravo Company, based in Springfield, has well over 400 "citizen-soldiers" whose primary duty is performing maintenance on rotary-wing aircraft.  They work out of a large office and repair depot near Springfield-Branson National Airport. On today's "Sense of Community" programs you'll meet two members of the 1107th: a father and son, Master Sergeant Greg Stumpff and Sergeant Zachary Stumpff of Mountain Grove, Missouri.  Greg was deployed to Iraq several years ago, and both Greg and his son Zach were deployed together to Kuwait in 2009.  As the ventilation fans circulating air on the floor of the repair hangar were a bit too loud to hold a conversation, I met with Greg and Zach in an upstairs conference room in the facility.

GREG STUMPFF: We rebuild and repair Army helicopters.

RANDY: Master Sgt. Greg Stumpff works full-timd for the Army National Guard as a civil-service technician, working as an aircraft mechanic lead out on the floor of the repair depot.

RANDY: So you really are "career military."

GREG: Career military--28 years. Well, I've always wanted to serve our country, and... I graduated from high school in '82, and --

RANDY: Where are you from originally?

GREG: Ozark.  And I had some teachers in high school that were prior service, they'd been active duty and Guard both, adn I decided I wanted to go to the National Guard so I could have the best of both worlds: to serve our country and stay at home.

RANDY: But as Greg is the first to admit, no matter what the job, there's no guarantee you'll "stay at home" in the National Guard--especially when you're a full-time aviation tech.

GREG: You know, the Guard is known for the "Hometown Guard."

RANDY: But they're also known for deploying all over the place (Greg chuckles)--when needed. I mean, that's the whole point.

GREG: And that is true.  My first deployment was in 1996--I deployed to Bosnia, and we were in charge of all the aircraft maintenance for that whole theater in Bosnia. Our home base was in Hungary. Yeah, Zach, he probably vaguely remembers it, adn my daughter, she remembers it well.

RANDY: How long were you over there?

GREG: Well, I was deployed a total of 11 months.  We actually spent nine months "boots on the ground."  Our mission was to fix and repair helicopters.

RANDY: However, these are military missions, and when they're out in the field repairing aircraft, they have to be prepared for anything.

GREG: Actually, yeah, as far as guns'n'ammo, we're always armed, no matter where we go.

RANDY: Master Sgt. Stumpff's reaction to the 9/11/2001 attacks was probably similar to most of us.

GREG: I was saddened for the people it immediately affected... at the same time I was mad.  It's like, "How dare they do that to us?!"  On the military side, we changed our focus of what we train for.  I grew up during the Cold War years, in which we trained for nuclear attacks--you know, trained for fighting Russia, and China...

RANDY: Trained to fight superpowers.

GREG: Yeah, just major superpowers, not--you know, who ever thought about us fighting terrorists like what we're doing today?  And it's a harder fight, because they could be sitting in the room with you and you'd never know it.

RANDY:  It took a few years, but Greg was deployed to Iraq in 2005--an 18-month deployment.

RANDY: Where were you there?

GREG: A place they called "Mortoritaville," right in the heart of the Suni Triangle.  And we hauled cargo and troops... (quietly) and it was... quite an adventure.

RANDY: Like many soldiers who have seen combat action, Master Sgt. Stumpff prefers not to talk about his experiences.

RANDY: So, what kinds of things did you see while you were there?

GREG: (slight chuckle and hesitation) I saw a lot... more than--more than I expected, and things you just really don't want to talk about!  I was away from my family a total of 18 months.  As a matter of fact, during that deployment, I had my first granddaughter, first grandchild--she ws born at the beginning (of my deployment), and I missed her birth and her first birthday because of it.

RANDY: Overall, though, Greg Stumpff likes to think positively about the whole experience.

GREG: There's always positives and negatives in everything. If you dwell on the negative, you're miserable all the time.  And you've got to look at the positive--you always have to.  That's how you survive, is looking at the positive.  I think we did a lot of good--I know we did, there's no doubt in my mind.  The people, they liked having us there, because we gave them a sense of security--and we still do today.  And today, those people are finally getting to see what freedom actually is--they're getting a taste of freedom, and they love it!

RANDY: Master Sergeant Greg Stumpff and his son, Sgt. Zach Stumpff, were deployed together to Kuwait in 2009, and you can hear about it in Part Two of this report.