A soldier returns home

By Jennifer Dawson/Times Sentinel managing editor

May 09, 2008 01:27 pm

— Commander Tim Stoner of the U.S. Army National Guard returned home last week from a 10-month tour in Iraq, and was greeted by his four children wearing T-shirts that read “My Dad Rocks.” Tim, 38, had not seen his wife, Tiffany, and his kids in 400 days. Now settled back in their Zionsville home, he said he is practicing an “exercise in deceleration,” going from 110 mph to 0 mph.
Tim was the commander of Charlie Company, a MEDEVAC unit, and the Taskforce Commander of that company and Delta Company, a maintenance unit. The two companies combined are referred to as task force DUSTOFF. Simply put, he mainly flew Blackhawk helicopters to help wounded soldiers.
“Getting to save our soldiers’ lives is immensely satisfying,” Tim said. He said the experience transformed his respect for human life.
Tim wasn’t always a pilot, though. He joined the National Guard at 18 to take advantage of the GI Bill. He served the typical one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer as a general infantry guy. He graduated from Ball State University with a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing and a graduate degree in information and communication sciences. He moved to Chicago with Tiffany, whom he met in college, and worked for a large consulting firm while keeping his commitment with the Guard. But he soon decided he wanted to be a pilot — one of the most coveted spots in the Army. He started applying for flight school in 1991, and was finally selected six years later. At 28, Tim had to take a leave of absence from corporate America to get through rigorous flight school and fly a minimum of eight days a month. He said he compromised sleep and had a nonexistent social life.
Tim and Tiffany Stoner eventually relocated to Zionsville where Tiffany said they found the small town feel they were looking for. Tim worked for Fusion Alliance, a technology services company, and Tiffany followed her passion for photography, working for nathaniel edmunds Photography. The Stoners started a family and would have two boys and two girls. Briggs, 6, Gage 2, and twins Campbell and Emerson, 8 months, were all too young to understand what it meant when their dad was deployed to Iraq in May 2007. Tim said he told his oldest son, Briggs, that “Daddy has to go fly his Blackhawk to save the soldiers,” but he promised him he would be back for his seventh birthday.
The Stoners had heard “whisperings” that Tim might be deployed, and in late summer 2006 was told he would be flying to Washington D.C. for a National Guard drill. But Tim expected he would be told he was going to Iraq. Thirty Commanders were brought to a secret briefing room in the National Guard headquarters and informed of their deployment.
“When I heard we were going, I didn’t think twice,” Tim said.
But the Stoner family had a lot to consider: finances, wills, bank accounts and kids. And, of course, the emotional stress on the family. When Tim left for Iraq the family had plenty of time to get their “business stuff” in order, but they now had four children, the oldest child only 6 years old.
“Dealing with these children, I was having a war of my own over here,” Tiffany joked.
She fully supported her husband serving in Iraq, and found support of her own through family, neighbors, Bible study and the blog she and Tim started. Though they kept in touch through phone calls and e-mails, it was the blog, www.lettersfromtim.com, that really kept them connected. And, Tiffany said, it hit home with hundreds of people she didn’t even know. With 500 to 600 people a day on the blog, she heard from bloggers as far away as Europe and India.
The last entry on the blog, entitled “Imagine,” read:
“Imagine the six most content people in the world right now … four kids smiling from ear-to-ear, yelling for their dad’s attention, a mother that finally has some reinforcement and an enormous weight lifted off of her shoulders with the security of her partner out of a war zone, and a father relieved to be home but completely satisfied with a successful mission of bringing 150 soldiers home alive.”
Tim said his mission was accomplished; with 4,000 flight hours and more than 1,000 combat missions, his unit rescued 1,500 soldiers and civilians. And, he said, he would do it again. But for now he said he is enjoying cooking and changing dirty diapers. Honest.

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