Thomasville Woman, 54, Facing First Deployment

Winston-Salem News

October 12, 2011

THOMASVILLE, N.C. -- Roberta Toshumba is a very goal-oriented woman who is not afraid of a new challenge.

Toshumba was so set on earning a college education that she joined the National Guard at age 28, using the resources to her advantage while still working and starting a family.

More than two decades and a master’s degree later, Toshumba is about to embark on the biggest challenge of her life. After narrowly avoiding being deployed during the first 25 years of her National Guard career, Toshumba is heading overseas.

“This is my first deployment,” Toshumba, 54, said. “In two different units, right after I left, they were deployed. It just so happened that I didn’t go. It wasn’t by choice. It just sort of happened that way.”

Now a mother of two adult daughters, Toshumba will leave for Southeast Asia this winter to spend the next year “in country” as a Chief Warrant Officer. She could’ve retired from the National Guard after 20 years, but the chance to advance her career presented itself yet again, and Toshumba couldn’t pass up the opportunity – even if it meant leaving the ones she loves right before the holidays.

“There is always some apprehension about going into the unknown,” said Toshumba. “I think being separated from my family is a little easier because I know I have their support. My children are older and my husband has been a great support.

“He has encouraged me to go through with this. It does make it harder because this will be the first time I’ve been away from my family during that time of year.”

Toshumba will join the 113th Sustainment Brigade out of Greensboro as a support unit in an undisclosed location. Many of the soldiers going with her have been deployed as many as three times in the past decade.

This is not the first time Toshumba has left the country. She’s been to Italy twice, Germany and Jordan for support purposes, but never for more than a couple of weeks. What Toshumba is concerned about the most is how her body is going to respond.“

Probably the most difficult part of this deployment is going through the training,” Toshumba said. “Once we got in country, you’ll get to train for your job. That will be a perk but prior to that we have to go through some pretty intense physical training before we get there. For me, it will be a challenge because my age is a factor, in some ways. I’m pretty physically fit.”

Once there, her unit’s responsibility will be to ensure critical resources, including food, water, fuel, ammunition, medical supplies, building materials and vehicle parts, get to U.S. and allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Toshumba’s specializes as a military personnel technician and warrant officers are considered experts in their fields. She expects to work primarily in personnel or maintain officer evaluations.

She would like to serve in the National Guard for four more years before retiring at 58.

“I’m anticipating the challenge and the opportunity to work in my MOS (military occupation specialty),” said Toshumba. “My goal was to go as far as I could. It’s gone by extremely fast. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been in the Guard that long. For the most part, its gone by pretty fast.”

Thanks to the Internet and video services like Skype, Toshumba will stay connected to her family on a regular basis. Toshumba works at Davidson County Community College as a academic counselor for the student support services program and plans to return to the school when she returns.

Her husband, Jamaal, said the deployment will be the first time the couple has been apart for that long in the past 31 years.“

It’s going to be an interesting time and I’m interested to see if I’m up for the task,” Jamaal Toshumba said. “This will bode well for her and where she wants to go. We’ve been preparing for this and now it’s coming to fruition and we have to deal with it. There are some things you take for granted, a lot of the little things.”

The Toshumba family will miss out on some of the little things over the next year, but Roberta has always focused on the big picture. While most people her age are winding down their career, Roberta Toshumba is not only doing something for the first time, she’s doing it with others half her age.

Once she sets her mind on something, no goal is too great.

This article appeared in Tuesday's edition of the Thomasville Times.