Reservist signs up for another hitch
Monday, March 07, 2005
DEAN BOHN
THE SAGINAW NEWS
In a family full of girls, one daughter is hoping her late father is smiling from heaven as she treads the paths of the son he never had.
War veteran, police officer, mechanic -- Army Sgt. Elizaeth A. Bedore, who now is in Iraq, fills all of those shoes.
"We've got four girls, and her dad is watching in heaven and he would be proud," said Bedore's mother, Christene D. Goergen, 51, of Carrollton Township.
Her husband, Michael J. Bedore, was 40 when he died in 1993 of complications from a stroke and a heart attack. Beth Bedore was in high school then.
Their other daughters are Michele M. Premo, 31, of Zilwaukee Township; Sarah L. Falkenberg, 29, of Saginaw; and Susan B. Bedore, 25, of Zilwaukee Township.
These days, "Beth" Bedore has completed 10 years in the Army Reserve and recently signed up for another six-year hitch. She plans to serve for 20 years and retire, her mother said.
Not only did Bedore re-enlist -- accompanied with a $1,000 a year bonus for six years -- she requested service in Iraq, figuring that's the way she could best help out.
"She's a mechanic in the motor pool, something she says she prefers to do more than anything else," Goergen said.
Bedore joined the Army Reserve to get money for college. She graduated from Northwood University in 2000, majoring in hotel-restaurant management with a minor in accounting. Lack of employment led her to take a server's job at the Ruby Tuesday's restaurant in Midland and then one in Georgia.
While there she decided she wanted to join the FBI, Goergen said, a career that first requires police service.
Bedore, 27, enlisted in a police academy in Georgia and the Marietta Police Department hired her.
Her job awaits her there -- whenever she returns.
"She's been employed here for a couple of years, but she's been on active duty for the majority of it," said Brian Marshall, public information officer for Marietta police.
The Army called Bedore in December 2003 and sent her to Kuwait the next February.
The mechanic for all-wheeled vehicles originally was deployed with the 175th Maintenance Company to Kuwait and was attached 11 months later to the 561st Corps Support Group in northwestern Iraq.
"I'm very proud of her," Goergen said. "I don't worry about her -- I do, but I don't. I give her to God to watch out for her.
"I guess she's in no more danger than if she was back here working as a police officer." v
Dean Bohn is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9679.