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Airman’s past helps the future of others

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. William Banton
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
Tech. Sgt. Deng Pour sits in a nondescript office at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, surrounded by maps of the Middle East.
In others’ hands the drab room could feel cold and detached, and yet a warmth fills throughout the cramped space.

“When I joined the military it shaped me to be who I am today,” Pour said. “It helped me to grow as a young man and allowed me to give back to the country that helps people around the world.”
Pour, deployed to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing for the second time.

“When I came here before, the amount of active duty personnel was larger. Now it seems like 70 or 80 percent of the personnel here are reservists, so there’s a difference,” said Pour, a chaplain’s assistant with the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Chapel. “A lot of people never get deployed. That’s why we are seeing a lot of Airmen come in here to talk to someone.”

Pour understands the need for the military to provide religious affairs services and has a unique perspective on the importance of being able to build relationships, trust, perseverance, and to put people at ease.

A survivor of the 1983-2006 Sudanese civil war, he grew up as one of the 20,000 orphaned or dispossessed refugees spending his childhood in refugee camps. After immigrating to the United States, Pour graduated high school, overcoming language barriers, to be accepted to Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky on a soccer scholarship.

“To me, I didn’t feel like I was giving back,” he said, as the reason why he left college and joined the Air Force. “In the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘what is the other way that I can give back to the country that actually gives to refugees around the world?’ When I joined the military I had that fulfillment.”

To be in a community where everyone is connected and people are willing to mentor their peers is important to Pour, something he never had as a kid.

“I’m in a position to engage with Airmen; it brings the mission into a different perspective of why we are here,” he said. “The Chapel Corps is here to make sure that you know when you have a bad day that your bad day isn’t worse than someone else’s bad day.”

Speaking in February at a Black History Month event, Pour publicly described his youth, and the trauma of being separated from his family and watching men, women and children being killed. He spoke about his many journeys across country sides and through dangerous terrain and rivers, running from troops and avoiding wildlife which injured other refugees trying to make it to camps.

He said it’s a story he’s more than willing to tell others but doesn’t want it to take away from someone who is seeking him for help.
“I try to avoid that, but at the same time I want them to know the reason I joined the Air Force,” he said. “When I share my story it gives relief to a lot of people.”

“As a listener, the reason why I am here is to hear their stories,” said Pour. “Some of them ask ‘what about you?’ But I try to make sure it’s not all about me.”

In 2013, Pour deployed to the East African nation of Djibouti, returning to areas he spent time as a kid. While there, he was able to visit the service members in the area and travel with them as they reached out to the local communities and their culture, helping them build stronger connections.

“It’s where I started as a refugee, so to go back there for a mission was amazing,” said Pour.

“The Air Force is doing a good job with partnering with our different allies,” he said about why interacting in the community is important to the mission. “We can do the mission, we do it well, but at the same time, we need to focus on the civilians because a lot of them don’t even know why the military is there.”