Following Dad's Footsteps To Iraq
(June 26, 2010) |
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Senior Master Sgt. CJ Slifko points out a fuel leak on a Humvee to his son, Airman 1st Class Ryan Slifko, June 19, 2010, at Sather Air Base, Iraq. Airman Slifko joined the Air Force, went into the same career field, and deployed to the same unit as his father. Sergeant Slifko is the vehicle fleet manager for the 447th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron. Airman Slifko is a vehicle mechanic with the 447th ELRS. U.S. Air Force photo
by Senior Airman Perry Aston |
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SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq
(6/23/2010 - AFNS) -- A father and son are both
deployed here as vehicle mechanics.
Senior Master Sgt. CJ Slifko, the vehicle fleet
manager for the 447th Expeditionary Logistics
Readiness Squadron, said he had a tough decision
to make toward the end of his six month tour:
whether to approve a waiver on the deployment of
his 3-level son, Airman 1st Class Ryan Slifko, a
vehicle mechanic, to Iraq.
"For whatever reason, (the primary person
couldn't come) I got an e-mail from Whiteman
(Air Force Base, Mo.) asking for a waiver on a
3-level," Sergeant Slifko said. "The very last
name on there was for my son. It was probably
the hardest e-mail I got to answer while I was
here, having to approve or disapprove whether or
not he could come."
Sergeant Slifko turned to the paperwork to
decide |
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whether Airman Slifko should deploy. |
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"I had 3-levels on the deployment I'm on," the sergeant
said. "I pretty much took their records and what their
supervision said and laid that next to what his supervision
said, and left it strictly at that, and gave my
recommendation to my commander."
Six weeks later, Airman Slifko was on his way to his first
deployment. He was met by his Dad at the military passenger
terminal here.
"It was a good thing and a bad thing ... everybody knows my
Dad is here, knows we're father and son, so I'm going to get
picked on about it." Airman Slifko said. "I guess it's a
good thing because it's a deployed location so it's kind of
nice having someone over here right now."
Sergeant Slifko said he had the same thoughts on meeting his
son here, especially on the ribbing he will surely get.
He said he was even approved to stay a few extra weeks to
see his son get in.
"I think there's probably some good and bad to that
actually," he said. "I was really hesitant about even
staying. Just because he is a young Airman, it is his first
deployment and I didn't want him to have to listen to, 'your
Dad this, and your Dad that' for the entire deployment. But
by the same token, I'm glad I got to see him. I'm looking
forward to maybe spending a couple hours with him before I
get on the plane out of here, when we're both off duty."
Airman Slifko grew up working on cars with his Dad, and he
even got a car before he could drive it. When he was 11
years old, he spotted the car for one of his Dad's friends.
"My friend went out and bought it," Sergeant Slifko said.
"Ryan had been in love with it ever since. When he turned
14, he actually saved enough money to buy the car back. He's
done everything on it himself with a little bit of help."
"We've actually done all of it together," Airman Slifko
said. "First thing we did was replace the roof on it. It was
rusted pretty bad, so we cut the whole roof off of it and
put a new roof on it. We went out and bought another car,
cut the roof off of that one and put it on there. We also
put a new engine in it."
Airman Slifko likes working on his personal car because it
gives him the opportunity to get his creative juices
flowing, where in his job he has to stick to the technical
order and everything has to go back to the way it was.
"You never know what happens there, and you can kind of do
what you want to it," he said. "If you don't like it, scrap
it, do it over again. It's not like here, where everything's
got to be back how it was. It's kind of nice to be able to
do things your own way."
Doing things his own way on cars with his Dad was something
he loved, and with the combination of his whole family being
in the military, a bad economy and no luck finding a job,
Airman Slifko turned to the Air Force and lucked into his
father's career field.
"(It was) sheer luck," Sergeant Slifko said. "When he went
to the recruiter, he actually tried to get this job
guaranteed and it didn't work out. He ended up going in open
mechanical, and he was sure he was going to get it. Sure as
anything, four out of the five jobs, I think that they
offered him, ended up being in this career field. So he got
what he wanted."
Airmen Slifko did get what he wanted, which may turn out to
be more than something to get by with until the economy
picks up. He plans on making a career of the Air Force and
he aims to pass his Dad, who hopes to make chief and stay in
a little longer.
"I'm very proud of him in every way," Sergeant Slifko said.
"It's kind of tough. I have a lot of respect for the fact
that he's doing it. It's hard enough to be in our career
field. And it has to be really hard on him to have a dad
that's a senior that he has to follow around everywhere he
goes, but I'm very proud of him." |
By USAF SSgt. Sanjay Allen
U.S. Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs
Copyright 2010 |
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Reprinted from
Air Force News
Service
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