Dean of students is grateful for his years in the Army

Sean Herron, the new dean of students at Harter Middle School in Sugar Grove, has been invited to speak at the school’s Veterans Day program. As the date approaches, he looks back on his service in the military.

The military wasn’t Herron’s first choice. He entered college in the culinary arts program. When he realized a career in the restaurant business wasn’t for him, he lost his focus, his grades began to slip and his parents told him they couldn’t afford to help him if he wasn’t passing all his classes.

Joining the military looked like a reasonable plan B.

“[In the military], I would get to travel, I would have a job, a place to live and when I got out, I would have money for school,” he said.

He joined the U.S. Army as a calvary scout and was stationed in Germany from 2000-2004. Living overseas, he formed close bonds with his fellow soldiers. They continue to stay in touch to this day.

“We talk all the time,” said Eric Samarron, who served with Herron in Iraq. “I was 18 when I joined. He was a couple of ranks above me and he sort of took me under his wing. We were both high school wrestlers, so we had that in common. He’s got a good heart.”

Herron’s first deployment was to Macedonia with U.S. troops being part of a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. Other than one rocket-propelled grenade that flew well above his head, his experience there was relatively uneventful.

Then came 9-11. They began training for Iraq, learning new weapons and how to call in the location of enemy fire so the Air Force could target its air strikes.

They first went to Kuwait to acclimate to a new climate. Although the temperature was “only” 100 (it would be up to 130 in Iraq), they were loaded down with about 100 pounds of gear.

“Everyone was nervous,” he said. “Only one guy had been in a combat zone before in Afghanistan.”

The war started in March 2003. His unit was the second wave into Baghdad in April. They were based outside of Saddam Hussein’s palace. Although the palace was bombed out and destroyed, the servant’s quarters were still standing and provided some shelter from the heat.

Herron was deployed there for a year, conducting surveillance. He made it back to Germany, but some of his fellow soldiers were not so lucky.

He was out of active duty for two months when he was called back and deployed again to Iraq. This time, they were farther out in the rural areas and not as much in harm’s way. Their role this time was less surveillance and more security.

“I was able to do things that I hadn’t been able to do the first time like training and leading the younger guys,” he said.

Herron felt he had suffered from PTSD after the previous deployment and this experience was somehow healing. He said he was fortunate to have had the second experience.

“Some of my friends were deployed four, five, six times,” he said.

When he came home, he was a retention noncommissioned officer, working with people who had served and wanted to leave the military to come up with solutions and reasons for them to stay. He said he had been in the job for five years when some of the reasons people had for leaving began to sound good to him. It was then that he left the Army.

He wasn’t in civilian life for very long when he met someone and got married. He and his wife have two children, Declan and Kyla, who are in fifth and third grade. With both children in travel sports, they have busy lives.

“We have something going on six days a week,” he said.

Herron has taught in Kaneland School District 302 for 10 years – six years in second grade and four in fourth and fifth grade STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). He’s excited about his new role as the dean of the middle school. He said most of the job is discipline, but he would like to focus more on prevention through developing relationships with the students and having an influence on the culture of the school. He’s very optimistic.

As he looks back on his experience in the military, he is grateful.

“The military gave me structure. It helped me find my way,” he said. “It helped me grow up. I became a lot more independent, doing a better job of taking care of myself and taking ownership of the things I did.

“I’m more dependable, less self-centered. I’m a good team player. I see the big picture of things. I don’t think I would be a teacher without that experience or have as fulfilling a job.”