Single mom, deployed from Pope, flies through medevac deployment

Published Aug. 18, 2010
By Staff Sgt. Kali L. Gradishar
U.S. Air Forces Central Combat Camera Team

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq -- Fathers, sons, mothers and daughters serve in the U.S. Air Force in a number of different specialties throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. For varied periods of time, typically ranging from four months to one year, military families are separated during deployments that come with wear of the Air Force uniform.

For Senior Airman Nicole Caldwell, 332nd Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight aeromedical evacuation technician, her first deployment is opening her eyes to the role model she is becoming for her children.

After only 23 months in the Air Force, most of that spent in upgrade training, Airman Caldwell travels throughout Iraq with a medical crew picking up Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines in need of transport to a medical facility. As the single mother of two girls, she noticed her daughters have found reason to look up to their mother for the impact she's making in other people's lives.

"My kids love the fact that I'm doing something that they consider great," said the senior airman, deployed from the 36th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Pope Air Force Base, N.C. "It's very exciting to work as a newly qualified aeromedical evacuation technician... (My daughters) talk about what I do to other friends all the time.

"They are actually very honored," she said of her 9- and 11-year-old daughters.

While being a deployed mother means spending less time with her children, Airman Caldwell finds time to talk with her girls as often as possible to check in on things at home and share some of her experiences.

"It's hard (being a deployed single mother, but) I try to 'Skype' with my girls almost every day. They think it's awesome to see me in the little TV," said Airman Caldwell.

And to help her children understand more about what it is their mother is doing across the Atlantic Ocean, teachers at the school Airman Caldwell's children attend talk with students about Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.

"I talked to their teachers (at the local school) before I deployed, and their teachers talk to them about it -- about what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan," said the 28-year-old mother. "So for them it's great that they can say that their mother is a part of something like that.

"I (also) send them different things -- coins, patches, pictures -- so they get to share that at school, and they love it," she added. "It's challenging, but they keep busy and active. That helps keep them from missing me too much."

Flying throughout the AOR and bringing patients to Joint Base Balad from all over Iraq, Airman Caldwell has seen servicemembers with a variety of injuries and ailments - from patients who sustained injuries from an improvised explosive device to psychiatric patients.

It's difficult at times to see people in such a state, but "it's something you just accept as part of your job," the senior airman said. And the satisfaction that comes from not only facilitating patient transfer to medical care, but also from seeing her children proud of what she does.

"It makes me feel really proud (and) makes me love doing this even more - that I've become a role model for my children," Airman Caldwell said.