Photo By Staff Sgt. Jessica Duncan | Senior Airmen Thomas and Cassandra Forsyth are newlyweds training at Camp Atterbury...... read more read more
By Sgt. Jessica Duncan,
Camp Atterbury Public Affairs
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. - Newlyweds Cassandra and Thomas Forsyth imagined they would be together through thick and thin, but what about through heat and sand?
Senior Airman Cassandra P. Forsyth of Long Beach, Calif., and husband Senior Airman Thomas G. Forsyth of Plum Boro, Pa., are Airmen with the 203rd Weather Flight out of Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa. They will deploy together to Iraq this winter with a Stryker Brigade, an Army combat team that has the capability to deploy anywhere in the world within 96 hours after liftoff.
The Forsyth's have the Air Force Specialty Code of Weather Observation & Forecasting, and in Iraq they will be forecasting the weather and briefing pilots on weather conditions.
Cassandra Forsyth said she appreciates the challenge of her Air Force specialty. As a weather technician, she's responsible for managing the collection, analysis, and forecasting of atmospheric and space weather conditions.
"I like science and it [weather] is intellectually challenging," she said.
The two met while they were stationed in Sembach, Germany, for 18 months and began dating the last six months they were there.
Cassandra Forsyth then left Germany to go to Combat Weather Team Operations school in Biloxi, Miss., at Kessler Air Force Base, a three-month long course. She left one month before Thomas Forsyth arrived for the same course. At CWTO they trained for the transition from a forecaster to an observer and briefer, which changes their skill level and identifies their higher qualification within the weather field.
After meeting up in North Carolina, the couple became engaged to be married. Cassandra then separated from the active duty military so she and Thomas could reenlist into the Air National Guard together. They said by doing this they could go to each duty station at the same time and they would have the same expiration term of service date.
Soon after becoming engaged, Thomas Forsyth was deployed for six months to Afghanistan. But before he left, Thomas and Cassandra agreed to keep connected through a "date night."
"We would watch the same movie at the same time and chat on instant messenger together," said Cassandra Forsyth.
When Thomas Forsyth returned home the two got married and less than a year after their wedding, he's packing his bags again. But this time around he's going voluntarily – and with his new wife.
"We both knew that Cassandra would be tasked because she had not been deployed so I volunteered to go", said Thomas Forsyth.
"Besides," he said, "the mission called for two weather technicians."
Both agreed that it will be easier to deploy together because they would be able to better support each other more there than they could if one or the other were still at home so far away. They also chose to extend their deployment for three months to match the Striker Brigades' nine month deployment and to prevent their unit from having to deploy two more Airmen.
"It's nice to show the Army that the Air Guard will match the deployment [with them], one team, one fight," said Thomas Forsyth.
During the training at Camp Atterbury the Forsyths agreed that Contingency Operation Location Warrior was the most helpful, useful and fun. They said that working with the Army has made them familiar with the rank structure and that will help them when they work with the Striker Brigade. Also they said they enjoyed the convoys and simulated mortars training because it helped keep them on their toes.
"This has been by far the best training I have been to, and I have been training with the Army for about two years," said Thomas Forsyth.
While overseas the Forsyth's said they intend to provide the best support possible to the unit and also to each other.
"We feel very fortunate and grateful for this opportunity," they said. "Not all people get to go to Iraq, let alone with someone they know and love," said Cassandra Forsyth.
| Date Taken: | 11.20.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 11.20.2008 15:43 |
| Story ID: | 26594 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 148 |
| Downloads: | 121 |
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