Warrant Officer David Hemingway II said he never really considered the military life as a career.
Now, after nine years in the Army, Hemingway says he plans to stick with it for another 10 years until he retires.
“It’s not something I had planned on doing. It wasn’t a big master plan,” said Hemingway in a phone interview from Iraq Tuesday morning. The interview was arranged as part of an intitative through an Armed Forces media relations specialist so soldiers can connect with their hometowns.
Hemingway, 27, is a 2001 graduate of West Canada Valley High School after growing up in Newport. He enlisted with the Army that August and has since re-enlisted three times after serving out his original four-year-term.
“At the time, I was presented with the opportunity to get out and see the world and it sounded interesting. And it worked out real well,” he said.
Hemingway has been stationed in Basra, Iraq since March, and will probably stay there for another year before coming home. He is a systems technician, whose duties include overseeing the air defense assets for the United States detail and coordinates the communication between the radars and computers. He had previously been stationed in El Paso, Tx, Ft. Bragg, N.C. and Korea.
During his time in Basra, he is working on his bachelor’s degree in IT management and spends “lots of time in the gym.”
Hemingway says without hesitation the biggest thing he misses about the United States is being with his wife Carolina, and their two children, Natalie, 5, and Ryan, 2. They live in Ft. Riley in Kansas. He said he is excited about having the opportunity to go home on leave in time to see his daughter attend her first day of school in September. He said he is lucky enough to talk with his family for a few minutes via Skype every other day, if not every day.
He also said care packages sent from soldiers’ families and from groups and organizations in America help keep the soldiers’ spirit up while stationed overseas.
“It’s always nice to receive something from America,” he said, noting movies and magazines among the things they like to receive. He said he thanks those people for the “amount of work they do to make sure soldiers lives stay as normal as possible given the circumstances.”
Hemingway said he would like to one day return to the area and live in the Adirondacks. He said his parents, David Hemingway and Noreen Van Dorpp, still live in the Town of Ohio. He comes from a military family, with his grandfather serving in the Army, his father in the Air Force and his brother currently stationed in Italy for the U. S. Navy.
“It’s a fulfilling job,” he said. “Some parts are really taxing, hard on the family life, but the opportunity it’s given me to go back and look at all I did.”
Hemingway said if there was one point he could get across to readers was how grateful he was for the support they have received.
“To anyone this reaches, thank you for your support for the soldiers.”
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Warrant Officer David Hemingway II said he never really considered the military life as a career.
Now, after nine years in the Army, Hemingway says he plans to stick with it for another 10 years until he retires.
“It’s not something I had planned on doing. It wasn’t a big master plan,” said Hemingway in a phone interview from Iraq Tuesday morning. The interview was arranged as part of an intitative through an Armed Forces media relations specialist so soldiers can connect with their hometowns.
Hemingway, 27, is a 2001 graduate of West Canada Valley High School after growing up in Newport. He enlisted with the Army that August and has since re-enlisted three times after serving out his original four-year-term.
“At the time, I was presented with the opportunity to get out and see the world and it sounded interesting. And it worked out real well,” he said.
Hemingway has been stationed in Basra, Iraq since March, and will probably stay there for another year before coming home. He is a systems technician, whose duties include overseeing the air defense assets for the United States detail and coordinates the communication between the radars and computers. He had previously been stationed in El Paso, Tx, Ft. Bragg, N.C. and Korea.
During his time in Basra, he is working on his bachelor’s degree in IT management and spends “lots of time in the gym.”
Hemingway says without hesitation the biggest thing he misses about the United States is being with his wife Carolina, and their two children, Natalie, 5, and Ryan, 2. They live in Ft. Riley in Kansas. He said he is excited about having the opportunity to go home on leave in time to see his daughter attend her first day of school in September. He said he is lucky enough to talk with his family for a few minutes via Skype every other day, if not every day.
He also said care packages sent from soldiers’ families and from groups and organizations in America help keep the soldiers’ spirit up while stationed overseas.
“It’s always nice to receive something from America,” he said, noting movies and magazines among the things they like to receive. He said he thanks those people for the “amount of work they do to make sure soldiers lives stay as normal as possible given the circumstances.”
Hemingway said he would like to one day return to the area and live in the Adirondacks. He said his parents, David Hemingway and Noreen Van Dorpp, still live in the Town of Ohio. He comes from a military family, with his grandfather serving in the Army, his father in the Air Force and his brother currently stationed in Italy for the U. S. Navy.
“It’s a fulfilling job,” he said. “Some parts are really taxing, hard on the family life, but the opportunity it’s given me to go back and look at all I did.”
Hemingway said if there was one point he could get across to readers was how grateful he was for the support they have received.
“To anyone this reaches, thank you for your support for the soldiers.”
