Veteran Spotlight on Tom Boge
posted on Friday, June 3, 2022
Recognizing longtime employee and veteran Tom Boge. He served 20 years in Company B, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, part of the Iowa National Guard’s 34th Infantry “Red Bulls” Division. Tom was deployed overseas four times during his 20-year military service.
Tom joined the Iowa Army National Guard in 1992 and attended basic training in the summer of 1993 at Fort Benning in Georgia. He was deployed to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and 22 months in Iraq.
“It’s a different world over there [serving overseas],” Tom says. “When you return to the United States, you have to mentally put all that away and shift back to home life.”
As expected, Tom says being away from his family (wife Robi; sons Logan and Caleb) is the hardest part of serving overseas. Logan was born while Tom was in Iraq, and he says that was a tough thing to experience.
How did the family stay connected during those overseas tours? Satellite, instant messaging; Skype if it worked. “We’d try to connect once a week. Tom says that technology was spotty at times and frustrating, but we made it work.
He still gives his wife, Robi, all the credit to this day. “She’s the backbone of our family and has done a tremendous job with Logan and Caleb. So much so that it was challenging to come home and figure out how to be a part of the family routine that had been established without me. I’d tell myself to start small. Start by going out and mowing the lawn. Then figure out the next way to help out.”
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