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| Soldier making most of his military time |
By: Kurt Hildebrandt
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Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2009 8:46 am
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ST. PETER — Serving his country and getting a chance to see the world was a wonderful drawing card for Ben Golgart in making the decision to enlist in the U.S. Army in the fall of 2006.
In that time he’s seen various parts of the U.S. along with the Middle East after having serving for a year at Camp Taji, just north of Bagdad, Iraq as part of the Army’s 96th Transportation Company. Come April 2010, he’ll add Europe to his resume of parts well traveled when he begins at least a two-year stay in Germany at an Army base there.
“When I got out of high school I wanted to get out of Minnesota and travel around,” Golgart said. “In looking at all my options at the time I found out the Army was the best one and I haven’t regretted it at all.”
Golgart’s father, Jim, who is the Veteran’s Service Office for Le Sueur, was also another big influence in helping his son decide what to do once he got out of high school.
“My dad was in the Army for 20 years and I saw what it did for him, so that helped me make up my mind, too,” Ben, a 2005 St. Peter High School grad, said.
During his time in Iraq, Golgart was stationed at Camp Taji from October 2008 until getting home last month. A specialist in the Army, Golgart’s main duties are as a vehicle mechanic who helped keep maintain and repair the fleet used by his company during convoy and recovery missions.
“It was a lot of long hours as we worked 14 to 16 hour days and the heat at times, which got up to 135 degrees during the summer, also wears a person out,” he said. “The extreme conditions with the weather and the sand really took its toll on the vehicles so it was hard work making sure the vehicle were ready to go.
“But, it was a definitely a really great experience as I got to work with some great people.”
Golgart said the facilities at Camp Taji were some of the best in the Middle East and was the home for a couple thousand U.S. soldiers. During his off hours, he spent a lot of time at either the gymnasium or the Moral, Welfare and Recreation centers which had pool tables, movies, phones and computers to help him stay in touch with loved ones back home.
“At least once a week I would contact my family members by instant messaging and I’d also e-mail them a lot to keep up,” Golgart said. “The best part was those places were air conditioned as were the barracks where we slept, otherwise it probably would been hard on everyone.”
Golgart would go out on convoy runs with his group as well and while there were risks, he said conditions for those kind of activities have improved dramatically over the past couple years.
“The first time out I was a little nervous, but where I was at least it’s gotten to be much safer for us and we didn’t have any incidents of IEDs going off or anything like that when I was there,” he said.
During his one-year deployment, Golgart was able to get a two-week R&R (rest & recuperation) leave which allowed to come back to Minnesota for a breather in February before leaving Iraq for good on October 23.
After a couple weeks back in St. Peter, Golgart will be stationed at Fort Hood in Texas until April 2010 when he will be sent to Germany. The recent tragic events in which 13 people were killed at Fort Hood on November 5 did cause some sense of alarm for him, but he feels very confident his safety will not be at risk when he goes there.
“That was terrible what happened there, but I feel it will be a very safe place when I get there,” Golgart said. “Fort Hood is a huge base with something like 40,000 people stationed there, and the area I’ll be working and living is a ways away from where those events took place.”
He’ll continue to work as a mechanic at Fort Hood as well as when he transfers out to Germany, which he feels is an opportunity of a lifetime.
“If I were married and had a family, I probably have a little different opinion, but I’m really looking forward to going over there to serve,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to go to Europe and this will provide me with a wonderful opportunity.
“The good news is I’ll get to take a lot of my own personal things like my motorcycle over there, which will great. I know I’ll be busy with my job, but I’ll also get a lot of time to do some sightseeing and experience some new things.”
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