By Mike Barton
Public Affairs Specialist

It’s late Friday afternoon and Ron Cherry is hard at work. His desk is stacked with paper and his computer is running at top speed as he wades through another fuel controls project. It’s getting quieter around him; the phones are ringing less often, traffic in the narrow aisleways is slowing down. While others around the depot mentally gear up for the weekend, Cherry plugs along, oblivious to the ticking clock on the wall. It’s probably not intentional – it’s just that, not long ago, Cherry worked in a place where the clock had little meaning to him and those around him. Time was measured more by the calendar than by a clock.

Cherry is an industrial engineering technician in the Engines and Accessories Section of the Industrial Engineering Division at Naval Air Depot Cherry Point, N.C. A depot employee for nearly 30 years, he has worked in this part of the NADEP for almost 22. But a lot has happened in the last couple of years. He’s got some catching up to do.

For the last two years, Cherry’s desk chair here has been empty. Instead, he was filling the billet of another man, one known as Staff Sgt. Cherry, a squad leader in the 514th Military Police Company, an Army National Guard unit most recently headquartered in Winterville, N.C.

With the state of affairs in the Middle East, Cherry was not surprised when he was ordered to report to Fort Bragg in December 2002. His company would begin its tour by providing law enforcement patrols and access control at the gates of the huge Army base, filling the gap left by other deployed military police. Fridays were pretty much the same as any other day to Cherry and his fellow MPs, because their shifts rotated to fill a tight schedule.

When Cherry’s unit neared the end of its tour, its soldiers were faced with a difficult choice. They could stand down from active duty and return home – with the knowledge that they would be called back within a year to complete their two-out-of-six-year active duty obligation. Or they could volunteer to step right into their second tour and get it over with. Staying would also mean that they would deploy overseas. They chose to stick it out, rather than go through the difficult transition to and from “civilian” life again. So in October of last year, the unit headed for Fort Stewart, Ga., to begin preparation for deployment. In January, they transferred to Germany to train in climate and terrain conditions similar to their ultimate destination, Kosovo.

Working with United Nations forces presented new challenges. “Germany provided us with a unique opportunity to adjust to the difficulties of working with translators,” says Cherry. In Kosovo, the need for that training was immediately apparent. “We were the law, but we were in the process of turning the mission over to the Kosovo Police Service.” That also included training other coalition forces, such as Greek, Polish and Ukrainian troops, in non-lethal weapons for police operations and riot control.

Given all that, it would be unfair to assume Cherry didn’t think much about the industrial facility that rebuilds helicopters and other aircraft on a Marine Corps air station in far off eastern North Carolina. He couldn’t help but think of the NADEP, and hope that the employees here were working as if they had sons or daughters who depend on these aircraft. His own son has been riding in some of these aircraft for nearly four years.

Cherry returned to the depot in October, back to a lifestyle that he hadn’t seen in a long time. Some of it is the same, some of it has changed – like the newer computerized system that he now must adjust to. He still provides support for the Fuel Controls and Fuel Accessories shops. Again, he coordinates logistics and handles operations documents. And although he also performs time studies, he hasn’t quite got back in the habit of watching the clock on Friday afternoon. If it wasn’t for the sudden exodus of his fellow employees at quitting time every weekday, he might not immediately notice it’s time for him to go home ... so he can get back to work on that gigantic honey-do list.

He has some catching up to do at home too.

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Cutline: Ron Cherry, an industrial engineering technician, has a lot of catching up to do. He just recently returned from two years of active duty with the Army National Guard, serving in North Carolina and in Kosovo. (Photo by Mike Barton)