‘Proud to have served’

Brainerd couple served for decades in Nat’l Guards

By Bill Vossler

Having two members of one family in the National Guard at the same time can present problems, said Kristin Rajala of Brainerd.

“No children, so that wasn’t a complication. But for 20 years we gave up 25 percent of our weekend free time. And when Army business comes up outside of drill time, as an officer you need to respond,” she said.

Jerry Steinke and Kris Rajala are waiting for their flight overseas into, respectively, Iraq and Kuwait. Contributed photo

“As a Lieutenant Colonel, I ended up as an officer spending a significant time in training, about 50-70 days a year, especially during my last 10 years.” Jerry Steinke added.

Jerry joined the Army National Guard (ARNG) in 1970 and served 33 years in the Reserves, 26 years in the Minnesota Army National Guard (MNARNG), and 7 years in the United States Army Reserve (USAR), achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Kristin’s involvement in the National Guard came about because Jerry was involved.

“Jerry had been in the guards for 20 years before I joined,” she said, “and I had met his fellow soldiers and realized what a fine group of people they were. Plus I had more of an idea of what I was getting into, because after the first Gulf War quite a few National Guard medical officers left the service. So, they needed medical professionals. Since I was a dentist, all I had to do was pass the physical, and I entered the Army with a direct commission as a captain.”

“At first,” Kristin said, “I thought we would both be gone on the same weekend of the month for our duty, but we soon found out that wasn’t a given.”

Another major problem was Kristin’ private dental practice in St. Paul.

“In Nov. 2003, a week after my father died, I received a call from a unit leader that I was to be mobilized. That meant either close or sell my practice. I sold it, and in Jan. 2004 left for active duty.”

“About a month after she left, I was also ordered to active duty,” Jerry said. “Both of us trained at Fort Bliss in Texas, Kristin first, and I followed two months later. During our 10 days at the mobilization site, we received our orientations/briefings, weapons, equipment, and clothing there, as well as final medical and dental screenings. After we were mobilized, I spent one afternoon with her at Camp Udairi before I traveled to Baghdad on a C-130 airplane.”

Luckily a neighbor and relatives watched their home in North Oaks and assisted them while they were both deployed.

Jerry’s First Tour of Duty

“During my first deployment in 2004-2005, I was the Team Chief for a USAR Theater Property Book Team consisting of six logistics personnel, which I split into three in Kuwait and three in Iraq. During the first year of the invasion, each Army group brought its own equipment: armored vehicles, communication equipment, generators, and so on. At the end of the year, the Army decided equipment in the theater should remain for the new units for their year of rotation. By then the U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard  had lost control of and visibility of all their equipment in the war theater. So my team’s mission was to locate and account for all the equipment left behind by guard units in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. 

Kristen and Jerry at Arifjan, where all U.S. equipment from Iraq had to be shipped to be fixed up and readied to head back to the United States at the end of the war. Contributed photo

“We had to use various means to locate USAR equipment, find serial numbers and build a database describing the equipment, its location, and who possessed it. The ARNG did the same. Some of this equipment was in theater for seven years, from 2003 to 2010.”  

There were safety issues during Jerry’s first tour in Iraq.

“The Sunni insurgents used three main weapons to attack US forces: rockets and mortars fired into the base, and on the ground outside the base, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). So, we would travel by air if possible—usually by helicopter or C-130. The attacks might take place anywhere or any time 24/7. Service members and contractors were injured or killed on the bases there.”

Second Tour of Duty

During Jerry’s second tour back in Iraq, with the Minnesota National Guard he came as an Assistant Chief of Staff in the 34th Infantry Division at Basra in 2009 and 2010.

“We were designated as a multi-national cell responsible for security in southern Iraq, focusing on training and advising Iraqi troops and continuing nation-building,” Jerry said.

Jerry was the 34ths logistician.

“One of my main tasks during the draw down of U.S. forces in Iraq was dealing again with identifying and prioritizing all the equipment and returning it from the theater. That meant tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvees, gun trucks, support vehicles, communications equipment, field artillery pieces, various other truck/transporter types, engineering equipment such as earth moving equipment, and generators, as well as equipment developed especially for the insurgency operations of the Iraqi war, like Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP). Thousands had to be retrograded along with all the other 1.2 million pieces of equipment.”

So the G4 staff’s focus was to identify and prioritize for retrograde all the US Army equipment.

“Including some equipment that had been in-country for as long as seven years--like generators--or subjected to severe use and a hostile environment and required extensive repairs and upgrades,” Jerry said. “It was transported by truck from southern Iraq to the port at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, cleared through customs, cleaned and decontaminated, inspected, and then uploaded on ships for movement back to the U.S. for depot-level repair or refurbishment, a major operation that really took a few years to accomplish.”

“During my second tour we were again subjected to insurgents using rockets and IEDs to attack convoys on the resupply route. You were concerned about these risks, of course, but you just lived with them and continued to perform your mission.”

Dentist in Kuwait

Kristin was one of four medical professionals from Minnesota during her deployment.

“We assisted the Alabama National Guard to complete their deployment,” Kristin said. “Physicians and dentists did 90-day tours, and I was there for the final 90 days of the Alabama‘s Guard’s one-year deployment to Iraq.”

Kristin was located in a tent city called Camp Udairi in Kuwait “near where troops came into country. Since this was during the ‘surge,’ the location had up to 12,000 soldiers or so, twice the capacity of our tent city, some returning from Iraq, and replacements headed into Iraq. Eventually soldiers returning to the USA were routed to a different camp so the numbers dropped back down.”

She said Camp Udairi was mostly tents.

“Temperature-controlled,” Kristin said. “The food was in a small tent, as was the dental office. A very few hard-shell buildings were on the site, like the PX and the Battalion Aid Station, double-wide mobile units. The Dining facility was a huge metal building, and the chapel had a wooden narthex, a façade for entry while the rest of the chapel was a large tent.”

Kristen Rajala making consultations while in Kuwait. Contributed photo

“Every state’s Army National Guard unit has identical equipment,” Kristin said, “so Alabama’s was identical to Minnesota’s. And we had electric lights. We discovered that the Alabama National Guard had planned their deployment, and brought a load of plywood and lumber, as well as saws, drills and screws. They gradually improved the circumstances that people were living in. Most everybody in the unit eventually had a bookshelf or bedside table. The dental office had only a sand floor until a month before I got there, when the engineers laid a wood floor. I really appreciated the people who had been there first and set things I was able to use.”

“We had a folding lounge chair for the patients, with metal folding chairs for the dentist and assistant to do the work. Basic, but workable. We typically sterilized everything in the morning, did a number of patients, sterilized at noon, and did more patients. No appointments. We were busy enough that we couldn’t have anybody dropping by for a cleaning. I did basic and emergency work, like fillings and extractions. For anything complicated, like fractured or missing teeth, we figured out a temporary fix because they wouldn’t remain on my base very long.”

Kristin said most soldiers were young.

“A common problem was wisdom teeth or recent extractions of them, and drinking lots of soda pop, such as Mountain Dew, instead of water, which created cavities pretty quickly from so much sugar. We occasionally treated third country nationals, who lived off the base but worked on the base as cooks or did construction and maintenance. They needed to be escorted into the dental office by a soldier who had recommended them. So I didn’t use many translators because it was obvious why they were coming in.”

Kristin said the most difficult part was her winding up with a hacking cough, and not getting much sleep.

“There were dust storms. You could see them rolling in, like a blizzard here, but with grit blowing, visibility was limited so we couldn’t readily get from one place to another. To get to the PX I usually took a little back path between two tents, but after one dust storm, I couldn’t because a big heap of dust had been piled about chest high so I couldn’t walk on that path.”

The dust storms always brought lots of wind.

“One of the storms wrecked the canvas on the door to our tent. I sutured it, and duct taped over the seam.  And there was always dust and grit over every surface.”

Finished

Jerry is waiting in front of a Blackhawk helicopter to be transferred to a different spot in Iraq as he and his crew were searching for all the Army materiel that was in the country and needed to be brought out. Contributed photo

Jerry said he enjoyed the people he served with.

“We had a really fine group of leaders, both officers and NCOs, and I was honored to serve with them, in peacetime here in the U.S. and overseas.”

Kristin, who ultimately achieved the rank of Colonel, said that she too enjoyed the people.

“Once I got to know the people, I felt loyalty and bonding with the soldiers I was serving along with.”

For people thinking about joining the National Guard, Jerry and Kristin said, today significant educational benefits exist for those willing to join either the Guard or the Reserves.

“It’s also a chance for a young person to experience leadership, organization, and self-discipline, which I think makes a better person all around,” Kristin added.

Jerry said since he had taught, worked as an attorney, and for a large Minnesota corporation, “The modern Army and its Reserve Components are more adaptable, innovative, and adjustable to their environment than the local or state government agencies and private industry I worked in.”

“Our deployments changed our day-to-day lives, but was also an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything, and I am proud to have served,” Kristin said.