Copperas Cove veteran serving her community as a teacher
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
COPPERAS COVE – Texas native
Pam Knutson served nearly six years in the U.S. Ar my before getting out to stay home and raise kids. When her youngsters got a little older, she started considering new career opportunities decided to become a school teacher, and has been happily in the classroom for 11 years now
“Once I joined the Army, I thought it was going to be my forever job – I really liked it – but family changed that,” Knutson said. “I joined just to get out of being poor, having a steady job where I could support my son, but being in the Army was the best job ever
“I worked in personnel, and I just liked helping people. When I got out, I looked into doing x-ray (and) MRI kind of stuff, ultrasounds, but the school was so hard to get into. They only took 200 students at a time and they kept saying, ‘Try again next year.’
“I was in my late 30s, and I was, like, ‘Look, I ain’t got time to be trying again all the time.’ So I looked around and talked with (husband) Wayne. I thought by teaching, I could still help people They just weren’t adults.”
Pam was born in Seguin (Suh-geen), about 125 miles south of Killeen-Fort Cavazos near San Antonio, where she graduated high school in 1987 and enrolled at Texas A&M University in College Station. She had plans to pursue a career in agriculture, changed majors several times, and then got some bad news from administration after about a year-and-a-half.
“I was a good student until I got to college, where I proceeded to flunk out,”
she said. “I didn’t apply myself to my studies like I should have.”
After heading north to Wyoming for a while to live with a cousin, Pam came back to College Station, worked for a cleaning company, attended classes at Blinn Junior College, worked at a John Deere dealership, then moved back home.
“I moved back to Seguin and was working at the John Deere dealership there, where I had worked in high school,” she said. “I met my first husband, who was in the Air Force, (and) we married, had a kid, and then we split up. That’s when I joined the Ar my in 1999.
“Chalk it up to a midlife crisis and a dead-end job. A friend who was a mechanic in the Air Force talked me into it. He re-upped, but into the Army instead of the Air Force. When he came back from AIT, he said, ‘You should do this. It’ ll be great. You’ll travel and see the world.’ So I talked to the recruiter and the next thing I knew, I was signed up. My parents thought I was crazy. They thought my son was going to be a serial killer because he wouldn’t have roots after moving all around the world, but it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”
After basic training and AIT, the Army sent Pam to Wiesbaden, Germany, where she eventually met husband, Wayne, who retired as a master sergeant after 21 years’ service. They were married in 2002, and then Wayne got deployed to the Middle East, leaving Pam to take care of what by then had become a combined family of three kids.
“I was an E-5 (sergeant), with the 15th Personnel Battalion,” she said. “I loved it, but Wayne got deployed and I was
and
a U.S.
also a teacher, when both were stationed with the military in Germany here by myself with three kids, pulling staff duty three times a week sometimes. You have to stay there all night and it was difficult finding babysitters
“I think one night I paid $300 for people to watch my kids while I had PLEASE SEE TEACHER, 3
Pam Knutson,
Army veteran
Copperas Cove school teacher, met husband, Wayne, who is
Killeen veteran enjoying the good life a er retirement
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Killeen resident Brenda Wright served 21 years in the military, worked after that as a civilian contractor overseas and later drove for the Uber courier service. Now, at age 63, the Alabama native stays busy doing whatever she wants to do
“I am retired-retired,” Wright said. “I call it retired but still serving.”
A Central Texas resident since 1998, Brenda was bor n in Evergreen, Alabama, moved to Mobile, where her father worked as a longshoreman, and graduated high school in 1979.
She did not have a solid plan for the future but then came a
conversation one day with her older brother, who had joined the Army after he graduated the year before
“My brother graduated in ’78 and after he got out of basic, he came home and was talking about it,” Wright said. “I told him, I said, ‘Now, I know what I want to do. I’m going to do the military like you.’
“It was mostly a joke, but then he told me I couldn’t hang, and I couldn’t do this; couldn’t do that. I said, ‘Whatever you can do, I can do better.’
“Recruiters or whoever came to the school and did the ASVAB test, so I took it and it said I could be a cook or a mechanic. My dad was a cook in the military, so I said, ‘I don’t want no grease under my nails,’ so I chose cook. I graduated in May ’79 or whatever and they had me on the delayed entry program, and June 25th I was in the military.”
She served from 1979 to 2000 and never got orders to deploy to the Middle East, but she spent a year in Panama when the U.S. invaded the Central American country in an effort to oust dictator Manuel Noriega, who had been accused of drug trafficking and “suppressing democracy” and endangering U.S. nationals in Panama.
According to www.history. com: “Tensions between Americans in the Panama Canal Zone and Noriega’s Panamanian
Defense Forces grew, and in 1989 the dictator annulled a presidential election that would have made Guillermo Endara president. President George H. Bush ordered additional U.S. troops to the Panama Canal
Zone, and on December 16 an off-duty U.S. Marine was shot to death at a PDF roadblock. The next day, President Bush authorized “Operation Just PLEASE SEE RETIREMENT, 3
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U.S. Army veteran Brenda Wright served 21 years in the military, retired as a sergeant first class, worked as a civilian contractor, an Uber driver, and now is “retired-retired.
COURTESY PHOTO Wright was a cook in the military and served during Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama.
RETIREMENT
Cause”– the U.S. invasion of Panama to overthrow Noriega.
“On December 20, 9,000 U.S. troops joined the 12,000 U.S. military personnel already in Panama and were met with scattered resistance from the PDF. By December 24, the PDF was crushed, and the United States held most of the country. Endara was made president by U.S. forces, and he ordered the PDF dissolved. On January 3, Norie ga was arrested by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents.
“The U.S. invasion of Panama cost the lives of only 23 U.S. soldiers and three U.S. civilians. Some 150
TEACHER
staff duty. It just wasn’t worth it, and then just the toll it took on the family, so in June 2004, I got out.”
Wayne left the military in 2008 and went to work as a defense contractor Pam went back to school and ear ned a degree in interdisciplinary studies in 2014 from Texas A&M University-Central Texas and started a new career as a junior high teacher in Copperas Cove. She says things are going well, although there were some challenges in the beginning, when she taught 6th grade English Language Arts and Reading.
“At first, it was hard,” she said. “English is not the easiest subject to teach. No one thinks they need to learn how to read and write or anything. The 6th grade is just a weird time – they’re in middle school but they’re still kind of elementary-ish, so you just have to have the right mindset for teaching them. At that time, Wayne was a contractor and so he was gone probably half the year, so I felt like I was a single parent again.
PDF soldiers were killed along with an estimated 500 Panamanian civilians. The Organization of American States and the European Parliament both formally protested the invasion, which they condemned as a flagrant violation of international law.
“In 1992, Noriega was found guilty on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering, marking the first time in history that a U.S. jury convicted a foreign leader of criminal charges He was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, but after extradition to and incarceration in Panama, died in a Panama City hospital on May 29, 2017.”
Wright, who volunteers now with Star Group-Veterans Helping Veterans of Copperas Cove and enjoys visiting with friends and traveling, retired from the Army as a sergeant first class and says she cannot imagine what life would be like for her today had
“Jacob (her son) was in my English class, and I gave him lunch detention one time because he would not stop talking. The (other) kids were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, her own kid.’
“I said, ‘That’s right (and) if I’m going to do it to my own kid, I’ll definitely do it to you.’”
Teaching can be difficult at times, managing a room full of teens and pre-teens who have other priorities, but Knutson says it also can be quite rewarding.
“That’s a loaded question. I don’t want to say (the best part) is the holidays,” she said, laughing. “But seriously, one thing that is rewarding is when the kids move on and then they come back and want to talk to you in your room – especially if they know you have food – or you’ ll see them in the store and they remember you.
“One time, there was this really tough kid who gave everyone a hard time, but she saw me in Walmart just the other day, and she’s a senior now and she was telling me everything she has done. She said, ‘Yeah, I really liked you.’”
Their kids are all grown and graduated now, and so the house is quite a
she not joined the military – and decided to make it a career. She says gender discrimination was always a reality, but she never let it get in her way
“It was there but I didn’t let it bother me, because I knew I had a goal,” she said. “If I start something, I’m in it to the end. When I went in, I didn’t plan on retiring. Like I said, it was just a joke between me and my brother, but once I got in there, it was something I enjoyed. The camaraderie … esprit de corps It made me more disciplined, and it made me have patience
“Women’s History Month? I can’t say that it’s really important to me, but I do like to see women excel. If I hadn’t joined the military – and stayed in – I don’t know what my life would be like today. After a while, I realized that I had done a good thing for my life without knowing it.”
bit quieter these days, but Pam says she and Wayne, who is also a teacher have yet to experience “empty nest syndrome,” when all the little birds fly off to make their own way in the world, leaving parents to struggle with emotions like sadness, loneliness, and loss of a sense of purpose.
“Not really,” said Pam, who has one grandchild. “With the last kid, she was always coming and going. She had a job and when she was here, she was always in her room so it was like we were all alone, anyways. Mom and Dad are not cool, you know?
“We have this big house, and we tend to keep mostly to one room now – our kitchen and the back family room.”
As Women’s History Month enters its final week, Pam – the first woman Chancellor Commander in the Knights of Pythias of Texas; the first to be elected a member of the Grand Council of the Knights of Pythias of Texas; and anticipates becoming the first woman Grand Chancellor in 2028 – says she thinks such recognitions are important, but celebrating women and their achievements should be 24/7 and not just relegated to a single month.
“I’m kind of tor n,” she said. “I think it’s great that women are celebrated (and) they have their own month, but I think women should always be celebrated.
“I was raised by a very strong, independent woman. She was born in the ‘50s and her mom was a stay-at-home mom, but she was the youngest and she was daddy’s girl. So, she grew up thinking, ‘I can do anything a guy can do.’ That’s how she raised my sister and myself, and that’s how I have raised my daughters. There’s nothing you can’t do.
“I never planned on being a stay-athome mom – that’s not how my mother raised me – but I really enjoyed it.
“I saw something the other day by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that made me think being a strong woman should not be the outlier; it should be the norm. She had a quote that said, ‘Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that woman are the exception.’
“I saw that last week and I thought, ‘You know, that’s true.’ That shouldn’t be outside of the nor m; it should be the norm.’”
Kempner woman and her brother made history in military aviation
JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
KEMPNER — Retired U.S. Army Lt.
Col. Catherine Blashack recorded a number of “firsts” during her 23-year military career.
The Minnesota native now living in Kempner, just west of Copperas Cove and Fort Cavazos, g raduated high school in 1974, ear ned a bachelor’s degree in theater and a minor in textiles in 1978 from the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, where she also participated in ROTC and received her Army commission as a second lieutenant.
In 1977, she attended ROTC summer camp at Fort Lewis, Washington, followed by Ar my airbor ne training at Fort Benning, Georgia (now Fort Moore). This was the first year that female cadets/officers could attend jump school. She went on active duty in November 1978 and attended the transportation officer basic course at Fort Eustis, Virginia and flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama (now Fort Novosel).
At that point, she and her brother, Michael, a commissioned Marine Corps officer who served six years and became an A-6 Intruder pilot, were known as the first brother and sister duo to become pilots in “sister services” (Marine Corps and Ar my). After finishing test flight school (and flying Medevac missions) at Fort Rucker (Novosel), she was stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, (now Fort Johnson) where she became the first female helicopter pilot for the installation. Three years later, she trained on Black Hawk helicopters and became the first women helicopter pilot to be
Catherine and her brother, Michael, a commissioned Marine Corps o cer who served six years and became an A-6 Intruder pilot, were
brother and sister duo to become pilots in “sister services” (Marine Corps and Army). stationed in Giebelstadt, Germany. Catherine says those accomplishments are something she will always be proud of
“When you think about it, if I had told myself in grade school or high school that I was going to do all the things I did, I never would have believed it,” she said. “When you are able to actually do those things, it really builds your PLEASE SEE AVIATION, 5
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confidence
“When I was in colle ge and ROTC, I just knew I wanted to go into something that was interesting. I was interested in flying and I was interested in jumping out of airplanes, and all those different kinds of things. It wasn’t because somebody told me I couldn’t – that did happen, of course, but that’s not the reason I did
what I did.
“I grew up in a small town and I wanted to be able to have experiences. Not just stay in small-town USA and never go anywhere.I know people who have never been out of the town they grew up in. How can that be? I just think … how on Earth can somebody not want to go see things and experience things?
Three of my sons were (student) ambassadors with People to People, and the experiences they had were just amazing. “I came from a family of 10
and so I got a lot of experience from my brothers’ and sisters’ experiences, but not from my own, in a sense. So I wanted to get out and do things.You can take away a lot of things from people, but you can never take away their experiences.”
Catherine g raduated high school in Waldorf, in south-central Minnesota. She grew up in a family of 10 children led by father, Henry Joseph Blashack, and mother, Dorothy Blashack. When her brother, William, started getting recruited by the military, young Catherine thought she might have discovered a way to get out and see the world.
“At that time, it was still the Women’s Army Corps. I didn’t know much about it, but I thought, well, I’ ll check into it,” she said.“I went to Minneapolis to take the physical test and I was sitting in this room with long rows of chairs, with people all waiting to get their physical. I looked around and I thought, ‘I’m not sure where they all came from, but they look pretty rough. I’m not sure this is the route I want to go.’
“So when I got back home, I was talking with my mother about it and the recruiter came, and she told him I would go into ROTC in colle ge. I had not made that decision. I hadn’t really thought about doing that, but that’s what I did.”
Blashack served six years in Germany, but never saw combat during her career. By the time U.S. soldiers began deploying to the Middle East, she had earned a master of science
degree in (computer) infor mation systems and was assigned to do software development at the Infor mation Systems Software Development Center in Washington, D.C.
“We were writing software for things that were going on in Southwest Asia – logistics (and) transportation kind of things,” she said.
As a lieutenant colonel stationed at the Pentagon, Blashack was responsible for “monitoring and assessing the implementation of the Domestic Preparedness Program, known today as Homeland
Defense, a nationwide program of significant national security interest at the highest levels of the U.S. government and within state, county, and local governments.”
She retired from the military in March 2001, but not before meeting and marrying her husband, Robert Ware Hastings, in 1988. They first met in San Antonio when she went to buy a personal computer
“I was getting my master’s degree down in San Antonio, and it got to the point where I
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U.S. Army veteran Cathrine Blashack and Robert Ware Hastings have been married since 1988
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A er finishing test flight school (and flying Medevac missions) at Fort Rucker (Novosel), Blashack was stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, (now Fort Johnson) where she became the first female helicopter pilot for the installation. Three years later, she trained on Black Hawk helicopters and became the first women helicopter pilot to be stationed in Giebelstadt, Germany
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thought I should get a computer instead of going to the school and working on theirs, since I was getting a master’s in computer science,” Blashack said.“So I went to a store there in San Antonio and he was the manager. Somebody else waited on me, but he saw me and I guess he was interested. When I came back, he made sure that when I placed my order he was behind the desk. When I came to pick it up, he again waited on me
“That day, I was in a really big hurry (and) it was pouring rain outside. He asked me if I had anybody to help me take everything out to the car – the boxes and all that – and I said, no, I came alone. He told me later, he thought that was a good answer
“He called one day but I was at school, so there was a message on the recorder. He said, ‘Either you’re dead or you’re really good at this computer stuff.’ That night, my computer crashed, so I called and asked for him. He called me back and said he would stop by on his way home and look at it. So he comes and I find out they didn’t give me all my software, so he says he’s going to have to come back.
“He said, ‘Would you mind? I’m really hungry … can we go out to eat?’
“I said, ‘I’m in shorts (and) I don’t know if I want to do that.’
“He says, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no big deal. It’s really infor mal.’
“That’s how that started.”
Two years after leaving the service, Catherine helped found “McLane Advanced Technologies,” a software development company owned by for mer Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane of Temple. She earned a second master’s de gree in December 2010, and also worked a number of
other civilian jobs including Ar my contractor for 15 years, substitute school teacher, home school instructor, and at a pharmacy and a bank.
Her military awards include Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Ar my Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, National Defense Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Senior Army Aviator Badge, Parachutist Badge Army Staff Identification Badge
These days, Catherine keeps herself busy with volunteer work and painting. She is a maember of Star Group – Veterans Helping Veterans, Copperas Cove Historical Society, and Holy Family Catholic Church choir. She has helped paint 17 murals around Copperas Cove, including the side of the building across from Ace Hardware, the old Ledger Fur niture building, a tribute to this year’s solar eclipse on the side of the Star Group – Veterans Helping Veterans offices on Avenue D, and also a large mural for her hometown in Minnesota.
Looking back at her military career and everything that followed, the mother of four, grandmother of six and great-grandmother of one says simply,
“It was great.”
“Going from a theater major to getting my first master’s degree in computer science; my second master’s degree in MBA. There’s just so many things that probably would not have happened.
From a family of 10, I think we did really well. All of us went to college except for one brother who went into management.
“If I had just stayed in that small town – like many people do – I could not have been a pilot. I could not have gone to all the places I’ve gone. I would not have met the people I met. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
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Catherine Blashack has helped paint 17 murals around Copperas Cove, including the side of the building across from Ace Hardware, the old Ledger Furniture building, a tribute to this year’s solar eclipse on the side of the Star Group – Veterans Helping Veterans o ces on Avenue D, and also a large mural for her hometown in Minnesota.
Killeen military spouse born in Egypt, came to the U.S. at age 10
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
KILLEEN — Fola Davidson says her experiences growing up in a family headed by foreign diplomats helped her adjust later onto the demands of life as a military spouse, although there have been certain unique challenges along the way
“I would say, adjusting is one of the big challenges,” she said. “There’s always a new place to try and figure out. Meeting new people, finding your way around, getting to know your favorite restaurant to go to
“I purposely wanted Texas when it was time to (come back) from Korea – only because if we ended up somewhere like Tennessee, we didn’t know anyone in Tennessee. At least in Texas, we have some friends. I feel lucky because I know I have not had some challenges that are common to some spouses, like looking for employment, which can be a struggle.
“I do like experiencing new places, but the good parts of that also include bad parts – not being around things that are familiar.”
Fola was born in Egypt, where her parents served as U.S. diplomats. She also lived in England and moved to the States when she was 10 years old. The family lived in upstate New York, where she graduated from high school in 2005 and headed off to college to study biology. It wasn’t until later that she would find another passion.
“My plan was sort of traditional – to go to college, get a job, have two kids by age 23,” she said. “I had a plan, or kind of a plan. I just didn’t put that much thought into it.
“I thought I would go into a medical
field, so I was a biology major. I thought I would go to pharmacy school, but then I never even applied. I finished my degree and worked in a pharmacy for a while; a lab. Then I decided teaching was for me so I went and got my master’s in secondary special education and taught for six years, including overseas for two years I was a high school teacher for a while and I tutored at a middle school.
“Then I realized I didn’t want to teach anymore, but I still liked the mentorship aspect of it, so I went into higher ed advising. I worked at colleges for three years in Colorado and overseas when we were stationed in Korea.”
It was while she was living 65 miles south of Killeen-Fort Cavazos in Austin, and working as a teacher, that Fola met her future husband, Jason, during a night out with friends and life eventually began to change.
“We met on 6th Street in Austin,” she said. “He was stationed here back when it was still called Fort Hood. I think he just got here after getting back from Afghanistan. I was living right downtown on Congress (Avenue). I could walk to Torchy’s Tacos.
“One of my friends made me go out that night. I did not want to go anywhere. I’m hanging out at home in my pajamas, and she said, ‘Please, come with me; be my wing lady!’ So we ended up at The Ranch (bar) on West 6th Street and Jason was with some other soldiers. One of his friends was trying to get my number. I wasn’t really interested, and then Jason came over and I was, like, ‘Oh, who’s that?’
“He said, ‘Are you going to give my friend your number?’
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Fola Davidson and husband, Jason, met in Austin in 2014 and have been married since 2018
Gatesville woman served three years in the military, married a fellow soldier
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
GATESVILLE — Ann Ciarico joined the U.S. Army, met and married a fellow soldier when she was stationed at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), left the military, got divorced, moved back to her native Illinois, then returned to Central Texas years later to care full-time for her dying ex-husband.
Retired Staff Sgt. Gerald Wayne “Jerry” Spicer, who served 10 years active duty and 26 years full-time in the U.S. Army National Guard, died from liver and lung cancer in 2020 at age 63, and Ciarico has been a resident of Gatesville — just north of Fort Cavazos — ever since.
“We met in the Army in 1984,” Ann said. “We were together for a total of 15 years. We separated in 1999 and were officially divorced in 2000 (but) even though our marriage ended, our friendship continued over the years
“I had bought a house and moved to Killeen. I was working for a defense contractor on Fort Hood (Cavazos). After the contract ended, I couldn’t find a job. I moved back up to Chicago and I was there for seven years, and then I found out Jerry had cancer. He lived in Gatesville, so I moved back down here and took care of him until he passed away.” Ciarico was born in Germany. Her dad served six years in the Army and got out when she was three years old. She grew up in Waukegan, Illinois, and graduated in 1975 from an all-girls Catholic high school. The family moved to Cary, Illinois, when Ann was 18 years old. With dreams of becoming an artist, she went to work and started junior college. Then came a life-changing experience
“I got pregnant when I was 19,” Ann said. “He was 26 and married but separated from his wife. Well, that separation wasn’t a relationship separation, it was a geographical separation. He lived in Minnesota, and he was very nice to me when I first met him, but then I got pregnant, and he didn’t want anything to do with that.
“I didn’t have any support from my parents at all. They pretty much disowned me. I had no emotional or financial support from my family or the biological father. I was freaking out – 19 years old and having to deal with all this myself No counseling or anything.
“I ended up back in Waukegan (where) they had this program at this hospital, for women in pregnancy crisis. It was a Catholic hospital, run by nuns. What they do is, they assign you a room on the residential side of the hospital and they get you a job. They take most of your paycheck and give you maybe $50 a month, which back in ’76 was enough for a month’s worth of groceries.
“You had your own private room and then a common area, a kitchen and living room. When it came time to have your baby, all the money they had saved for you … if you were going to give it up for adoption, it helped get you on your feet; and if you kept your baby, that went toward your hospital bill.”
Reluctantly, Ann decided to give the baby up for adoption. She got a small apartment and a job at the same hospital, where she stayed for two or three years, then decided to accept a friend’s invitation to move out to San Diego, California. She headed west in 1981, worked as a bartender for a while, then decided to join
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Ann Ciarico joined the U.S. Army, met and married a fellow soldier, le the military, got divorced, moved back to Illinois, then returned to Central Texas years later to care full-time for her dying exhusband, the late retired Staff Sgt. Gerald Wayne “Jerry” Spicer
are. Central Texas has been her home now since October 2023, and she enjoys her work as a counselor with the Fort Cavazos Education Center.
“I was, like, ‘No, sorry.’
“He said, ‘Then can I have your number?’
“We exchanged numbers and went out on a date that next weekend (August 2014).”
The couple would marry four years later in 2018, and settle into married life at Fort Carson, Colorado. Two years before they tied the knot, Jason – now a first sergeant stationed at Fort Cavazos – was deployed again to Afghanistan and Fola landed a teaching job in Abu Dhabi. Fola says she enjoyed living in the United Arab Emirates. For one thing, it was easier to keep tabs on her soldier during his combat tour
“I was scared all the time,” she said. “People were dying over there. There’s always a chance something could happen when you get sent somewhere.
“We were literally (in time zones) 30 minutes apart, so I could call him in the evening, and it wasn’t like I had to wake up at 2 a.m. to talk to my then-boyfriend or see if he’s available. It was great. I lived an hour from Dubai. I could see the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi from my apartment hallway. It was a really beautiful place to live. I was there a year-and-ahalf.
“He went on deployment in May of 2016. I went to my job in July of 2016. He came back in the spring of 2017, and I came back in summer 2017, then I went back over and came back right before Christmas. I felt a little bit of guilt, but then I said, ‘You’re the one who’s leaving all the time, so we’ll survive me being gone for a little bit.’”
Looking back over the years, Fola says life may have turned out differently than from what she imagined it would be, but she is happy with the way things
“I like it here, but I wish there were fewer car washes,” the mother of one and company Soldier and Family Readiness Group co-leader said. “I wish there were more places for family entertainment, where you could take your kid and they can play. Go bowling or ice skating, but also not spend $50 a person.
“I think it (life) is different than I would have pictured it, but I wouldn’t say it’s bad. I think I’m happy with where we’ve come and what we’ve done together and separately
“My husband has done great things in his career. Sometimes I get on him for not using his tuition assistance enough to help finish his degree. Soldiers should use their tuition assistance. It’s a fantastic benefit and not enough people use it. It’s one of those things that you can only get when you’re active duty — it’s use or lose.
“It’s not easy to go to school when you’re in the Army, but I tell them, ‘Just take one class. One class a year and 10 years from now, you’ll be halfway to a degree.’ Progress is progress, even if it’s slow
“I’m proud of Jason being someone who puts in the work and shows honor focusing on soldiers and helping develop other people. The Ar my has helped him develop that, and without that, I don’t think he would be who he is now.
“I’m not the kind of person who thinks there is only one way your life should go I think however things shake out, that is what was meant for you. One thing I have learned is that starting over is not all bad. There are opportunities anywhere you go. Some people might say on Facebook, ‘Oh, we got orders for Fort Cavazos.
I’m so scared about this and that.’
“Every place you go is what you make
of it. You can be in what some people say is a terrible location and you come out of it loving it and thinking it’s a great place to raise your family
“I think the way I grew up; I knew about changes. That was part of the package, so to speak. So I understand the hesitancy of people who are not used to moving somewhere new, or they’re two
seconds out of high school and they’re being shipped off to another country with their partner. I do understand that is a struggle, but for me, it’s just been sort of a continuation of what I’ve always known.
“And, besides, if he had not joined the Army, I don’t think our paths would have ever crossed.”
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Fola and Jason Davidson pose with their son, Xavier.
SOLDIER
the military.
“I decided I just wasn’t really going anywhere,” she said. “I wasn’t really accomplishing anything. That’s when I decided to join the Army.”
Basic training was at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where she arrived January 2, 1984. She got the usual high-volume greetings from the drill instructors but says her introduction to the military was a positive one
“First, there was a plane ride to the airport in New Jersey, then you’re at the MEPS station, and then from there you ride the bus to Fort Dix,” Ann said. “Soon as you get there, the drill sergeants are already messing with your head.
“I enjoyed it. I was 27 when I joined (and) most of the girls who joined were 18 (and) all these younger girls were, like ‘Oh, I can’t take this!’ I knew it was just a temporary situation. To me, it was a cake walk.”
AIT was at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where Ann trained in power generator repair, then reported to her first – and only – duty station at Fort Hood (Cavazos), where she stayed for three years and met her future husband, who served in the same company.
“I knew of him, but I didn’t really know him,” Ann said. “I was in the motor pool one day, up to my elbows in grease, working on a generator. All of a sudden, here comes a dozen red roses. I went and washed my hands and arms, and I took the bouquet and read the card. It said something like, ‘I think you’re a heckuva woman, and I would love to take you out sometime.’
“From there, we went out on our first date. I don’t remember the restaurant we went to, but after that we went to see ‘Rambo II.’”
Ann and Jerry lived together for three years and got married in 1988. She left the military in 1986 and started looking for work. Over time, she enrolled at Central Texas College and earned an associate degree in commercial art.
“I have always been an artist, and so that’s what I wanted to do,” Ann said.
“While I was at CTC, I applied for the graphic design job at the Gatesville Messenger, and three weeks before graduation, they hired me
“I graduated at the end of ’95, so I worked there probably a year, year-anda-half. After that, I got a few jobs around Gatesville – home health care work – and then I put in an application at the Killeen Daily Herald and they hired me in 1998. I worked there until 2006 (and) that’s where I got the bulk of my experience. I also worked for a short time for the Thrifty Nickel.
“Then in 2008-09, I got a job as a photojournalist on Fort Hood (Cavazos) (and) I did that for three years. I had a clearance to go to the airport and take pictures of the soldiers deploying or coming back from deployment. I would interview them, and we put out a monthly newsletter with little stories and sent a press release back to their hometown (media). I really enjoyed that job.”
She enjoyed that job but it also came to haunt her a bit after November 5, 2009. That was the day an Army psychiatrist opened fire at the installation’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center, where troops receive routine medical treatment prior to deploying and upon their return.
“I had interviewed and taken pictures of five of the soldiers who died that day,” Ann said. “It was horrible.”
In 2012, Ann moved back to the Chicago area and stayed there seven years, until she found out Jerry was dying from lung and liver cancer down in Gatesville They had remained close over the years in spite of the divorce, and so she agreed
to be his full-time caregiver.
“It was very, very sad,” Ann said. “It was really hard to see him like that. I knew him when he was healthy and active, and then to see him just shriveling away in bed …
“We had done paperwork about 10 years before that (stated) I would inherit his house. He knew he would die before me, just because of his lifestyle. In 2020, he passed away and I’ve been here ever since.”
Looking back on everything that has
happened in her life, Ann says there were definitely trying times, but she is grateful for it all.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” she said. “The trajectory of my life was so different than if I would have remained a civilian and stayed in Chicago. I would never have met some of the most wonderful people in my life, who are still friends I keep in touch with today. The opportunities I had here that I might not have had.
“I really am thankful.”
COURTESY PHOTO
The Ciarico family: (back row, le to right) Ann, Margaret, Mary, Cathy, Jim; parents, Anthony and Mary Lou; (front row, le to right) Steven, Clare.
From the Philippines to Central Texas, military was big part of Killeen woman’s life
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Myrna Malic-Banzon grew up living what was considered a privileged lifestyle in the Philippines and while four of her five brothers headed to the U.S. when they came of age, Myrna had no intention of following suit.
Her father, Dominador Malic, was a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army who died when she was 4 years old, and Myrna’s mother had definite plans for the kids when they graduated high school.
“My mom’s plans were … as we graduate high school, if we don’t want to go to college, she will send us to the United States,” said Myrna, who now lives in Killeen.
“My brother came here and joined the Air Force. The second (brother) got in a really big accident – wrecked the (family) Jeep – and he ended up joining the Navy. The third one was a happygo-lucky guy, and he wasn’t really going to school and he got caught, so he wound up in the Army. The fourth one is special needs. The fifth one finished college and then joined the Air Force and became a pilot.
“I did not want to come here We were better off than the average Filipinos (and) I told my mom, ‘I have two maids and a chauffeur. Why would I want to leave?’”
Born and raised in Manila, Myrna dutifully headed to college after graduating high school in 1977. As the only girl in
the family, she had been carefully chaperoned during the years after her father’s death, so when she got away from home, she found herself enjoying her newfound freedom a little bit too much.
“I started having the time of my life,” she said, “because I wasn’t being so heavily guarded (by her family). I still had somebody taking me to the university and picking me up, but now I can mingle and go from one building to another without somebody watching me. What I would do is schedule my classes so far out that I had time to do other stuff in between. Like, I would have four hours from one class until my next class, so I could go galivanting, have fun, and come back.”
She and mom soon decided a change of scenery might be a good idea for Myrna and help her to concentrate more on her studies. So after studying chemical engineering for a year, she switched to secretarial studies and changed schools, where she wound up meeting a fellow student who became her future husband.
“The Philippines has three major islands – Luzon (where Manila is located), Visayas, and Mindanao – and my husband is from Mindanao,” Myrna said.
“I told my mom I wanted to go to Visayas. I don’t have a lot of friends there, so if I go to school there, maybe I can focus on going to school. My mom said, ‘OK, let
me call your aunt. You can stay with her. Maybe that would be good for you.’”
The couple finished their respective educations, got married in 1981 in Manila, and headed to the U.S., where Myrna’s husband joined the U.S. Marine Corps and spent the first four years of his military career before getting out for a while and then joining the Army.
For Myrna, becoming a military spouse was “a big adjustment.”
“When we moved here, we moved to Travis Air Force Base because that’s where my brother was. We lived with him for a month, then we moved into our own apartment. That’s when we signed up for the Marine Corps,” Myrna said. “I grew up in one place and never really moved, so at first, it was exciting to be able to move around to new places.
“The first Army base we went to was Fort Bliss. From there, we were sent to Germany. We came to central Texas when we were stationed at Fort Hood (Cavazos).”
Now married for 43 years, the mother of three children works as a mortgage loan officer. Over the years, she worked as a cashier for a department store, a drug store manager, clothing store manager, AAFES supervisor in Germany, a telephone company call center rep, and customer service manager. She also is no stranger to volunteer work with such organizations as LU-
LAC and the CenTex Exchange Club of Copperas Cove, and she has no intention of slowing down anytime soon
“I always tell everybody I don’t think I can retire,” Myrna said. “I cannot not do anything.” Looking back on her life, leav-
ing her beloved Philippines, and settling in central Texas, Myrna says she has no regrets. She is a self-described “workaholic,” but also enjoys traveling around the world.
COURTESY PHOTO
Myrna Malic-Banzon grew up in the Philippines and now lives in Killeen a er coming here with the military.
Military mom stress outweighs military spouse worries, says mom who did both
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELTON LAKE — Raising a family while married to an active-duty soldier and building a career was difficult at times, but
when both her children grew up and joined the military, Debbie Stevenson learned about a whole new level of stress
“It was tougher being a military mom than it ever was being a spouse,” said Stevenson, a
former Killeen Daily Herald military editor who now works as a Central Texas real estate broker.
“When my husband went to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, I had a young daughter and I was pregnant with our son. My focus was on the pregnancy and my daughter. I feel that being a wife was a lot easier, because I had to keep everything running smoothly. I had to make everything appear like, ‘It’s OK. Daddy’s just gone again.’”
Stevenson was born in Birmingham, England, to Canadian parents, grew up in Rhodesia (southern Africa), and returned to England after her mother died in an automobile accident. She graduated high school and majored in foreign languages and economics at the University of London, with stars in her eyes and plans to make a difference in the world.
“My mom was visiting her mum, and things started happening with the pregnancy and she couldn’t make it back to Canada,” Debbie said. “I wasn’t supposed to be born there, but I came a little early and my mom had to stay. We went back as soon as she was able to travel.
“We were in Vancouver, but I was actually raised in Rhodesia, when Zimbabwe was (called) Rhodesia. My father went to Rhodesia and we followed. So from age 5 to 15, that’s where I was … until my mom was tragically killed in a wreck. Then, my father transferred to England,
and so I graduated high school and the University of London in England.
“My goal was to go back to Africa to help that continent. My mom is buried there (and) my heart had been left there. I just wanted to go back and right the wrongs of colonialism, and so I studied languages and was actually doing my first job in Germany as a translator with the U.S. Army Europe, which is where I met my hubby.
“A young Texan tipped his hat and called me Miss Debbie and … what can I say?”
That young Texan was Dale who served 20 years in the U.S. Army, including two tours at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos) and retired as an E-7 sergeant first class. They were married in June 1983, and during her 18 years as a military spouse, Debbie mostly pursued a career in journalism.
She worked for The Oklahoman, and covered lots of military news as the KDH military editor, including the notorious Abu Ghraib trials at Fort Hood (Cavazos). Abu Ghraib was a prison complex near Baghdad where prisoners were allegedly tortured by U.S. military and CIA guards
“I kind of fell into it (journalism),” she said. “I was looking for a job when we got to Copperas Cove and the Leader-Press was hiring. I guess I wrote a good enough essay on current events. I promised the editor at the time that I was a fast learner. I had ab-
solutely no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world.
“Let’s face it, I couldn’t work for the Army because I was a Canadian citizen, and I never wanted to be … let’s just say I never fit in around the military.
“I kind of forged my own path.
“I’ve always felt I was never a typical military wife, and I never planned on being that. I always thought independence was the key. When I met (Dale), he was an E-4 (and) I was a college graduate. I had big desires — I wanted to change the world — but we were two kids who … as much as we were opposites, we just seemed to mesh.
“As I got introduced to the Army, I found that the wives were kind of limited by their husband’s rank, in how people thought about them. I’m sorry, but no one limits me. So I just basically felt the best way to support him and the family – particularly the children as they came along – would be to be completely independent of it. To where our lives weren’t put on hold every time he went off to the field or got deployed or something. By being independent (and) able to have my own career and make it in the civilian world, that was really our key to success, I think.
“As he became a platoon sergeant, my (military spouse) duties increased, but I confess I wasn’t very good at it. I tended to
COURTESY
Debbie Stevenson worked as a print journalist for the Killeen Daily Herald and other newspapers before becoming a real estate broker.
PHILIPPINES
“As a loan officer, I can take my laptop with me, so in 2022, I went to Portugal, Hungary, and Turkey. I’ve been to China, Spain, Italy, Morocco. I want to go to Machu Picchu (in) Peru.
“I like to travel outside the U.S. because I want to learn different cultures
“I think I’ve had a very interesting life. I grew up in the Philippines. I met my husband in the Philippines. We got married in the Philippines. My daughter was born in the Philippines. The only reason we left the Philippines was because during the (Ferdinand) Marcos regime (1965-86), corruption was at an all-time high. We were thinking that a lot of people want to come to the States and here we are, all we need to do is get a passport and a ticket.
STRESS
pass it off to the girls who wanted to do that. God bless ‘em, because you need those women.
“We call them spouses now, as the military started having more female soldiers. At the time, my husband was combat engineer so it was basically the women were the spouses. There weren’t female combat engineers at the time. That changed drastically after he left. But it was very definitely an all-male unit, and the wives were the support system. There were wives who really wanted to do the NCO Wives Club thing, and I was more than happy to step aside. I had a horse farm, kids, and a career. If you need me for advice, I’ll kind of take a look at it from the outside looking in. That’s what how I did it.”
“I had five brothers, and back then I didn’t realize what I was missing from not having a father.
“I am very proud of my father, although he died when I was four, so I didn’t really get to know him. He is part of what they called the Planet Party that cleared the way in the Philippines for MacArthur to land. They did the espionage thing so that MacArthur would be safe when he landed in the Philippines.
“I was there when he had a heart attack. I was only four years old, but I can remember every detail like it was yesterday. We had a little shanty house on a big lot, and he had built a nicer house. In the Philippines, they always said, ‘If you build a house from the ground up, someone is going to pass.’
“We moved into the house – it was the biggest house in the neighborhood – and my mom was cleaning house and I was making a mess. I was playing retail store
When the kids grew up, both Cody and Samantha wound up in uniform, and wound up doing combat tours in the Middle East. Cody served in the Marine Corps and did a stint as a crew member aboard Marine One during the President Obama administration. Samantha served with the Oklahoma National Guard.
“She was doing her veterinary degree at Oklahoma State (University) when she got called up (for duty in Iraq),” Debbie said. “When she joined the Guard, she said, ‘Mom, don’t worry about it. I want to pay part of my way. I want to be independent like you. The Oklahoma Guard recruiter said there’s enough natural disasters in Oklahoma City that they’re never going to send us (overseas). They need us here at the state
“I said, ‘Oh, sweetheart. Trust me, you sign up (and) you are going to go.’ Sure enough, she did.
“Cody said he wanted to go to college, but a Marine Corps recruiter got a hold of
and I had leaves that I was selling. My dad came by and I asked him if he wanted to buy something. He kind of smacked me on the butt and said, ‘Your mom has been cleaning and you’re making a mess. Go play outside.’ So I went outside. We had kind of like a porch and he had a chair in the corner. He told my mom, ‘Stop cleaning. You’ve been cleaning all day. Why don’t you get out of here (and) go with your friends and do something.’
“She said, OK, and she left with our neighbor. We had a Jeep, and I loved to climb the windows. I was halfway (up) the window – my head was inside; my butt was outside – and my dad was reading the newspaper and watching me. All of a sudden, he started snoring. I turned around and looked at him, and I said, ‘You’re supposed to be watching me!’
“My brothers were outside playing, as well, and they ran and picked up my dad. That was the last thing I remember. They
him. I was not happy. I told the recruiter, ‘I think this is a mistake. If he does go into the military, I think he should at least go through ROTC or something like that.’
But Cody decided otherwise. And looking back, it really did focus him. He scored well, went into avionics, and got tapped to be part of Marine One. That was a twoyear assignment. We were exceptionally proud of that.
“When he got out, he was really focused. He went back to college and was almost to the point of getting his commercial pilot’s license, but then the pandemic hit. So he switched and went into aviation management instead.”
The Stevensons bought their first home decades ago in Copperas Cove, and now they own a home in Salado but spend most of the time at their house on Belton Lake. Debbie says she looks back over the years with great satisfaction and pride, and she looks ahead to their next trip to Yellowstone National Park.
brought him inside and tried to figure out where my mom was. We had a family doctor on the next block, and one of my brothers ran over there and got him. My mom came running back, and by the time she got to the house, the doctor had already pronounced my dad, dead.
“On the first day of school – we had junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten, and then first grade – I was in junior kindergarten, and my mom dropped me off. When it was time to pick me up, I wasn’t there
“They were panicking. They were looking for me everywhere, and all I remember is being home. I don’t remember how I got home. I remember the maids (saying), ‘Where have you been? Your mom is looking for you!’ They asked me how I got home. I told them, ‘My Papa picked me up.’
“I’m having goosebumps right now telling you that story. I have no recollection of how I got home.”
“No regrets at all,” Debbie said. “I have the most wonderful family. I am so proud of them.
“We love Wyoming. We’ve been going to Yellowstone now for, gosh, 10 years. Long before the (television) show came out. We used to go to Jackson all the time, but it’s gotten so congested since the show. It’s just not the same anymore
“We love the mountains. I’m a Rocky Mountain girl at heart, and every opportunity we get, we go and seek out the snow. I go up there regularly because I was raised around wildlife, and I love to hunt wildlife with my camera. Snap their beauty and preserve it. I still have to get my elusive grizzly photo, and my wolf photo.”
Snapping those amazing wildlife photos can be hazardous duty, with news reports occasionally showing a tourist getting too close to Yellowstone wildlife and having an encounter with nature that is a bit too up-close-and-personal for comfort.
