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Combat Doc fulfills promise to grandpa who captained B-17s over Germany

  • Published
  • By Capt. Ken Hall
  • Provincial Reconstruction Team Gardez, Director of Information Operations
FORWARD OPERATING BASE PATRIOT, FORT BRAGG, N.C. --  The pre-dawn darkness was broken only by the piercing light of the convoy's seven up-armored humvees, as the biting winter wind gripped Provincial Reconstruction Team Gardez' guidon, unfettering it proudly to the sky.

The team's Soldiers and Airmen huddled against the bitter January winter for a pre-convoy mission brief, preparing to roll outside the wire for mounted combat patrol operations. The brief could wait, though, because the team had important business to conduct--promote their Physician Assistant to captain.

Now Capt. Trevor Ambron, deployed from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., stood tall in front of his commander, Lt. Col. Brett Sharp. "Attention to Orders" silenced the muffled chatter as two team members stretched an American Flag as a backdrop behind the lieutenant and the colonel.

"I, Trevor Ambron, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter...So help me God."

After completing his oath, two team members helped the lieutenant remove 70 pounds of body armor and held it for him as he was given a new uniform blouse, adorned with captain's bars, representing not only his new higher authority, but more important, his increased solemn responsibility to the United States and to those service members whose lives are charged to his care.

As the new captain finished adjusting his armor, PRT Gardez Commander Colonel Sharp stepped back in front of him, ripped the worn Velcro lieutenant's bar from its place on his chest, and replaced it with new captain's insignia before stretching out his hand to congratulate Captain Ambron.

Accepting the colonel's invitation to take the floor, the captain stood quiet for several moments. "I want to thank you all for allowing me this opportunity...it means a lot to me," he said. "It means a lot to me because...," he trailed off, visibly beginning to choke up.

"You've only got this one opportunity to say your piece and then the moment's gone, so don't let it pass you by," Colonel Sharp said to the captain.

After a couple moments more, the captain recounted how he had grown up in Pennsylvania, having a very close relationship with his grandfather, Richard Kozlowski. He recalled his grandfather's stories of B-17 missions he had flown over Germany in World War II. It was these stories that inspired a younger Trevor to enlist in the Air Force after high school. He described putting on his grandfather's bomber jacket with his wings on the chest and those shiny captain's bars on the shoulders which he wanted to earn someday himself. He told of how he had promised his grandfather then that he would someday be an Air Force captain--just like his grandfather had been.

"My grandfather passed about a year ago," the captain said to the formation of fellow Soldiers and Airmen. Measurably choked with emotion, and with a beginning glimmer of wetness in his eye, Captain Ambron finished, "but I know he's up there watching me, and I know he's proud of me. Today I not only fulfilled a personal dream of mine, but also kept a promise I made many years ago."

For more information on PRTs, visit the NATO/ISAF website at: http://www.nato.int/isaf/topics/recon_dev/prts.html.

Want to be part of an Afghanistan PRT? To volunteer, visit the AFPC website at: http://ask.afpc.randolph.af.mil/main_content.asp?prods1=1&prods2=14&prods3=2498&p_faqid=6843.