By John Montesano
The Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club named Thomas Laue October 2020 Veteran of the Month.
Born June 24, 1970, Tom Laue grew up on a farm in Humboldt, S.D.. In June 1988, he joined the South Dakota Army National Guard (ARNG) in Sioux Falls while in high school. After graduation from West Central High School, in nearby, Hartford in 1989, he went to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. for his advanced training as a combat engineer and legal specialist.
He did basic training while in high school. He served in the South Dakota National Guard until 1992, when he left the ARNG and moved to the Aurora area. He met his wife, Diane, in 1992, whom he married in 1995. By 1999, Tom had earned a bachelor’s degree at Northern Illinois University and began his career with Scudder Investments (DB). Both finished with school and now working, Tom and Diane, a registered nurse, purchased their first home in Yorkville. By 2003, they had two children.
Tom had resumed his ARNG service in 1998 with the Wisconsin National Guard in Kenosha, Wis.. His duty was as a legal specialist. In 2000, he allowed his contract to expire and left the ARNG, and thought he was finished serving. However, when 9/11 happened, he felt the need to get back in and in early 2002, joined the Illinois National Guard in Marseilles, an air defense artillery unit that was making a transition to an engineer unit, which fit Tom’s combat engineer training.
In March 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom began. In late January 2004, Tom’s unit was deployed to Iraq with the 30th Brigade 1st Infantry Division at Kirkush Military Training Base, northeast of Baghdad. Tom’s unit was on missions throughout the country, provided convoy security when transporting provisions or personnel; or meeting with town leaders. The threat to his unit was mostly from constant IEDs (improvised explosive devices). It was dangerous and stressful anytime “outside the wire,” he said.
Tom returned from Iraq in January 2005. He did not come home with any psychological or emotional problems. “How you handle situations and how they affect you is an individual thing; some individuals had problems and some did not,” he said. “I am glad that I went and am proud of my time in Iraq.”
His contract was about to expire in 2007 when he learned that his unit was prepping for another deployment in 2008. He let his contract expire and left the National Guard for good. There was no way that he was going to leave his family again. He had already missed the first years of his daughter’s life. This time his commitment to his family overruled all else. On one hand it was a difficult decision, but on the other, the love for his family made it easy. He had served for 10 years and was proud of it. Now he wanted to stay close, and with Diane, concentrate on raising their family.
Tom made a special point about Blue Star families; those who are left at home. “Even though I served, it’s my wife, the mothers, and the other spouses actually take up the bigger brunt because they have to handle everything while you’re gone. She (Diane) took the weight of everything: Two kids, one a newborn baby; work; the house.”
Tom knew from day to day what was happening, but at home, any gap in the usual communications and not knowing the reason why, just added to the anxiety level. “I had pressure and stress but it was nothing near, in my opinion, what she experienced by taking care of what she had to on a daily basis.”
Blue Star families must overcome the isolation of deployments. Their sacrifice is great and they deserve our most heartfelt gratitude. They are truly heroes.