Single dad re-enlists,
compelled to keep
fighting for
U.S. freedoms

Terry Staber opts to continue
his Army service

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By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Army Spc. Terry Staber was scheduled to end his military service at Schofield Barracks in November, go back to Colorado to restart his building contracting business and spend more time with his 5-year-old daughter, Nora.

But when terrorists slammed two hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York and another into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, those plans were put on hold.

"I knew I would have to re-enlist on the morning of the 11th. I knew that. But I also knew I would have to check it with my boss," said the single dad, referring to his daughter.

Yesterday, the 42-year-old vehicle operator re-enlisted in the Army for his third tour of three years.

Staber woke up Sept. 11 to a telephone call from his mother in Oklahoma. Staber's youngest sister was in New York attending training classes in the World Trade Center for a new job. No one had heard from her since the attack.

"I worried about her all day long, with my mother calling me in a panic early in the morning and telling me she didn't know how to find her. I couldn't get through to New York and had to go to work that day without being able to do anything," he said.

Staber said he finally did get through to his sister that evening. She was on her way to the World Trade Center when the planes crashed into the towers and just 21/2 blocks away when the towers collapsed, he said.

Staber's daughter was at his side during yesterday's re-enlistment ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial even though he said she was looking forward to his getting out of the Army.

"When we go through the gate, she sees all the people searching the cars with machine guns. She also sees the school down the street from us with barbed wire around it. She knows what's going on."

Staber said he can earn a lot more money driving a bus or a truck on the outside than he does in the Army. He said he re-enlisted to ensure the freedoms Americans now enjoy that he has seen people in other countries suffer without.

"I actually saw a woman get stoned to death just on the suspicion that she was trying to seduce her boss."

He said that occurred in Saudi Arabia when he was there during the Persian Gulf War. Staber said he also felt helpless when he heard firing squads carry out executions there.

"I can make three, four, five times the money on the outside. I'm in it for something much, much bigger which will never reflect in my bank account. But every time I want to speak my mind like I am now, I don't have to worry about being arrested for it. Any time I want to go to church and practice my own religion, I don't have to worry about someone dragging me out in the street and stoning me for it."