By Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Matson
Task Force Red Bulls
LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan, July 5, 2011 - Army Sgt. 1st Class Tim Fiedler Jr., and his younger brother, Army Staff Sgt. Rich Fiedler, have put in more than 50 years of combined service in the Iowa National Guard's Company A, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment.
Army Staff Sgt. Rich Fiedler, left, and his brother, Army Sgt. 1st Class Tim Fiedler, right, sit together June 14, 2011, on Combat Outpost Najil in Afghanistan's Laghman province. The Fiedler brothers have more than 50 years of combined service in the Iowa National Guard's Company A, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Jason Beck |
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Tim said he joined the Guard 29 years ago for the college money. But regardless of their initial motivation, the brothers said, a sense of family has kept them in Company A.
"A Company is a pretty tight-knit group," Tim explained. "Some of the people have been here a long time. Working with the younger guys, for me, has been enjoyable. I could have retired before I came [to Afghanistan]. I didn't have to come, but this is something I wanted to do. I enjoy it."
Like Rich Fiedler, Army Sgt. David Tielbar, the company's senior radio telephone operator, has served in Company A for 22 years. "I met the Fiedlers through the Guard," he said. "I've had them both as team and squad leaders, but we're family – this company is a family. We've watched the company grow and shrink, but we always stuck together. They'll tell me like it is, and I respect their honesty. But above it all, they care about the company's soldiers."
Tim said he sold cars briefly after college. Rich said that aside from a few part-time jobs, he never has worked outside Company A and the Iowa National Guard.
The brothers said they never expected to serve for decades when they joined the Guard.
"I hated Camp Ripley," Tim said, referring to a military training center in Minnesota. "We went to our annual training there every year, and it rains, and it's horrible. In fact, when I re-enlisted, they offered a nice little bonus of $5,000 for six years.
"I wasn't going to re-enlist, and the recruiter asked why," he continued. "I told him, 'I don't want to go to Camp Ripley.' So they made me a deal – for two years I didn't have to go to Camp Ripley. One year I went to the primary leadership course, and one year I did recruiting duty instead."
Now Company A's acting first sergeant, Tim said he still wound up going back to Camp Ripley about 25 more times anyway.
A third Fiedler brother, Kenny, also served in Company A, but he left the National Guard after nine years of service.
Younger brother Rich said he has followed Tim's lead in the Iowa National Guard in many ways.
"I joined because Tim and Kenny joined, and they went to college, and I wanted to do the same things," he said. Both brothers enlisted as infantrymen and held some of the same positions within the unit.
"The Fiedler brothers have been the company's supply sergeants for the past 16 years," Rich noted.
Since 1988, Tim has served as a full-time active Guard/Reserve-component soldier, and Rich has served full-time since 2002. Tim served six years as the administrative clerk, then as the company's supply sergeant for the following 12 years. After Tim went on to become the readiness noncommissioned officer platoon sergeant, Rich stepped in to fill his brother's vacated position as supply sergeant, a role he has filled since 2007.
Before then, Rich served as an intelligence analyst for the state's counterdrug task force, an assignment he said he looks upon as the highlight of his military career thus far.
"It's a federally funded project; every state has one," Rich explained. "That was probably the most fun I've had in the Guard. I didn't have to wear a uniform or shave, and got to do a lot of neat operations," working with different agencies like the Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI.
Tim said he is living the highlight of his career now, serving as the company's first sergeant while on a combat deployment to Afghanistan. It is also the first time he has deployed with his brother.
"It's always been a dream to be the first sergeant, but my full-time AGR job prevented me from doing that," Tim said. "But being the acting first sergeant of an infantry company at Combat Outpost Najil is a pretty big accomplishment for me. With all the things we accomplished here, it was really rewarding.
"The guys all kid me a lot, and call me 'Dad,'" he added, "but in the two and a half years we spent training up to being here, I've seen a lot of them change and become more mature. It's been challenging, and also rewarding."
A big consideration in spending their service in the same company is the brother's love of their hometown, Dubuque, Iowa, Tim said.
"We were born and raised there, [and] went to high school there," he said. "In fact my oldest son, Tim Fielder III, goes there now, and my youngest son, Tyler, will be a freshman."
Tim still lives in Dubuque, and Rich lives in nearby Epworth, Iowa.
"You're limited in the jobs you can do once you get in the full-time system," Rich explained. "I could have gotten promoted and moved, but I don't want to move, I don't want to live anywhere else."
Tim said that although he could have also been promoted 15 years ago and would be at least a master sergeant by now, you can't put a price on living where you want to live and working with the people you want to work with.
"Staying and living in Dubuque is the tradeoff," he said. "But it's where I've always wanted to live and raise my family. That's where our family lives – my two brothers and sisters and in-laws."
Through more than 50 years and five combined deployments, the Fielders have been a staple of Company A, and they're still going strong.
"I've got a little over three more years I can still do to get 26 years full-time," Tim said.
With Rich still having some full-time service left, the Fiedlers are approaching six decades of combined service before both have finished their careers.
