Deployment is all in the family

Published Aug. 27, 2007
By Senior Master Sgt. Kim Allain
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Members of the 123rd Airlift Wing, from Louisville, Kentucky, decided to deploy as a team to Afghanistan, and two individuals of the maintenance team knew that one was not going without the other. Production superintendent Senior Master Sergeant Michael Shephard, deployed with his son, Senior Airman Cory Shephard, a maintenance crew chief on the C-130 Hercules aircraft. Both are now members of the 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

Senior Master Sergeant Shephard has been in the Kentucky Air National Guard for 27 years and works full time as a civil service technician in the maintenance unit back home. When asked why he chose aircraft maintenance as his career his response was "I am a gear head; it is in my blood." Now military service is a family tradition because Senior Airman Cory Shephard enlisted and never considered any other career field but the same as his father.

"I tried to talk him out of this career field because it is a dirty job with long hours, but he wouldn't even look at any other job but aircraft maintenance," said the senior Shephard. Airman Shephard said his first reason for enlisting in the military is to serve his country, and the second is "to follow in my father's footsteps." "I grew up watching my father's military service and wanted to do the same thing."

The sense of family permeates this C-130 squadron. These airmen are friends that live in their local county area. "Many of the men that are here with us today smoked cigars with me on the day that Cory was born," states Sgt. Shephard. "The other maintainers have known Cory since he was a baby and watch out for my son as much as I do," says Shephard.

When asked what the biggest benefit to being deployed together is, both father and son are of the same mind and agree that being here together brings "a little piece of home everyday." They gain moral support from each other; they watch each other's back and know firsthand that the other is safe from harm. Sgt. Shephard says the dual deployment makes it easier on Cory's mother and stepmother who are both "pleased that they're together" for this assignment.

Sgt. Shephard and Airman Shephard have found that their greatest pleasure while on deployment is meeting for breakfast on Cory's day off. His father works days and he works nights, so the breakfast meeting gives them both a chance to catch up with one another's lives. Each shares a passion for restoring old cars; Sgt. Shephard has a 1967 Chevrolet Impala while Airman Shephard has a 1990 Chevrolet 454 Super Sport truck. Cory uses the mechanics skills he learned from his father to work together to restore a 1972 Chevrolet Nova Super Sport. Their breakfast conversation often revolves around the combined restoration projects and their families back in Kentucky.

Sgt. Shephard is proud of the deployment work the maintenance unit does to get the C-130 Hercules aircraft "off the ground and to keep maintenance rates up," while Airman Shephard finds that being deployed together and with fellow guardsmen from Kentucky makes their deployment "seem like any other work day back home."

Father and son each agree that the hardest part of deployment is missing the youngest member of the Shephard family. Airman Shephard has a two-month old son and both father and grandfather worry that he will not remember either of them when they return.

"I would encourage my son to join the military when he is old enough and to follow in both mine and my father's footsteps", says proud father, Airman Shephard. The military family tradition may continue into another generation as it has been for this father and son deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.