Photo By Spc. Douglas York | Capt. Aaren Hanson, a native of Lakeland, Minn., currently serving as the commander of...... read more read more
By Spc. Douglas York
MND-B PAO
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — With the football season quickly approaching, many service members here and elsewhere will be giving part of their weekend focus to how well their various universities or National Football League franchises play.
The leaves will begin to change back home, bratwurst will smoke on the grill and millions of fans will flock through the stadium gates every weekend to root on the home team in hopes of another gallant victory.
With that thought in mind, rewind to the year 1997. The scene is the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. The day is Saturday, November 8, and the home-standing University of Minnesota's Golden Gophers football team is squaring off against their Big Ten Conference rival Ohio State Buckeyes for the Gopher's homecoming weekend.
"I was in ROTC at the time and just randomly my friends were like, 'You should try to be homecoming queen,'" said Capt. Aaren Hanson, a native of Lakeland, Minn., currently serving as the commander of the unit command-post detachment for Company C, Division Special Troops Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. "I figured, well, you can't get very far if you don't try, so I gave it a shot."
After a 36-hour time frame where she had to speak and do various other activities to show her school spirit and pride, she then had to sit in front of a panel and answer several questions as to why she should be elected homecoming queen.
"The final decision was made by an interview where you sat there in front of a twelve person panel, kind of like going to the board," Hanson said, noting that she didn't learn the panel's final decision until she "passed the torch" to light the bonfire that same evening at the school's pep rally.
Flash forward now to the present: The scene is the vast expanse of the Arabian Peninsula and the city is Baghdad, the re-building capitol of Iraq. Hanson and the troops she commands are carrying out their daily mission of taking care of the 4th Inf. Div.'s tactical communications as well as the division's internet, voice, and data connectivity.
Tremendously different from her experiences as a college student and moreover as homecoming queen, it begs the question of how does one go from doing those things in college to being an Army officer and commanding Soldiers during the war on terrorism?
"I kept getting 'Mister' Aaren Hanson letters (early on in college) from all of the branches to come and join the ROTC, so I took them up on it the summer before I was picked for homecoming queen," Hanson said. "Along with the ROTC and being a resident assistant for the dorms, it (being the homecoming queen) was practice for where I am today," she added.
Though the experiences from those years helped prepare her for this time in her life, Hanson's service in the Army is vastly different from her experiences parading around the Metrodome and speaking in front of adoring fans or the warm receptions she received during the week she reigned as homecoming queen. Instead, Hanson now stands in front of her unit personnel and gives guidance on that day's missions.
"You didn't have any true power or tremendous influence; you're more of a figurehead," Hanson said of the homecoming queen experience. "Now being in front of Soldiers, the littlest things you do can make the greatest impact," she added, noting that things such as stopping and listening to what a Soldier has to say or even waving to them can really boost morale or make a Soldier's day.
"Capt. Hanson does an excellent job of mentoring and developing her soldiers," said Maj. Jane Sonak, a native of Humble, Texas, who serves as commander of Company C, DSTB, 4th Inf. Div. "She is mutually respected by her subordinates, peers and senior officers alike. If there's a tough mission, Capt. Hanson is called on to make it happen."
While the differences of reigning as a homecoming queen and serving as an Army officer are vast and wide, Hanson will always feel that her time in college, perhaps even as queen-for-a-week, has prepared her for the challenges she faces each day "making it happen" as an Army officer.
"Being a resident assistant was probably the best practice for being a platoon leader I've had. I was in charge of 70 freshman students and it was one of those baby-step kinds of things," Hanson said. "Did I honestly think that it would lead to this? No, I didn't think I was even going to stay in the Army beyond my four years, but right now I am planning out through at least the end of my 20-year career," she added.
Be that as it may, when she finds herself looking back on the whole college experience, especially those memories which she had during that homecoming week, they tend to make Hanson a little wistful she could relive those days.
"Short of being commissioned and graduating, it was probably the most exciting thing that happened to me in college," Hanson said. However, she quickly added that there is no greater honor than being selected to lead troops in combat.
Daily, Hanson and her troops overcome the many obstacles which their duty and the enemy present, and daily they look to the time when they can get back home to some sense of normality.
"This will sound cliché and weird because I'm supposed to be this big, bad commander in charge, and the Army isn't exactly the most feminine job that I could've picked, but I just want a kitchen. I want to cook. I even want to clean toilets," Hanson jokingly said. "I appreciate that it's all done for me here, but it is those simple things in life that when you don't have to do them, that's what you really miss," she added.
With that in mind and whatever the remaining challenges Hanson and her Ironhorse comrades face during their tour here, most, if not all of them, hope they serve well enough and safe enough to be able to enjoy the best collective homecoming they have ever had.
"It will probably be difficult for me to maintain my composure and I'll probably get ... OK, I'll cry," Hanson said with a laugh. "It's hard for me to maintain my bearing when I see (my family) though, because they tell me how proud they are of me and I get teary-eyed," she said, noting that while she'll be excited to be home, her family knows that wearing the uniform is what she wants to do.
No matter what time of year it is when the 4th Inf. Div. goes home or what sports season is upon them, when it is all said and done, the same feelings and sentiments Hanson feels are the very least that all service members deserve to feel when, as Kings and Queens for a day, they have a homecoming of their own.
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 07.26.2008 21:30 |
| Story ID: | 21866 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 172 |
| Downloads: | 68 |
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