Cheri Perkins Mantz, Catholic Herald Staff

WAUKESHA – When Sgt. First Class Craig Boehlke was deployed to Kuwait for 12 months with the Army National Guard, his wife Rebecca found solace in her faith and the community of St. William in Waukesha. With two small children, Ben, 7, and Mabelle, 3, Rebecca was open and honest when communicating with her children.

“We said prayers for him every night,” said Rebecca. “I talked to the adult ministry at our church for our son. It was hard for him to understand why his dad had to be gone. The teachers were very involved. They were able to watch out for him. The kids would cry at night and we’d talk about how God was watching out for Daddy.”

After three months preparing for deployment at Camp Shelby in Mississippi, Craig spent the next 12 months in Kuwait, missing the holidays, his children’s birthdays and the day-to-day life of his family.

“She couldn’t dress herself when I left and now she can,” Craig said of Mabelle. “It was hard being away during the holidays. They sent Christmas presents to me.”

Craig said he felt comforted by his Catholic faith and the chaplain based with the troops.

“It’s something there to rely on, the same as back home,” Craig said of his faith. He attended weekly Mass while deployed. “Being able to talk to the chaplain about personal issues my soldiers were having, that really helped.”

Rebecca said the community at St. William parish and school, where Ben is now in first grade, helped. Craig was mentioned in the parish bulletin prayer list.

“Sometimes a smiling face helped a lot,” she said explaining at times she welcomed inquiries about her well-being while she also appreciated the fact that people did not dwell on his absence.

“They’d let me know our son was doing OK. Last year, Ben’s teacher gave him some special attention. He was the only child at St. William with a father deployed at that time.

“I know there were a lot of people praying for us – the principal and teachers,” Rebecca said. “They’re a very warm family at that school.”

Rebecca said the family may have had one advantage, Rebecca works as a family assistance center liaison for military families, serving as a resource and referral for families going through deployment. Prior to this job, she was in charge of a family readiness group for Craig’s unit.

“She got to know a lot about the military,” Craig said of Rebecca’s job. “It makes it a lot easier for me, her understanding the military. When I had a soldier going through divorce or personal issues, I’d contact her and she’d refer them to help them work through it. Having that resource made it easier for me to help my soldiers.”

With Rebecca’s knowledge of deployment and the military, she said she could better answer her children’s questions and offer reassurance.

“We spent a lot of time talking about how important the work he was doing was,” she said. “It was the people over there who couldn’t help themselves and that’s why Daddy was there, to help them. He had other soldiers to protect him and it was Daddy’s job to protect them.”

The family also used a Web camera to stay connected. They purchased one shortly before Craig’s deployment and enjoyed seeing each other, rather than just talking on the phone. In the May 4 issue of your Catholic Herald, a photograph showed Ben talking to his father in Kuwait via Web cam in his St. William kindergarten classroom. The children, who had been writing to Craig, were able to see him in person and ask him questions.

“Kindergartners are always the toughest,” said Craig with a laugh. “Kindergartners don’t necessarily understand what they’re asking – ‘Did you shoot anyone?’ ‘Why are there wars?’- So they had difficult questions.”

When Craig returned from deployment this November, he stopped at the school and visited with the students, all of whom sent letters to Craig and his unit during deployment.

“The principal had told everyone at school that I’d be back and the kids made welcome home cards and I went around to all the classrooms and talked to the kids,” said Craig. “Every month or so, I’d get a bunch of cards for me and my soldiers.”

Now that he’s adjusting to being back in the states, Craig will begin his full time job with the Army National Guard in Madison. He said he will enjoy spending time with his family and having things “back to normal.”

This holiday season, the Boehlke family knows they have something special for which to be thankful – the family will be together this Christmas, unlike last year.

Craig said he’s thankful “just for being able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with the kids, having missed it last year. It’s nice to get caught up in what’s been going on in their lives.”

Perhaps 3-year-old Mabelle summed up the family’s feelings on having Daddy home.

“It’s good,” she said with a shy smile. When Rebecca mentioned that the family said a prayer for Craig every night while he was deployed, Mabelle remarked, “but now we don’t have to.”

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