- 16 September, 2005 -

Flying into Long Beach it wasn't a hot shower, a football game or a cold beer that Navy Reserve E-7 Chief Petty Officer Kevin Young sought first. It was an It's a Grind's ice blended mocha, the thing he'd missed most while serving in the Middle East. Young's wife and two children were happy to oblige his request despite the resultant half-hour delay in getting to the surprise party thrown on Sept. 8 at his Heather Rd. home. The 40 or so family members and church brethren awaiting his arrival managed to give Young quite a surprise holding up signs reading "Welcome Home, Kevin." Young was pleased. "It's a wonderful party and a total surprise. I was extremely happy to see all my friends from the church, and my family." Young has lived 20 of his 25 years as a reservist in Long Beach. The 43-year-old's age wasn't unusual in the group of reservists assigned to a "34-foot craft [responsible for] patrolling the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the Navy reserves you tend to get older guys. Several people there were older than me and a few were in their late 20s or early 30s." Some in the unit were novices when it came to boats. "About 50 percent of the unit had never been on a boat before." When asked how he felt about being called out to duty, Young maintains that "it was not a surprise. I pretty much knew this was coming. They'll call you in during your drill weekend and tell you ‘you've got a week-pack up.' I was in Newport, Rhode Island for two months helping with training the new guys in the unit [before continuing on to the Middle East]." Young was gone for a total of 11 months, but says he will not be called back, as he plans to retire from the reserves March 2006. Young perceives a need for more military. "We are now being used for more things than in the past. Some people forget that we still have the Army and Marines in Afghanistan, along with Coast Guard and Air Force, too." In the UAE, their unit was stationed 500 miles from Iraq, where he says "the whole area is susceptible to terrorist attack, but since the Cole was attacked, security has been tightened and nothing gets close without prior approval." Young is unable to talk too specifically about the assignment, however. The officer did sustain a fairly serious injury. "I tore two ligaments in my knee when I was hit by a wave from a bigger ship. The Navy doctor said I might not get to run again and might have to get knee replacement surgery." This wasn't Young's first time serving abroad. "It's the third time I've gotten called up. I was in Kuwait and in Saudi Arabia in 1990 and '91." Commenting on how his various deployments differed, Young says, "In Kuwait, I felt very welcome. In the UAE, I couldn't read [the people], and we didn't get involved with them at all." While their boats were at a base, the unit lived in an apartment in a town. Some cultural observations Young made were that in the UAE, lamb is eaten heavily while no pork products are available. Alcohol is not prohibited, and they have Taco Bell, Chili's and other fast food franchises. "A number of people were driving Ford Expeditions and Chevy Suburbans, but no Hummers." Many of the people Young dealt with were from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, or the Philippines. "Other than the same old clich s, it's given me a new understanding of what's important," he says. "How much they do and how little money they earn makes it clear that some of the extra things we have aren't all that important." Young says his family "handled it very well" when asked how they coped with his absence. His son and daughter, currently 11 and 14 respectively, had been through his second time being mobilized. Young expressed some of the things involved in transitioning from the military to the civilian world. "When I saw my daughter, she looked like a woman. She has gotten much taller, and I wasn't ready for that," says Young. "It's a difficult thing for me to inject myself into the family. My wife was a single mother and had to do the things I was doing for a year and maybe she's not ready to give them up. There's also helping with my children's lessons and getting back into my routine at work." On his second day back, he found himself helping his daughter fold and deliver the Beachcomber. Stateside, Young is manager of the computer department of Long Beach Unified School District, where he has resumed his post, supervising 11 people. "When I left, I was supervising 16 employees. I had a very capable replacement, my old supervisor, who filled in. We kept in touch while I was gone." Young is happy to be home with his family and his church brethren, where he says his "brothers and sisters are awesome." Before he left, they had a potluck for him, and now this extended family has made him feel at home with a welcome home surprise party.

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