by Kaitie Scott
Ben Feicht
Major Benjamin (Ben) Feicht is a husband and a father. He is also currenlty an instructor for the ROTC program at Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University. Listening to the many different jobs and responsiblity roles Major Feicht has accomplished so far in his service in makes him a true Undercover Hero.
SERVICE
Major Ben Feicht has served three tours to Afghanistan. He is in the United States Army Military Police Corps. Each time, he served in a different role with unique responsibilites pertaining to that role. The time span between all three tours totals to ten years.
LOVED ONES
FIRST TOUR
PROMPTED TO ENLIST
"They were tough,
but
they were fair..."
-Major Ben Feicht
Major Feicht attended college at Louis Unviersity near Chicago. There he decided to join the ROTC program at Wheaton College in Chicago. After four years on the same day of graduation and proposing to his wife; he was commisioned into the Army as a Second Lieutenant. From there, he had a couple of weeks before he went to Fort Lewis, Washington.
FROM TRAINING TO FIRST DAYS
Major Feicht laughed as he tried to reminise on his first days in service after training. "The ROTC prepared me pretty well, but there is nothing that can prepare you for active army," he stated.
"You just have to live it and yes, you are going to make mistakes," he stated. "But you learn form those mistakes and don't make the same mistakes again."
He went on to sharing more of how the ROTC equipped him for the army. The book knowledge was there. It was now the time that he figure out how to actually apply hands-on what he was taught. Of course, one realizes in training each scenario, each soldier and each circumstance is differnt. Major Feicht was now able to take teh book knowledge and was able to learn to how apply the knowledge hands-on.
Major Feicht recalled his intructors, "They were tough, but they were fair and that's the biggest thing I can remember."
He had seen instructors who were tough, but they would play favorites. It made an impact on Major Feicht to witness his instructors being fair.
He menitoned how they expected a lot out him and the other men. If he were to mess up, however, they would pull him aside. They would allow him to re-evaluate what he did and tell him a more effectie way he could have handle the situation. Next time a similar sitatuion arised, he knew a better way to handle the situation.
Being able to stay in touch with loved ones, has been one of the top things that helps get one through war. Of course, it is a blessing that communicaiton is a lot simpler than it was when there was hardly any communication at all.
Major Feicht stated he, "developed some sort of way to communicate back and forth with [his] wife to make sure that [they] stayed close."
One way they were able to stay in-touch was sending each other packages. Major Feicht would purchase something from a bizzare in Afghanistan and send it to his wife. His wife would also send him packages.
How oftenvMajor Feicht was able to stay in communication compeletely depended on where he was located and what was happening aroung him. For example, he mentioned how after 9/11 communication was very shakey.
Later on, during his second tour, he would also be able to have video conferencing with his wife and son. As his tours progressed, communication progressed as well. By his third tour, Major Feicht had the ability to call home everyday had he had the time to do so.
SECOND TOUR
THIRD TOUR
During his third tour, Major Feicht was working as a Joint Visitors Bureau Chief. This job allowed him to see other diplomats and different sides of how some operations are run.
Major Feicht's first employment was an Executive Officer. The main responsibility at the time was what he described as the logistics support for the company. "I had to figure out what support and anticipate what our guys were going to need while out there in trainging," he stated.
"We were one of the early units to try to make that transition from combat operations to training the police force. We were working with the Afghanistan National Army and Police Force with ground breaking stuff," he explained.
Major Feicht shared how the Afghanistan National Army and Police Force had never worked with Americans. Things that may seem like common knowledge and natural, to them was foreign. They did not understand so Major Feicht and his unit helped them with some basic things.
On his second tour, Major Feicht had been promoted Captain. He worked with the divison that was overall of Afghanistan. It was a great oppurtunity for Major Feicht to learn during this time. "I was a liaison between the division in charge of the combat missions," Major Feicht stated.
-Major Ben Feicht
"There are some things that happened that you can't and don't want to talk about."
RETURNING HOME
"I don't even know how to describe it," Major Feicht said. "It just feels so good to be back in what is familiar."
While he cannot explain the emotion of returning home, he did mention that there are some struggles that come along with returning. Yes, there is familiarity; but there is also unfamiliartiy because a lot happend after being away. It is a readjustment.
Major Feich stated that while he had a connection with his son, he still had to rebuild the connection the had had before he left.
"There are some things that happened that you can't and don't want to talk about," he said.
Photo by Kaitie Scott
BACK TO ROTC
Major Feicht is currently an instructor for the ROTC program at Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University located in Arkadelphia, Ark. This year he has been able to work with the seniors and help prepare them for working with company command.
"It is interesting to look back on kind of what I got, what I found helpful and what I did get out of ROTC," he stated. He is able to really emphasize points that he knows the men and women in the program will need to know since he has been through the program as well.