Soldier send-off at Mokena school a class act
BY GINGER BRASHINGER Correspondent February 10, 2012 4:58PM
Students and teachers line the hallways to send off U.S. Army SPC Robert Bick; his wife, Rebecca, and daughters Kiera, 1, and Hannah after his surprise visit to Hannah's first-grade classroom at Mokena Elementary in Mokena, Illinois, Friday, February, 10, 2012. Bick is being deployed this weekend. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 13, 2012 10:32AM
Hannah Bick had a morning to remember Friday when her father made a surprise visit to her first-grade class at Mokena Elementary School.
But by the time students finished giving Army National Guard Spc. Robert Bick an emotional send-off for his upcoming deployment to Kuwait, he was the one who was surprised.
“I thought this was amazing,” Bick said. “I wasn’t expecting anything like this at all.”
The send-off was capped with all 750 MES students, teachers and staff forming a flag line and chanting “ U-S-A” as the Bicks made their way to the parking lot.
Bick, who leaves Monday for Kuwait, joined Hannah, 7, and her classmates in Marilyn Paez’s first-grade class to begin his special goodbye. After smiles and hugs all around, Bick answered first-graders’ questions as Hannah’s mother, Rebecca, and her sister, Kiera, 1, waited nearby.
Everything from “My dad is the strongest” to “What if Army people die?” came from the students as Bick answered a stream of questions.
In answer to “Why did you join the Army?” Bick said he wants to be in the medical field, and enlisting was a way to get the necessary education. He said he will work as a paramedic in Kuwait and return to the United States in nine months as an Army nurse. He said he intends to make the Army his career.
“I’m over there just in case someone gets hurt,” Bick said.
Bick told the children this will be his first time leaving the United States but that he has “been to almost every state.”
Hannah helped her dad answer questions, explaining to classmates that when soldiers die, they are returned to the United States “so people can say their goodbyes.”
Her own goodbye changed from smiles to tears as she and her family walked the halls of the school during the flag line and chanting en route to the parking lot.
The family planned to spend the weekend in downstate Galesburg, where they were to be joined by Bick’s mother, Linda Hermosillo, of New Lenox, and Bick’s brothers and sisters.
His deployment will mark the longest separation from his family in his 31/2 years of enlistment.
Asked how Hannah is holding up, Rebecca said: “Hannah has her moments. She’s sad a lot and she misses him, but she doesn’t understand the true concept. The longest he’s been gone is a month and a half.”
Bick said he already has arranged to visit for the birth of the couple’s third daughter, expected in June.
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