Sharing his story
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Kansas Highway Patrol Technical Trooper Jeff Norling of Reading this year traded his trooper uniform for military camouflage and medical equipment, to serve in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Norling, a technical sergeant in the United States Air Force, is a medical technician with the 190th refueling wing out of Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka. He returned to Lyon County late this summer and on Tuesday took time to be the keynote speaker at the “Business Salute to Veterans” luncheon at American Legion Post 5, 2921 W. 12th Ave.
The luncheon was part of Veterans Tribute Week activities sponsored by the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The tour of duty was the second overseas assignment for the KHP trooper; in 2007, he was sent on a humanitarian mission to Armenia.
Afghanistan, though, was the focus of the presentation on Tuesday.
Norling gave the unexpectedly large crowd a view of the country not usually seen in traditional news reports.
His talk, illustrated with photographs and text in a PowerPoint presentation, began with a smiling photograph of him and his family — wife Shelly and their three children — as they left him at the airport to fly out to Afghanistan. It was an experience that many of the veterans who attended had lived through themselves.
“This picture here was taken just a few minutes before we all started bawling,” Norling said of the farewell shot. “Probably the hardest part is saying goodbye.”
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