Photo By Maj. Daniel Parker | Sgt. David Tinkorang, a culinary specialist assigned to Company D., 141st Military...... read more read more
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ACCRA, Ghana - No distance is too far to travel to make the connection of a lifetime.
Sgt. David Tinkorang found himself supporting United Accord 2018 at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre here only to realize that he had the chance to reconnect with his family through mere happenstance.
For the first 22 years of his life, Tinkorang grew up in Akosombo, Ghana, about an hour’s drive from the capital city of Accra.
A day in Ghana will quickly reveal all the creative ways these hard working people make a living. A taxi ride anywhere in the city limits will show Ghanaians carrying the most random items on their heads.
From this location - literally a person’s head - they sell eggs, homemade food, ice, sunglasses, trinkets and countless other products to passers-by.
Although this may seem strange to the average American Soldier, Tinkorang was home again, and he was in his element.
Although he is a culinary specialist, he was in Accra to serve as an interpreter of French and the local dialect, Akan. A member of the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade (Linguist) in the Utah Army National Guard, Tinkorang brought a unique skill set to support U.S. Army Africa’s United Accord 2018, July 16 to 31, 2018.
He is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center where he learned French.
Like so many Soldiers who did not grow up in the United States, Tinkorang left his home with the hope of becoming an American citizen.
Citizenship
He emigrated to the United States in 2008 and moved to Bountiful, Utah, and eventually graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU).
He spent his first two years at BYU - Idaho, where he met his wife over some leftover pizza.
“Both David and I were attending BYUI,” explained Christiana Tinkorang. “My friend and I went to buy a pizza, and on our way home we realized that a whole pizza was way too much for the two of us so we started asking other students on the street if they would like some. David and his roommates were walking towards us and we asked them if they wanted any.”
While Tinkorang politely declined any pizza, his roommates devoured it. Meanwhile, nearby he and Christiana struck up a conversation, and “before we knew it we were in love,” she said.
With Christiana in his corner, he earned two bachelor’s degrees in Nursing and Healthcare Administration, but he knew something critical was missing -- U.S. citizenship.
His quest began in February 2013 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard, placing himself on the path to American citizenship.
At first blush, Christiana said she was unsure about his enlistment.
“I was nervous at first,” said Christiana. “We had our first child [Jaden] at the time, and I was worried that he would be deployed, and I would be alone to raise our kids for long periods of time. But David’s service in the National Guard has been a great blessing.”
Tinkorang said he knew that service meant the possibility of American citizenship, and that dream became a reality after he graduated from basic combat training.
“We were in formation, and when the battalion commander was speaking, he mentioned my name,” Tinkorang said. “I was excited, and I wanted to jump and say, ‘YES! Finally, I became a citizen.’”
Christiana shared in his accomplishment, too.
“We are proud to be American, and we are proud to serve our country as a family,” she said. “David works very hard to take care of our family, and we are thankful that the Army has provided him with a way to do so.”
As a citizen-Soldier, Tinkorang had achieved so much, and it seemed nothing could dampen the mood.
But life found a way to test him.
Tragedy Strikes
While Tinkorang was away from home at annual training in 2015, on the day he was due to return home, the notification came.
“I was in Louisiana doing annual training with the military,” Tinkorang said. “I wasn’t even home.”
Christiana and the couple's two children, Jaden and Levi, were visiting her parents in Newport, Oregon, when 15-month-old son Levi drowned in a fish pond.
Jaden took the loss especially hard and tried to accept some of the blame.
“He doesn’t like to see ambulances because when it happened, and my wife pulled my son out of the water, the [EMTs] did CPR on him,” Tinkorang said solemnly. “He has an attachment to ambulances. Every time he sees an ambulance, he thinks his brother is in that ambulance.”
But he and his family persevered.
“My unit was so helpful,” Tinkorang said. “They bought a plane ticket for me to go to Oregon to check on my family.”
Thousands of miles away in Ghana, his family showed him as much support as they could.
“I felt the support from every one of them,” Tinkorang said. “There was a time when my phone was on fire. It was buzzin’.”
The distance simply did not stop his family in Ghana from doing their best to support him.
“Because of the distance, they would rely on me for more information,” he said. “'How can we help you?'”
Two years later, he found himself supporting an exercise that would reconnect him with that same supportive family.
Coming home
“Traveling to Ghana can be quite expensive, so I was very thankful that the Army was willing to take him to Ghana, so that he could do his work there as well as see his mother,” said Christiana.
And so the National Guard sent him back home where he celebrated a family tradition of military service and duty to one’s country.
Tinkorang’s mother has twin brothers, but having not seen them since he was three, he has no memory of his uncles from his time living in Ghana.
Even so, Tinkorang was ecstatic when he met one of his uncles again.
His uncle, Jackson Asem, a Ghanaian Army colonel, currently serves as an instructor at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and General Staff College.
It was as if the years of physical separation were meant to test his family’s devotion to one another - a test his family could never fail.
“The funny part of it is that I know his twin brother. He was more involved when it comes to the politics in the community,” Tinkorang reminisced. “But I never knew his brother was in the Ghanaian Army.”
You might say that military service is an invisible familial connection that drives him to serve his country, whichever country that may be.
“It doesn’t matter which military,” Tinkorang said. “but we serve in one of them.”
Mission first
Many people who have been separated from their family would want to immediately make plans to reconnect.
Not Tinkorang.
“I’m hoping to meet them,” Tinkorang said at the start of the exercise. “If it doesn’t happen, my mom will understand. Before I came here, I told my mom ‘I am coming here for a mission, so if you don’t see me I don’t want you to be upset about it.’”
But his uncle came through for him.
While serving as a translator for Ghanaian and French-speaking participants during the command post exercise portion of United Accord 2018 at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Asem brought Tinkorang’s mother, Joana Tinkorang, to him where they reunited for the first time in five years.
“It was good,” he said. “It felt good to be home again.”
Tinkorang still has a large, loving family in Ghana. His parents, his three uncles, his sister, nieces and nephews all live here.
In the 10 years since coming to the United States, it was only fitting for the National Guard to send him back home for such an unique opportunity to strengthen his family ties while also serving his country.
Tinkorang said his next move is to transition to become a cryptologic linguist.
“David loves being in the Army and plans to stay in the Army,” said Christiana. “He has been working hard to start his career and is working through the Army to get to where he wants to be.”
No matter where he ends up, he will do it with the support of his family - both American and Ghanaian - near and far.
| Date Taken: | 07.29.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.17.2018 12:15 |
| Story ID: | 286189 |
| Location: | ACCRA, GH |
| Hometown: | ACCRA, GH |
| Hometown: | EAGLE MOUNTAIN, UTAH, US |
| Hometown: | NEWPORT, OREGON, US |
| Hometown: | SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, US |
| Web Views: | 534 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Home Again: Ghanaian-American Soldier reunites with family through unlikely circumstances, by MAJ Daniel Parker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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