What most of us know only as a tragic memory has been a life-altering experience for senior education major and National Guardsman, Joshua Easterling. Joshua tells a story of marriage, children, terrorist detainees and Air Force One as he speaks of the influence Sept. 11 had on his life.
“I was a student studying biological sciences at MSU when I got the call, and I had just enough time to get my affairs in order,” Easterling said.
Easterling normally spends one weekend a month at the 114th Military Police Company in Clinton, Miss., as a Sergeant.
Easterling had just gotten married. His wife Emily who is also an MSU student, was expecting a child.
A month after being called up he was on his way to Fort Campbell, Ky., where he would spend the next six months as a military policeman.
“Fort Campbell wasn’t too far away and I still got to see my wife occasionally,” said Easterling. “My former boss, Dave Hood (owner of Dave’s and the International Bistro) asked his wife to have her second graders send me some letters and pictures. The letters reminded me what the military was fighting for and made me feel a little better about being away from home.”
But what the U.S. Army had in store for Easterling would not be quite as easy to handle.
After five months at Fort Campbell his commander announced they would be leaving for Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, in a month, the same length of time before his wife was due to give birth to their daughter, Madelyn.
Once the month passed Easterling’s unit was allowed to go home for five days before they had to leave for Cuba.
“I was getting ready to go home when I got a call from Emily telling me they where inducing labor and she would probably be giving birth in a few hours,” Easterling said.
Madelyn was born the next day-May 31.
“I was so fortunate to be there when she was born and I was really grateful to have a chance to hold her before I left,” Easterling said.
“I felt sad for him because he wasn’t going to get to watch the early stages of her development,” Emily Easterling said.
When Madelyn was four days old, Easterling was on his way back to Fort Campbell where he would depart for Cuba immediately.
“It was like getting slapped in the face with a hot moist blanket when I arrived in Cuba,” Easterling said. “The humidity was unbearable.”
Easterling was a non-commissioned officer in charge of a cell block filled with people detained for suspected involvement with terrorism.
“The worst part about being in Cuba was the isolation and lack of communication with my family and the rest of the world,” Easterling said. “The living conditions weren’t that great either.”
Easterling shared a room not much bigger than an average living room with 11 other soldiers.
“There wasn’t any air conditioning and my feet hung off the bed so people were always running into them and waking me up,” said the 6-foot-5-inch soldier.
Easterling would sometimes wake up drenched in sweat to begin a day filled with exercise, reading, extreme heat and a graveyard shift at the cell block.
After six months he was sent home.
“It was a relief to finally have him home safely with me and Madelyn,” his wife said.
“It was like waking up from a bad dream and I was under the impression that the nightmare was over,” Easterling said.
But just as soon as Easterling started getting used to being home with his wife and enjoying the company of his six-month-old daughter, the phone rang to let him know he had a day to get ready to mobilize for Fort Hood, Texas, the largest military base in the world.
“I had only been home from Cuba for a month when I got the call,” Easterling explained how it seemed like he was never going to be able to stay with his family.
Although he said Fort Hood was not nearly as bad as Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, he was stilled forced to live without the company of a beautiful wife and a daughter he had almost never seen, and that was becoming the main ingredient to a bitter recipe.
After a few months of patrolling around Fort Hood as a military policeman dealing with the same type of issues a normal cop would, he was assigned to guard the president’s plane, Air Force One.
“I felt like I really had an important reason to be there, and I got to meet the president of the United States, and that was pretty cool,” Easterling said.
After guarding the Air Force One for a month and policing Fort Hood for five months, Easterling returned to his family for good, hopefully.
Easterling returned in February and was allowed a late enrollment at State.
“It feels really good to be back, and I will officially be finished with my military enlistment later this year,” Easterling said.