Back from the Middle East

Washington County Attorney John Gish will return to his regular job Monday.

Gish, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, spent most of 2020 deployed to Kuwait.

'I was in Kuwait all the way through December,” Gish said. 'I was with the 311th Expeditionary Sustainment Command.”

He left Iowa on Feb. 15, 2020, and trained in California and Texas before shipping out to Kuwait.

The 311th Sustainment Command is attached to the First Theater Sustainment Command, Gish said.

'The mission of the First Theater Sustainment Command is to sustain the war fighters in the Middle East, from land, air and sea logistics,” he said. 'We made sure that all members of the United States armed forces were provided with what they needed to eat, to live and to defend the interests in the United States.”

As the night shift battle major, he supervised the operations center from about 7 p.m.-7 a.m. every day.

'That would mean waking up having dinner for breakfast and going to work for 12 hours,” Gish said. 'In the operations center, we manage communications with units below us and units above us.

'We do what's called battle tracking. We're monitoring movements in the U.S. (Central Command) area of responsibility in the Middle East.”

The work kept him busy.

'When you're deployed with the military, you can expect pretty long hours - 12 or so hours a day, six or seven days a week,” he said. 'It's just hard work.”

In an effort to maintain continuity during his deployment, Gish continued to review investigations and criminal prosecutions, provide legal advice to county boards and officers, interview applicants for employment in the office, hold regular video meetings with staff, respond to emails and speak with crime victims.

This was Gish's second deployment since joining the U.S. Army Reserve out of college in 2009.

In 2014, he deployed to Afghanistan, then spent time in Kuwait near the end of his hitch, so he was familiar with the area when we returned last year.

'I think the first thing everyone talks about is the weather, which is absolutely true,” Gish said. 'It gets triple digits there in the summertime, plus some humidity. Coming back home in late December was quite an adjustment.”

He said that the metro areas, namely Kuwait City, the capital, is 'westernized.”

'It's a pretty incredible city,” he said. 'What you see there might not be a whole lot different from what you see in the United States. People are different, and that's about it.”

Out in the desert, though, it is different.

'In the desert you might see villagers and farmers, people with camels roaming about,” he said. 'That's probably something you wouldn't see in the U.S.”

Gish said that he is proud of and finds fulfillment in his military service.

'Every time I'm on active duty, I feel like I become stronger and more resilient from those days in the service, and this deployment was no different,” he said. 'The biggest thing for me, from this experience, was being able to observe different styles of leadership and trying to find areas where I could learn from that, both positive and negative, and be a better leader for the county attorney's office.”

He said that his experiences have helped give him strength to do the right thing at all times.

'Whenever I'm face with a situation that is immoral, unethical or illegal, I always try to pursue the correct path, even if it's difficult for me,” he said. 'If nobody does the right thing, then the system can sometimes become corrupted.

'In the army and as county attorney, I'm always approaching those types of issues with integrity and determination.”

Gish said he is thankful for all of the support he and his family received during his deployment.

'Everyone's come together and rallied around my family and provided us help,” he said. 'I received a lot of letters and care packages that I was able to share with others over there. It's always nice to receive that type of correspondence.

'It really shows the kind of support our community and our county has for military members, which is pretty amazing.”