PROFESSION:
October 20 2006
One morning in Iraq, Kyle Tucker Jr. decided to sleep late.
He usually took a shower first thing in the morning, but this time he'd showered the evening before.
It was a good thing because that morning "a rocket hit the shower trailer," he recalls. "A soldier had to be med-evaced."
Tucker's a civilian, but he spends a lot of time in combat zones. He works for the Army, setting up communication systems for the troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. He does that job so well, he was honored this month as one of the federal government's "Rising Stars" for 2006. Fifty-three federal employees received the award, given by Federal Computer Week magazine to honor outstanding young information-technology workers.
Tucker grew up in Hampton, went to Hampton High School and graduated magna cum laude from Hampton University. He works for the Defense Wide Transmission Systems.
"I meet the needs of the customer, the warfighter," the 34-year-old Tucker said in a phone interview from Fort Monmouth, N.J., where the DWTS is headquartered.
Those warfighters need to communicate with each other, sometimes over long distances. What Tucker does is go to the military bases being set up in the war zones, find out what their communications needs are - voice, video or data transmission - and propose solutions. Then he manages the team of engineers that sets up the necessary equipment.
"When we first went into Iraq and Afghanistan, there was nothing there in terms of infrastructure," Tucker said. So he's been busy.
He's made multiple trips into the war zones, totaling between six and eight months. "I'm getting ready to head back to Kuwait in November, and in March I'll probably head back to Afghanistan," he said. He's recently been promoted to team leader for his outfit in those two countries.
And he's shared a few of the troops' hazards. Rocket fire was a frequent occurrence during that one trip to Iraq, commencing about 5:30 to 6 a.m. "Every day we knew when it was time to get up, because the terrorists would start in with their rockets," Tucker said.
Said Army spokesman Stephen Larsen, "We have a lot of civilians, Department of Defense employees and contractors who are in harm's way helping the soldiers, facing the same dangers."
Sometimes the bad guys prefer to target American civilians, Larsen said, "because they figure they're the experts."
Tucker lives in New Jersey with his wife, Rolanda, and their two boys, ages 8 and 5.
"He always has been studious, quiet, and a volunteer," said his mother, Ollie Tucker. She and his father, Kyle Sr., live in Hampton. "He volunteered at 17 to be an EMT for the city of Hampton."
Tucker was unable to enlist in the military because of allergies, she said, "so he feels this is his way of doing whatever he can."
Tucker is also a paramedic who, on Sept. 12, 2001, was with an emergency medical task force from New Jersey that went to New York City in response to the World Trade Center attack.
Copyright © 2006, Daily Press
Posted By: Joah King
Tuesday, October 24th 2006 at 9:10AM
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