A veteran walks among us

Published Nov. 10, 2008
By Tech. Sgt. Denise Johnson
380th AEW Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Senior Master Sgt. Edgar Newell stood among the 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron Airmen at guard mount here Nov. 8. His face somber, the lines on his face filled with the shadows of two score of deployments and military service. The sun was rising, casting the golden glow of dawn across the pale landscape.

When 2nd Lt. Sarah Rothlisberg, 380th ESFS, called him to the front of the formation, the 59-year-old veteran's eyes seemed to snap back from the reverie of days and deployments gone by ... days when the world seemed so different, yet so similar. Early days when the dawn of his career was a reflection of today's sunrise, emerging from the blanket of night to face new challenges.

Today Sergeant Newell was honored on the eve of his final deployment. The 380th ESFS members stood watch; ears tuned to the words of a man who is watching the dusk roll in on a lifetime of service.

"My story is not a special one," Sergeant Newell said. "I just have a lot of little special moments between the dates."

The senior noncommissioned officer claims a humble service, not deserving of any special recognition. His flight members disagree.

"Our lives as force protection Airmen will forever be changed and enriched due to Senior Newell's vast experience and exceptional leadership," said Lieutenant Rothlisberg, the 380th ESFS assistant operations officer. "It's been an honor and a privilege serving with him."

Richard Nixon was held in high esteem by the American people in 1969. Neil Armstrong was about to step foot on the moon. Twenty-year-old Edgar Newell was making his way to the local recruiter's office in Vineland, N.J.

As the decade drew to a close, the United States was in its fourth year of the Vietnam Conflict. More than 530,000 military members were facing increased resistance. The death toll was rising.

"I joined because I wanted to be a Marine," Sergeant Newell, 380th Expeditionary Force Protection superintendent, said.

Forty years ago uniformed service members were facing a volatile U.S. public for fighting in the Vietnam Conflict. The New Jersey native was not deterred. During a period of time when young men were dodging the draft, young Edgar stayed true to his dream and became a Marine.

As President Richard Nixon was presenting jazz musician, Duke Ellington, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on April 29, 1969, Edgar Newell was swearing his oath of enlistment with the Marines.

He was trained as an infantryman, and sent to the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company at Camp LeJune, N.C., for nine months before heading off to Iceland for his first deployment.

Iceland was a Cold War bastion that dominated the polar approaches to Europe and North America. Its sea lanes were busy thoroughfares for nuclear submarines which dominated the strategic warfare of the 1970s. Though Marines guarded the American diplomatic presence there, there was also a contingent of ground forces who were arctic-warfare trained to counter any Soviet Spetznaz guerrilla invasions.

The year in Iceland forestalled his Vietnam assignment, but did not preclude it. His boots hit the ground in May, 1971. Newell headed home in September, 1972, after 16 months in-country as a grunt.

The years of 1971 and 1972 were the final phase of Nixon's Vietnamization program designed to provide a transition from an American-dominated conflict to a war fought by the South Vietnamese themselves. As American units drew down, responsibility for the fight was taken up by South Vietnamese regular units.

Newell, now in his mid-twenties, separated from the Marines and went to college where he earned a degree in forestry.

"I love trees," Sergeant Newell said. "I love growing things."

Though his love for horticulture was uncontested, the satisfaction derived from military service had also taken root. Newell became a member of the Army National Guard from 1979 until 1982.

"I then rejoined the Active Marine Corps Reserves from 1983 to 1986," Sergeant Newell said.

Though it had been 23 years since his first enlistment, Newell was far from his closing act. The sun was merely reaching midday on his veteranship. In 1992, six years after leaving the Marine Reserves, he donned yet another service uniform, this time for the New Jersey Air National Guard where he has remained until the present.

Again, Sergeant Newell had a front-row seat for military transformations as the NJANG underwent a major transition in 1993.

Its fighter forces were consolidated in Atlantic City and its KC-135E Stratotankers from the 170th Air Refueling Group moved to McGuire Air Force Base, consolidated with the 108th Tactical Fighter Wing and became the two-squadron 108th Air Refueling Wing. The 177th Fighter Group in Atlantic City transitioned from F-106s (the last unit to fly the Delta Dart) to F-16s. Atlantic City provided key defense for the entire Northeastern seaboard.

"I have performed several different jobs in the military, from a platoon sergeant to the noncommissioned officer in charge of a (Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricant) section on a guard base," Sergeant Newell explained. "I've never been without an agenda for the next day. Retirement will be different."

Sergeant Newell donned the military uniform at a time when black youth were fighting for entrance into the same schools as white children. Activists such as Martin Luther King were assassinated for fighting for civil rights. Woodstock was making Rock n' Roll history and man walked on the moon for the first time. The first computer-to-computer link was established on the ARPANET; and on October 29, 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled immediate desegregation of all school districts.

He changed uniforms from era to era and branch to branch. Sergeant Newell served his country through the radical hippie era and saw America's youth dancing Saturday Night Fever-style at discos. He carried the flag through the Reagan era and the Clinton years. He will lay his uniform to rest for the final time in the same town he started in, Vineland. Sergeant Newell has come full circle.

Today, as the sun sets on Sergeant Newell's distinguished and lasting military career, the first black president has been elected; people use webcams and satellite links to establish communications. Two score of military service finds the American public once again watching a battle play out on the evening news.

Today uniformed service members are approached by strangers, too. But hands are not raised to shake a closed fist and shouts do not spew words of hatred; instead, open hands are extended in friendship and humble words of gratitude are orated.

No less so than Lieutenant Rothlisberg's gratitude, "I am truly blessed to have been given the opportunity to work side by side with this extraordinary man."

Veteran's Day will bring a bittersweet reminder to those who've served with Sergeant Newell as he greets the close of his career and his deployed brethren bid him farewell. For among them walked a true Veteran: a Marine, Soldier, Reservist, Guardsman and Airman ... he served all.

The 380th AEW Historian, Gary Boyd, contributed to this article.