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Thursday, January 22, 2004
War readies DCF leader for new job challenge
By DEBORAH CIRCELLI | News-Journal Staff Writer
PORT ORANGE — Betsy Lewis would just about get to sleep after working the night shift when air raids sounded.
She´d jump out of bed, grab her gas mask and put on a chemical protective suit. On top of that went her flak vest, helmet, handgun and ammunition before heading to the bunkers.
The bombing continued eight times a day for about 10 days. It was near the beginning of her year-long stay in Kuwait as part of the U.S. Army Reserve. What followed were sandstorms so fierce she´d skip lunch instead of walking to the mess hall.
Temperatures topped 130 degrees.
Lewis, the local deputy administrator of the state Department of Children & Families, had to miss both her sons´ birthdays, Easter, Thanksgiving, her oldest son´s senior prom and teaching her youngest how to drive while she spent her year overseas. Relaxing in her Port Orange home last week, the mother, who is separated from her husband, talked with her sons, Joseph, 19, and John, 15, about their time apart. Since Lewis´ return last month, Mom and her boys have been playing computer games together and shopping.
Just two weeks back on the job, she is expected to take over in early February as acting DCF administrator for Volusia and Flagler counties, overseeing all operations.
Ron Zychowski is resigning to work in the private sector. Lewis, who has been with DCF for 15 years, is considering applying for his job.
“The hardest thing about being away was worrying about my kids and making sure nothing happened to them,” said Lewis, 44, who was deployed last Jan. 3.
Joseph stayed at home by himself the whole year, including the second half of his senior year at Spruce Creek High School. John went to live with his father in Key West. “It was a hot, dusty, nasty place,” Lewis said about Kuwait. “I still feel like I need to put moisturizer on my hands.”
While she was sleeping in a tent southwest of Kuwait City and coordinating the delivery of supplies and equipment to soldiers in Iraq, Joseph was cooking, doing laundry and waking himself up for school.
“It was rough. You don´t have Mom to yell at you,” said Joseph, who was able to keep his 3.2 grade point average. “I had to grow up really fast. The hardest part was coming home to a dark house.”
Lewis, a lieutenant colonel, has served 22 years in the Army – about seven in active duty. She expects to stay in the Army Reserve another seven years.
Her biggest scare was when Joseph e-mailed in October asking her to call home right away. She found out the next day that he had been in a minor car accident.
“I worried about them and I wanted to be there,” she said.
She was able to come home for about a week for Joseph´s graduation in May. She found out a month before and the trip cost $1,300.
Her boys changed a lot in a year. Joseph, who has an interview next month at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, pierced his ears and his nose. Meanwhile, the youngest, John, learned how to drive, worked part time at a grocery store and grew several inches.
“They´ve both become very mature and independent,” Lewis said.
Before leaving for Kuwait, Lewis said she was apprehensive for her safety because of the bombing. Her job with the 143rd Transportation Command in Orlando also dealt with writing transportation plans for moving soldiers safely in and out of Iraq. “Every day was a challenge of who do we have to move and why and what is the emergency?” she said.
John, who wrote his mom 48 letters before sending e-mails, watched the news every day, while the oldest kept the television off because he didn´t want to worry even more.
“I was lonely,” John said, lying on the couch next to one of his dogs, which stayed at a shelter in Jacksonville.
Lewis called her children about once a week, though calls were limited to 10 minutes. She spent about $150 on calling cards.
Her parents, who are winter residents in Palm Coast, also checked on Joseph for half of the year. Besides missing her children, she missed little things like chicken wings and a “good steak,” she said.
As far as her DCF job, she checked local child-welfare news daily online and co-workers sent news articles.
Edwin Marrero, operations and training specialist for the 143rd Transportation Command, said Lewis was one of more than 150 who have been deployed since November 2001 from Central Florida.
He said the amazing thing about Lewis is that not only did she work 12-to-16-hour days in Kuwait, but she also wrote papers and completed a master´s degree in strategic studies despite the harsh conditions.
Lewis says she is now just trying to get her offspring settled. In her kitchen getting ready to prepare dinner, she said that despite the year she´s lost and the growth in her sons – “they´re still my babies.”