Thomas Iverson served overseas in the Army Reserves in Poland for the duration of the previous school year, leaving behind his wife (Liz Iverson) and children.

Iverson found out he had to leave two months after his youngest daughter Adeline was born.

“My wife was working full time and, with two very young children, had a lot on her plate. I would say the difficulty would be more concern for her and the family then it was for anything that I would have been going through,” Iverson said.

Iverson has two kids: Ainsley, now 3 years old, and Adeline, now 17 months. When he can, Iverson spends as much time with them as possible.

“The main difficulty is that I’m missing out on a whole year of my daughters’ lives when they are very young, and you don’t get that time back,” Iverson said.

When Iverson came home, North had a drumline for him as a surprise for his wife. The moment that makes it worth it to him is his return home. He is finally able to get release from his stressful situation.

“There’s that anticipation, and when you go through something difficult, you get through it and it’s just release. That almost moment or those moments of coming home, those in a sense made it worth it. Just the joy of being reunited. Not everybody has that opportunity because not everybody comes home,” Iverson said.

Iverson explains what it is like to be in a leadership position, as the leader of his group. It is important to address the situation first and admitting when you are wrong.

“It goes back to how you handle those situations when you do make those mistakes. Nobody’s perfect, and when somebody is in a leadership position, their mistakes are just more visible,” Iverson said.

Iverson was the only soldier from mainland; the rest of his men came from Puerto Rico. Although the main source of communication was Spanish, he used the opportunity to help himself get better at the language.

“I worked on my Spanish while I was down there. That was a lot of fun for me because I always enjoyed Spanish in high school. Being able to learn in context and improve those skills was kind of a fun challenge for me,” Iverson said.