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R. Calvin Shook

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Hometown Heroes: Law and order

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Pfc. R. Calvin Shook of Max Meadows got a firsthand look earlier this year at the progress being made in Iraq.
In fact, he was a part of it.
Shook, 22, and his fellow members of the U.S. Army’s 108th Military Police Company (Airborne) (Air Assault) spent most of their 15-month Iraq tour training Iraqi police officers.
“The more we worked with them, the more they got comfortable with us,” Shook said by phone from Fort Bragg, N.C., where he has been stationed since his company returned on Aug. 2. “I noticed they started caring.”
As with many soldiers, Shook, who has three older siblings, two brothers and a sister, Brandy Page, comes from a family with a lengthy military background.
Both of his brothers, W. Reid Lawson and Perry Lawson, served in the Desert Storm conflict and his nephew, Cpl. Michael Lawson, remains deployed in Afghanistan.
Shook’s mother, Berlene, pointed out that her son is the third Robert Calvin Shook to serve in the military, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.
After graduating from high school with a home-school diploma in 2004, Shook said he worked for his father’s RCS Communications company for about a year before deciding to enlist as a 19-year-old.
“I personally felt like right after high school I kind of wasn’t going anywhere and I wanted to do more,” Shook said. “Just one day I said I was going to do it.”
Upon Shook’s initial arrival to Iraq in 2007, his company was stationed at Forward Operating Base Q-West.
Shook spent the first three months of his tour providing convoy security as a Humvee gunner.
“Basically we just provided security for convoys going from one FOB to another,” he said.
After shifting to the Sadr City enclave in northern Baghdad, Shook began working directly with Iraqi law enforcement officers on a police transition teams assignment.
Shook said the training the U.S. troops provided focused on basic police tactics, such as how to search vehicles and detain and question suspects.
Working side-by-side with many of the same police recruits for weeks at a time, Shook said he bonded with his Iraqi counterparts.
Berlene said her son naturally connects with people.
“He’s always helpful, got a friendly personality,” she said. “He’s real outgoing.”
Having already gone through the experience of having her two oldest sons at war, Berlene said she initially had some reservations about Shook’s enlistment.
Nevertheless, she said she fully supported her son once he made his decision.
“I kept myself busy sending him boxes and letters and thinking positive,” Berlene said regarding how she coped with Shook’s deployment. “I’m proud of what they’ve done, but I’m glad at the same time when I got them home.”
She added that although she has her son home safely, she continues to worry about Michael Lawson in Afghanistan and all the other soldiers fighting the war.
As family members at home worried about his safety, Shook said one of the hardest parts of his experience at war was facing his own mortality on a daily basis.
“What most people don’t realize is every soldier, and I mean every soldier…the thing that’s on their mind is, ‘Am I going to come back?’” Shook said.
He recounted at least four close calls with improvised explosive devices, and although he wasn’t injured, he said the image of debris flying in the air after an IED detonates is hard to shake.
“It’s a scary feeling,” he said.
After especially tough days, Shook said it was hard to want to put himself in danger again.
He said, though, that he focused on the fact that if he didn’t do his job, he’d be letting down his fellow soldiers.
“This is my job, this is what I got to do,” Shook said in describing his mindset in Iraq. “You got to mentally and physically push yourself to go out. You just can’t give up. You just can’t.”
Although he experienced plenty of harrowing moments during his combat tour, Shook said the country itself was fascinating.
He described a huge street market in Baghdad where vendors sold everything from chunks of ice to roasted whole chickens. Shook added that other streets in Iraq looked like vintage car parades.
“You feel like you’ve gone back in time a little bit,” he said.
While he’s now safely back in the United States, Shook’s life doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.
He got married on Aug. 14 to his now wife, Kahlena, and the couple are expecting their first child.
Shook re-enlisted for four more years while on his deployment and his next move likely will be to Camp Zama in Japan, where he expects to be a military police officer at the Army base.
Kahlena said the adventurous lifestyle that goes along with being in the military fits her husband’s personality well.
“He’s a huge go-getter,” she said. “He loves to travel, to go and just do something…keeps me on my toes.”
Looking back on the past three years, Shook said joining the military was a life-changing experience.
Even after having only completed basic training, he said he knew he’d never look at the world the same again.
“I was a complete different person than when I first got in,” he said. “It’s made me a lot more mature, more responsible.”
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .