Soldiers, families find comfort in little things
| • | Defining moments of military separation |
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & ethics writer
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
A tearful 8-year-old Brandon Buck stood in a courtyard at Schofield Barracks in January, saying goodbye to his dad, when chaplain assistant Staff Sgt. John Govaerts first saw the boy.
Eight-year-old Brandon Buck was given a Chaplain's Coin to help him remember that his father will be coming home.
Brandon's father, Sgt. Tim Buck, a senior equipment operator with the 84th Engineer Battalion, had orders to deploy to Iraq. It would be a long 12 months before father and son would be together again.
A chaplain assistant for 12 years who has three boys of his own, Govaerts has attended many departures and knows they never are easy.
"There is a special place in my heart for families like the Bucks," Govaerts explained in an e-mail later.
Seeing the crying second-grader, Govaerts did what he has done for other children.
He pulled out two coins from his pocket and showed them to Brandon. Gently he explained that even though they would be separated, the coins would be a bond father and son shared.
When the two coins came back together, Brandon would have his father back. Govaerts showed them what he meant, stretching his hands apart, then bringing his hands — and the coins — back together.
Courtesy Cheyanne Buck
Brandon watched his father tuck one coin into the pocket closest to his heart. The boy clutched his own coin in his hand.
Sgt. Tim Buck tucks a Chaplain's Coin into his "heart" pocket. His son has a matching one to keep while his father is on deployment.
In the first few weeks after Tim left, Brandon found himself reaching for the coin whenever he missed his dad. He would hold it, finger it, rub it when he itched for some odd reason.
Weeks later something went amiss. Brandon couldn't find his coin. His mother, Cheyanne Buck, scoured his bedroom. She pulled up the cushions in the couch. She rifled through the car. She tore through the house several times.
Brandon had mostly kept his coin in his bedroom, but had also stuffed it into his pocket, and it sometimes went with him on trips outside the house.
"I couldn't figure out where it was because it had been everywhere," Cheyanne said. "He played with it a lot."
Finally, unable to locate the coin, she went to the chaplain's office.
Courtesy Cheyanne Buck
Cheyanne tried not to sound frantic when she described how the coin was more than just a coin. For Brandon, it was a connection to his father, she said. When he lost it, he was devastated.
Brandon and Tim Buck posed for a snapshot together on the night the sergeant left on deployment to Iraq.
As Schofield Barracks' family-life chaplain, Army Maj. David Baum often sees families suffer the emotional turmoil that a deployment can bring. He's learned how important objects that symbolize an absent parent can become.
He contacted chaplain Maj. Randall Kirby, who made calls and tracked down Govaerts.
"In 15 minutes, I had another coin," said Cheyanne, fishing it out of her purse. She carefully removed it from the plastic case so Brandon could hold it.
Cheyanne has nothing but gratitude for Baum: "To him, it was such a quick, little thing he did, but it meant so much to our family."
The happy ending: Cheyanne later found the original coin, which had been tossed somehow in with her husband's change in a cup.
Brandon keeps his new coin on top of the TV in his room and his first coin tucked safely away.
And to this day, Cheyanne says, Tim keeps his in the pocket of every Army uniform he wears.
Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.
