Home from Kuwait, Disher appreciates routine

In June, Disher returned from a six-month Air National Guard deployment in Kuwait with the Madison-based 115th Fighter Wing Security Forces Squadron. He led more than a dozen troops, who were a part of a larger security detail for a forward base from which the Air Force launched air attacks during the Iraq war.

He’s also one of the dozens of students, faculty and staff in the UW–Madison community activated for armed forces duty as a result of Operation Enduring Freedom.

“Since I’ve been home, I think I have a little more appreciation for the mundane, and for having a good job here on campus,” says Disher, who carries the military rank of senior master sergeant.

A Poynette native and UW–Madison graduate, Disher joined the Air National Guard in 1982 to help repay his student loans. Upon graduation, he joined UWPD as a security officer, and continued to take part in monthly and summer obligations.

Disher’s unit, equivalent to the Army’s military police, was called to active duty on Sept. 12, 2001, and he spent three months deployed in Bahrain in 2002.

Throughout the early part of his Kuwait deployment, it became apparent that the military was planning for war, judging by the number of people and amount of equipment moving through the base, Disher says. The base, which Disher is prohibited from naming, grew to the size of a small city as air strikes officially began in March.

To learn about events leading up to the start of fighting, Disher says, his unit relied on CNN and Fox News Channel coverage.

Although members of the unit may have had opposing views of the necessity of the war, those issues were largely put aside.

“People had differing political views, but it wasn’t discussed a whole lot,” he says, declining to discuss his own views. “Everyone was pretty focused on the mission.”

Although his unit never moved over the border into Iraq, security issues were prevalent, ranging from the threat of infiltrators to fratricide incidents. Patrols around the desert perimeter would turn up weapons or rocket launchers, which caused some alarm.

However, the “scariest” part of the experience was the dozen or so missiles Iraq lobbed into Kuwait during the first few weeks of fighting.

Although Patriot missile batteries protected the area, each time an incoming missile was spotted, the entire base would scramble to suit up in full protective gear and move inside bunkers. At that point, no one was sure whether the Iraqis would use chemical weapons, he says.

As the major ground fighting wound down, many of the units stationed at the base moved north to occupy Iraq, but personnel from the 115th were rotated back to the United States.

Disher says watching the human toll on his fellow troops — missing spouses, births, funerals and family milestones — was the most difficult part of the duty.

“People have relatives that pass away, and in most cases, you can’t send them home to be with their families,” he says. “I think it’s hardest on the Guard and Reserves, because people have other responsibilities. Full-time Air Force (personnel) are better prepared emotionally.”

The Kuwait deployment was especially difficult because it lasted three months longer than initially planned, which made for an additional hardship for the unit. But Disher and his wife back in Madison kept in fairly close contact by e-mail and occasionally, phone calls home.

Back on campus, Disher is happy to be carrying out his primary duties on the second shift, which include locking buildings, patrolling campus routes, checking out fire alarms and providing security at the Elvehjem Museum of Art.

Security officers, an arm of the UWPD, are resident experts regarding building layouts and methods for resetting alarms. They also look for safety hazards, suspicious persons, fire or floods.

Including Disher, four campus police or security officers were called up to active duty, though not all were deployed overseas. Disher says National Guard duty can take a toll on employers, as well as families.

“When you’re operating a small-to-medium-sized organization, it doesn’t take too many people being gone to upset the apple cart,” says UWPD Assistant Chief Dale Burke, noting that deployments often force changes in schedules and staffing. “But the pain that we go through at this end is nothing compared with what they’re doing, having their lives turned upside-down.

“Everyone here just digs a little deeper, and we survive,” he says, adding that returning officers bring experience that is often useful in training other officers and applicable to campus efforts to tighten security.

Disher says he plans to stay with his unit, but he’s not sure if he’s interested in future overseas duty.

“The thing I’m happiest about is that everyone came back, and I thank God for that every day,” he says.