Student has difficult time juggling classes with wife in military
Ed Vos balanced school, kids, job while wife was deployed in Iraq
Bridget Donovan
Issue date: 1/29/10 Section: Features
It can be difficult juggling a career, family and college, but it can be more difficult doing all of those things while your wife is serving in Iraq.
Ed Vos, broadcasting sophomore, is a comedian, full time college student, husband, father and retired Master Sergeant. He said his wife, Angie, has been in Air National Guard for almost 25 years.
Vos said Angie volunteered last spring to go to Iraq, and was selected to be the senior enlisted adviser, which made her the commander's key adviser. She left for Iraq in late August.
"This is the first time she's been deployed. I deployed a lot, like four times in the time we were married," Vos said. "In Afghanistan I was on convoys and I was out in villages, we did a lot of stuff off base or what's called outside the wire. But it's far scarier having her gone than me being gone."
Vos said the first few months after Angie left were a transition period, but when Angie's sister also deployed, he lost the main person who was helping to care for the kids. He works weekends and evenings doing comedy, so he had to develop a rotation of family and friends who could help watch the kids: Ben, 19; Jacob,16; Elizabeth, 11; and Samantha, 7.
"I had several people go two or three times through. There's no way I could have done it without family and friends," Vos said. "It would have been impossible."
Vos said he and Angie sent e-mails daily and talked on the phone every few days, but he encouraged her to distance herself from life at home so she could keep her mind on her job.
"It's difficult with someone who's your best friend and you want to share everything with, and you know that it's not in her best interest," Vos said.
Vos said he missed important moments in his children's lives when he was deployed to different places and it was hard on the kids, so they weren't sure how the children would react to their mother being gone for the holidays.
"It was really surreal how they were OK with it, nobody broke down (at Christmas). I think they've grown up with this sense of 'this is what we do.' I've never seen it from this side before, I've just heard about it from the other side, and I'm just blown away by how well they've done."
On Jan. 21, Angie returned home safely.
"Everybody's very happy to have her home," Vos said, "with a mixture of joy and relief."
Ed Vos, broadcasting sophomore, is a comedian, full time college student, husband, father and retired Master Sergeant. He said his wife, Angie, has been in Air National Guard for almost 25 years.
Vos said Angie volunteered last spring to go to Iraq, and was selected to be the senior enlisted adviser, which made her the commander's key adviser. She left for Iraq in late August.
"This is the first time she's been deployed. I deployed a lot, like four times in the time we were married," Vos said. "In Afghanistan I was on convoys and I was out in villages, we did a lot of stuff off base or what's called outside the wire. But it's far scarier having her gone than me being gone."
Vos said the first few months after Angie left were a transition period, but when Angie's sister also deployed, he lost the main person who was helping to care for the kids. He works weekends and evenings doing comedy, so he had to develop a rotation of family and friends who could help watch the kids: Ben, 19; Jacob,16; Elizabeth, 11; and Samantha, 7.
"I had several people go two or three times through. There's no way I could have done it without family and friends," Vos said. "It would have been impossible."
Vos said he and Angie sent e-mails daily and talked on the phone every few days, but he encouraged her to distance herself from life at home so she could keep her mind on her job.
"It's difficult with someone who's your best friend and you want to share everything with, and you know that it's not in her best interest," Vos said.
Vos said he missed important moments in his children's lives when he was deployed to different places and it was hard on the kids, so they weren't sure how the children would react to their mother being gone for the holidays.
"It was really surreal how they were OK with it, nobody broke down (at Christmas). I think they've grown up with this sense of 'this is what we do.' I've never seen it from this side before, I've just heard about it from the other side, and I'm just blown away by how well they've done."
On Jan. 21, Angie returned home safely.
"Everybody's very happy to have her home," Vos said, "with a mixture of joy and relief."
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