Multitasking

by SCOTT CASON photography by TREVER ROHN

In the 1960s the Ed Sullivan TV show introduced Americans to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and several wildly popular novelty acts including Eric Brenn, a plate spinner featured on the show an incredible eight times. Brenn’s act centered around keeping five glass bowls spinning atop four foot-long sticks while spinning eight plates on the table below the sticks. Much like juggling, Brenn’s talent for spinning is often referenced as a visual representation for the art of multitasking.

Jared Wickham can’t remember a time when he didn’t feel like he had multiple things spinning around him. A soccer and dance dad, Jared is also an IT pro with Midwest Energy. His work takes him to remote locations across Western Kansas nearly every week. Jared is also a U.S. Army veteran who deployed four times to the Middle East. While he served in Qatar, Afghanistan, Iraq, and East Africa supporting special forces unit medical operations, his wife, Jana, was multitasking at home raising their son, Jayten, and working and pursuing her college education full time. “When I deployed for the third time, she was a full-time student, a full-time mom, and a full-time employee at the bank. She’s the real star of the family,” Jared said.

Jared grew up in Hays, watching his mom and dad work multiple jobs, both to earn enough money to pay the bills but also because they were simply happier when they were busy multitasking. Jared’s dad, Danny Wickham, recently retired from his position with the City of Ellis. While working full-time, he liked to spend his evening and weekends tinkering around the house, repairing machines, and cutting grass. He still loves cutting grass. And the tract of land he likes cutting the most is at Cedar Bluff State Park southwest of Ellis. It’s his favorite because the grasslands are extensive, and when he gets done, he can grab his fishing pole and head for the reservoir. Jared’s mom, Kathy, has worked in hair salons for years. She now runs her own salon in Ellis. Over the years, she’s taken on other jobs including making pizzas at Casey’s, and recently cooking for the students at Ellis High School.

Jared got interested in joining the Army early in high school. He remembers reconnecting with recent graduates who returned home after enlisting in the Army. He admired their swagger and presence. They seemed supremely confident and physically fit. To Jared, they appeared transformed by the experience. And he wanted to be like them. So an underage Jared got his parents to sign a form that allowed him to enlist via the Army’s Delayed Enlistment Program.

While many of his friends were deciding where to go to college, Jared began his transition to military life. While still a “Newbie” in the Army’s Delayed Entry Program, he met Seth Kastle. The two became fast friends and have stayed close for more than 20 years. The two new Army privates went their separate ways for basic training but reunited at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for Army Advanced Individual Training in their field of medical logistics.

Jared and Seth joined the 388 Medical Logistics Battalion in Hays. In late summer of 2001 the two were detached to Fort Riley for armorer’s school, where they were learning to service and repair weapons. This is where they were on September 11, 2001, when the attacks on the World Trade Center began. The two knew immediately that they would soon deploy as the nation quickly mobilized to respond.

In an emotional family sendoff before their first Middle East deployment in January of 2002, Jared and Seth discovered that their moms had lived together in college but had lost touch after graduating. The two reconnected that day and have stayed close ever since. Throughout the years Jared served in the Army Reserve, his mom served as a kind of den mother for the soldiers of the 388th. They all knew they could find a place to stay and a warm bed at the Wickham house. Most of the time, Jared didn’t even know they were coming over. They tended to call Kathy first.

Four months after the events of September 11, Jared, Seth, and 20 other Army Reservists deployed to Qatar in the Persian Gulf. The team’s task upon arrival was to set up an extensive medical logistics hub in three Army tents at what was then known as Camp Snoopy.

Seth and Jared would each go on to deploy several more times but never again together. Whenever Jared returned home from deployment, he felt something was missing. He finally realized what it was at the wedding of another soldier. As he started to depart, Seth approached him, hugged him, and said simply, “I love you, brother.” What he found missing was his connection to the brotherhood that binds soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines together.

When Jared told Seth he was leaving the Army and planned to enroll at FHSU in 2012, Seth knew the kind of determination he would bring to his studies. Seth says his old “battle buddy” is the kind of person who is always working, constantly multitasking, one who “doesn’t halfway do anything.” He went on to say that he believes Jared approached the pursuit of his college degree as the next mission in his life’s work, something he needed to do for his family, and an example he wanted to set for his children.

Jared threw himself into his studies. Initially taking online classes, he started to attend on-campus classes at Seth’s urging. He quickly formed a bond with the FHSU Online community and later Transfer and Military Center staff, several of whom were military veterans like him. Jared began to feel the sense of brotherhood he remembered from his Army days. To create the strong personal connections he so valued during his years in the Army, Jared joined the FHSU Student Veterans Association. He went on to become the organization’s vice president.

After four years as a full-time student, a full-time IT specialist with Midwest Energy in Hays, and a fulltime husband and soccer and dance dad, Jared graduated from FHSU in 2020. Now, only a few months into life as an FHSU alum, Jared is thinking about returning for masters in organizational leadership. The work of a lifelong learner and multitasker like Jared is never really done.

STUDENT VETERAN ASSOCIATION

The Fort Hays State University Student Veterans Association is a vibrant and growing organization comprised of on-campus and virtual student veterans and militaryconnected students.

You can connect with the FHSU SVA at sva@fhsu.edu or look for FHSU Student Veterans Association on Facebook.