The Metropolitan Online - March 2005 - Student Spotlight: Ryan Pomeroy

Ryan Pomeroy shares his memories hesitatingly. Today he is a student, living comfortably with his wife and their pet pug in their St. Paul home. But three times in the past two years, Pomeroy has been called away from that home to serve his country. While working as a member of the Air Force Reserve’s 96th Airlift Squadron (The Flying Vikings), on the flight crew of a C-130, he has been part of a war that most of us have experienced only through pictures and words sent from a world away.

While stationed in Iraq, Pomeroy and his crew were primarily responsible for flying celebrities, politicians and more importantly, military, in and out of hot spots like Baghdad. They also carried Iraqi police volunteers to Jordan for training. Pomeroy knew volunteers faced a dangerous future. He explains, “They knew what they were in for. You have to respect that…they were optimistic about the future.”

The Flying Vikings flew their C-130s into dangerous regions constantly. Pomeroy endured many false alarms set off by the missile warning system on his aircraft. The C-130 will sound an alarm and shoot flares out of the wings when it detects the possibility of an incoming missile. Pomeroy explains, “It could be nothing that sets it off, or it could be a missile—for a split second you just don’t know.” A British C-130 crashed and the flight crew was killed while flying a route that Ryan’s crew flew frequently. The news was surreal for Pomeroy. Unafraid to face the truth, he says, “That could’ve happened to all of us.”

While he was stationed in Iraq, Pomeroy just focused on what he had to do and not where he fit into the scheme and strategy of war. He reflects deeply on people he transported but who are no longer here to tell their own stories. He recalls, “Sometimes I would sit there when there was nothing to do, and the plane was packed with people…I would look at the faces of all those young soldiers, and think, ‘this might be their last time in an airplane until they are in a box.’”

Before the country went to war, Pomeroy was fully in favor of what was inevitably to come; he felt it was the right thing to do. He admits that he thought it would be a short-lived ordeal and that we would be in and out like the previous war in Iraq.

Being part of the war never caused Pomeroy to question its validity. Returning home during the presidential campaigns amid the nonstop media coverage, however, caused some doubt to enter his thoughts. He finds it difficult to reconcile the difference between the politics of war and the real-life experience of it.

There is a personal story that goes along with each and every service member’s tale of bravery and commitment. Prior to deployment, Pomeroy and his wife, Heather, had just bought a house in St. Paul and adopted a pug puppy named Homer. Speaking plainly, “It sucks,” he says. “It got harder each time.”

He confesses that a deployment is much harder on the ones left behind than the ones deployed. He has seen friends’ marriages collapse under the strain of a deployment. Pomeroy considers himself lucky—his marriage is still strong.

Pomeroy is all too aware that when two years of life is consumed by preparing for, being in, and returning from a war, it takes a mental toll, and can affect the direction in one’s life. “I’d say it has affected me. I don’t want to be doing this when I am fifty.” Pomeroy pauses. “But it is hard to say how I’d feel if this didn’t happen.” He is currently working towards a degree in Aviation Management at Metropolitan State University.

Pomeroy doesn’t want sympathy, he knows there are people who gave more and put themselves in much more danger. And he doesn’t want this experience to define him, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to omit it from his life’s résumé. “I don’t regret it…I feel proud of what I did. I met a lot of great people doing great things for their country just because they were asked to.”

The Metropolitan Home || Calendar || Masthead || Contact
Metropolitan State University Homepage