Homecoming planned for staff sergeant Sam Gabara
by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor
A family homecoming is on tap today for Army veteran staff sergeant Sam Gabara, who just completed a third deployment to Iraq. He is looking forward to some R & R while in the Rogers City area visiting his mother and stepfather, Chris and Roger Clark, as well as grandparents, uncles and aunts. Gabara is an ammunitions specialist and completed his latest tour, August 5. Upon completion, he was awarded the bronze star. Additionally, Gabara has been accepted to warrant officer school and will begin attending classes at Fort Rucker, Alabama September 23.
?I?m definitely making a career out of this,? said Gabara on a cell phone from Fort Knox, Kentucky. ?At first, I wasn?t quite sure what I wanted to do with the Army. I had a break in service for about three months. In that time period I realized that the service was for me.? Gabara was part of the initial push in Iraq in 2003-04. He was deployed with the 664th Ordnance Company out of Fort Hood, Texas. Parts of his duties were destroying captured enemy ammunition.
During the second tour in 2006-07, he was with the 101st Airborne Division setting up ammunition storage sites and completing combat logistic patrols to ensure a steady supply of ammunition to units within his brigade. The most recent assignment was with the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Unit in charge of every piece of ammunition coming in or being shipped out of the country. The final deployment lasted ne
GABARA IS a 2000 Rogers City High School graduate. He talked with recruiters from all branches of the service during his senior year before deciding on the Army. Chris said her son is like his late father Joseph Gabara, who died in a 1991 boating accident. ?His father was an avid fisherman and hunter, and of course, Sam is following in his dad?s footsteps.? Joseph Gabara also was in the military. Sam has been married for five years to military wife, Kimberlee, who served in the Army for four years before going to school to pursue a profession in the medical field. They met at Fort Hood.
Kimberlee will be accompanying Sam on the trip to northern Michigan. ?He doesn?t want mom to go through a lot of hassle,? said Roger. While Sam has said all he wants his pizza and beer, he knows his visits always turn into a ?food fest.? Mom plans to grill some steak and make homemade buttermilk pancakes with sausage from one of Rogers City?s meat markets. ?His main thing is to come home and spend time with family,? said Chris. ?We?re very proud of him, he?s doing a wonderful thing. It is for the good of our country.? Sam has an older brother, Steven, living in Colorado Springs with his wife Marcy and their 3-year-old son Braden.