From Midwest to the Middle East

Three Bloomington women are all missing the same man.\nA week ago today, Pvt. Bret Hawkins, 20, left for final training as an artillery gunner for the National Guard until he is deployed to Iraq at the end of February.\nAside from his two summers away at training since his enlistment, Bret Hawkins lived at home until he was deployed Jan. 2. When he reaches his destination in Iraq, he will be stationed about 200 miles north of Baghdad and more than 7000 miles from Bloomington, a place his grandmother, mother and girlfriend call home.\n“My guess was that if things didn’t change very shortly that yes, he would be deployed,” said Rita Rogers, Bret Hawkins’ grandmother.\nAlthough Bret Hawkins expected to be deployed, he was still “shocked” when he got the official news. But he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t prepared himself emotionally.\n“When he got the word that he was going, I was kind of upset, obviously,” said Laura Hawkins, his mother. “But more so than I thought because I thought I prepared myself for it, but I guess I didn’t.”\nCollege\nCollege students and academia have surrounded Bret Hawkins for most of his life.\nLaura Hawkins worked for IU as a departmental secretary for about 11 years and Rogers has worked at the Herman B Wells Library for almost 30 years. \n“I think that in a college town, possibly, there are people all around you – the environment of high expectation,” Rogers said.\nAfter leaving his job stocking the back room at Target, Bret Hawkins enlisted in the National Guard March 16, 2005 to benefit from the G.I. Bill, which offers a grant to pay for a soldier’s higher education, and for the experience.\n“I really think that he just thought he wouldn’t be able to get enough grants or student loans … to pay for college,” Laura Hawkins said.\nBret Hawkins’ girlfriend of two and a half years, Maria Baker, is also a private in the National Guard. She said a soldier is also awarded $20,000 after they complete training.\nHowever, after his first semester at Ivy Tech-Bloomington last spring, he and his mother learned he had received enough financial aid to cover most of his expenses without the G.I. Bill. \nBut he had already made his commitment.\nRogers said she gave him her best advice regarding his decision.\n“I would say to answer to his responsibility, which he’s very good at,” she said. “And to take along a sense of humor. A sense of humor can help you through it.”\nThe War\nBret Hawkins has never been outside of the United States, so he isn’t sure what to look forward to in his time abroad.\nRogers said initially the family was worried for him because they knew he hadn’t been “well-traveled.”\nMedia portrayals of Iraq “just make it seem real bad,” Bret Hawkins said, which, coupled with leaving behind the three women in his life, doesn’t help his or his family’s anxiety.\nLaura Hawkins said she doesn’t “agree with all of the decisions that the president has made” about the war, but political views don’t diminish her support for her son or any of the other soldiers in Iraq.\n“They’re just doing their job,” she said. “At the same time I’m really proud of him and he’s going to have lifelong memories to tell his grandchildren and meet lifelong friends.”\nHis girlfriend, Baker, also planned on joining some branch of the military since she was a child, but Bret Hawkins persuaded her to enlist in the National Guard. \n“I want to go over there,” Baker said. “It kind of annoys me when people talk about the war and say we should be over there or we shouldn’t be over there for this or that … I’m going to go over there for myself and have an educated opinion about it.” \nShe said almost all her friends and their boyfriends were in some military branch, so the deployment was less of a strain on their relationship.\n“It doesn’t bother me to the point where I’ll be worried about our relationship. It bothers me to the point where I miss him,” Baker said. “That’s the only thing that bothers me about him going overseas except the fact he might be shot. But we don’t think about that.”\nAll opinions aside, Rogers hopes her grandson will “do some good.”\n“Well, I have no doubt he will come back a different person, especially because this is the time of anyone’s life when they grow up drastically,” Rogers said. “I would like to think that he will add to his interest in being a good person and helping others.” \nBret Hawkins was Rogers’ first grandchild and he visited her at least once a week growing up, so she had a hard time with his deployment. But, she said, she dealt with most of the emotions when he left for training the first time. \n“I didn’t like to hear it, of course ­— I’m Grandma,” Rogers said. “But I think that I knew it was coming, and I hated to see him go.”\nHomecoming\nWhen Bret Hawkins comes home next year, Baker told him to watch out because she will attack him with a full-force hug. \nAnd she won’t be the only one. Rogers said she’s also waiting for a hard-earned hug from her grandson. But she said she will try not to ask for anything in return.\n“I understand that when people are away it takes them a while to get acclimated to people getting home again,” Rogers said. “So I want to be patient with him and not expect too much.”\nLaura Hawkins acknowledged that a move from relatively quiet Bloomington to a war zone in the Middle East will change her son, but is unsure of what that change will be.\n“As scary as it is, it’s going to change his entire life — maybe some for the worse, maybe some for the better,” Hawkins said. “But hopefully mostly for the better.”