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DOUBLE DUTY

Physics and forensics teacher Kyle Parkhill returned from deployment in Qatar and plans to be deployed again in the future.

November 10, 2016

Kyle Parkhill goes from teaching his physics students to being sergeant of his maintenance team.
Kyle Parkhill
Kyle Parkhill goes from teaching his physics students to being sergeant of his maintenance team.

Grading papers, interacting with students and lecturing about gravitational pull or net force may be an accurate job description for physics and forensics teacher Kyle Parkhill during the week, but on weekends he maintains military aircraft and learns how to fix jets.

Parkhill is a crew chief for the National Guard, and this summer he returned from a two-month deployment to Qatar.

After the war in Afghanistan and Iraq winded down, military troops were withdrawn from the area because a large military presence was not necessary. So, the National Guard picked up much of the responsibilities in the Middle East.

Parkhill left early April of last year to do his part in serving his country. For the first part of his deployment, Parkhill spent his time behind a desk tracking maintenance issues with U.S. aircrafts. He admits this was not the highlight of his deployment, but after about a month of this he was able to go out and do what he had been training to do: go outside and fix the jets.

Both of these jobs were during the night, so it was hard for Parkhill to adjust.

“It was a 12 hour shift. We got off at around 11 a.m. the next day… It was really hard trying to get used to sleeping during the day because even though I had put some stuff over the windows… you still knew it was daytime, so I was not very good about sleeping [during this time],” Parkhill said.

However, there was a benefit to working night shifts. Qatar could reach temperatures up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. At night, it was much more comfortable. Plus, he got the opportunity to sleep in most days.

Completing his assigned duties were not difficult, and he at no point felt threatened or was in any sort of danger.

“Where I went to get deployed was like going to camp compared to where most people get deployed. It was very nice compared to sleeping in a tent in the middle of the desert, so it really was not overwhelming… I can’t complain,” Parkhill said.

His base provided him with cooked meals, air conditioned buildings and even access to Wi-Fi. It also gave Parkhill the chance to get to know people outside of the United States.

A lot of the employers at Parkhill’s base were from other countries, so Parkhill had the opportunity to interact with people from all over the world. Moreover, once a week he had a day off, and sometimes he had the chance to go off-base and interact with some of the locals. Parkhill had the opportunity to meet one local in particular more than once.

“There was one guy that we would talk to when we would go downtown… He was super nice, and if you would walk into his shop he would run to go get you a Coca-Cola and bring it to you… Just this really nice guy,” Parkhill said.

An average day off for Parkhill included him sleeping in, doing some laundry when he woke up, texting his wife back home, shopping and watching Netflix.

One of the hardest parts about his deployment was the separation from his wife and the limited communication between them. Their schedules were both busy, and with the time zone difference it made it even more difficult to talk to one another.

“I would send text messages [to her] everyday, or emails… so we would text back and forth every day, but we would not necessarily be awake at the same time. It was usually a couple times a week when we were awake at the same time,” Parkhill said.

As his two months came to an end, Parkhill looked forward to his return home and to the moment when he would step off the plane onto American soil.

He enjoyed being able to reunite with his wife, sleep in his own bed and to “eat the food that [he] was used to eating.” Parkhill also looked forward to being able to teach his students again at Central. Last year he was unable to see his seniors graduate, so this year he will look forward to being able to teach his students throughout the full school year.

“It’s good to be able to be back at Central and teaching physics and forensics… It’s nice to be able to interact with people who are excited to learn,” Parkhill said.

As for Parkhill’s future regarding his military involvement, he plans to continue to work at his Bellevue base on the weekends and is preparing for another deployment in the future. He explains the National Guard is upping the tempo for deployments, so he expects to be deployed again in one of the upcoming summers.

Parkhill realizes his deployment to Qatar went very smoothly, and all in all, there was no aspect of the deployment that resulted in him feeling unsafe or longing to return home.

“It was a nice deployment,” Parkhill said. “It’s not that I enjoyed it, but again, compared to what some other people have to go through, for me, it was not bad at all.”

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