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♦ TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2006
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WMAZ meteorologist Tami Tesch Jerles, left, stands with members of Rodney
Culverhouse's, right, seventh-grade Westfield class during a recent visit. The
students are, from left, Wesley Rust, DeMarco Kendrick, Katie Moore, Alex Smith,
Stephanie Brand and Cydney Bearden.
Broadcaster discusses weather
Special to the HHJ
WMAZmeteorologistTami
Tesch Jerles recently visited
Rodney Culverhouse’s sev
enth-grade science class at
Westfield recently.
During that visit, she
explained that as a child she
loved science, entertaining
and computers.
A career as a meteorolo
gist then, she said, allows
WOOD
From page 1A
Stryker near Baghdad
International Airport, and
the remainder at Tallil
Airbase, southeast of the
capital. Wood’s upit pro
vided security for convoys
while stationed at Tallil,
but in the early months
of his tour, he helped
clear improvised explosive
devices, called IEDs, from
convoy routes and major
roadways. Wood worked
inside a heavily-armored
mine disposal truck called
a Buffalo. The Buffalo uses
a hydraulic arm and a claw
rake for finding and deto
nating roadside bombs.
Over the several months
he spent at Camp Stryker,
Wood said his group dis
covered around 75 IEDs in
Iraq.
“They come up with all
kinds of disguises for these
things, everything (rom
concrete blocks to piles of
trash,” he said.
During Wood’s tour in
Iraq, three of his friends
in the 48th Brigade died in
insurgent attacks, includ
ing his roommate, Sergeant
Ist Class Charles Warren,
a Duluth native who died
in a roadside attack at a
makeshift security check
point.
“I had just seen him a
AWARD
From page 1A
taught her the importance
of a positive attitude in bat
tling cancer.
“You kind of have to get
outside yourself,” she told a
reporter from the Cape May
Herald, “That’s how you get
through these things. You can
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her to combine all three of
her passions.
Jerles also discussed a day
in the life of a meteorologist
also explaining forecasts are
made based upon different
weather maps, surface and
satellite maps as well as a
variety of computer models/
simulations.
It takes about two hours
to develop the forecast and
few hours earlier at our
shift change,” Wood said.
“Apparently, some man just
drove into the checkpoint
and blew up his car.
“That was tough to get
through.”
But despite the loss of
friends and co-workers,
Wood said that many Iraqis
still support the United
States’ mission in Iraq.
“I think most Iraqis want
their own government,
then they want us out,”
Wood said. “But the people
there are split.”
Wood said the country
is factionalized along deep
religious and ethnic lines.
Those divisions could be
seen in their reactions to
American troops.
“It almost depended on the
town you were in,” he said.
“In one village, you might
see smiles on the faces.
“In others, you don’t. If I
saw smiles in a town where
I knew the locals were
against us, I knew I needed
to be on the lookout.”
Wood said the convoy
routes often changed,
forcing him to work at all
hours of the day and night,
sometimes on up to 16-
hour missions.
“We couldn’t set up a pat
tern,” he said. “We couldn’t
send our convoys out at
the same time every day, or
along the same route.”
Despite the constant
threat of insurgent attack,
either fall down or get up.”
Neeld is married to retired
U.S. Coast Guard pilot and
commander, Scott Neeld,
and they have a busy family
life with four sons.
Neeld has given countless
hours to her adopted home
in Cape May, but remains
proud of her Perry roots,
and enjoys telling her New
Jersey friends that she
knows former U.S. Senator
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maps she creates that are
shown on television, she
said.
Students were also inter
ested to learn that she has
to be at the television sta
tion at 3 a.m. if she has to
do the weather at 5 a.m.
Jerles also explained safety
precautions needed during
hurricanes, tornados and
lightning storms.
Willie said he felt guilty for
having to leave his wife and
four children behind. While
Willie was in Iraq, Kristie
was left to raise the fami
ly’s four children, ranging
in age from 7-13.
“All I had to worry about
was not getting shot or
blow up,” Willie said.
“When I was gone, Kristie
had to stay here and take
care of the kids, and she
was in school.”
A May graduate of
Georgia Southwestern
State University in
Americus, Kristie was still
in classes when the rumors
began in 2004 that the
48th Brigade would be sent
to Iraq.
“It couldn’t have come
at a worse time for us,”
she said. “When Willie was
oversees, I was either in
classes or student teach
ing.”
Kristie said the support
of her professors, friends,
co-workers and her church
helped her family brave the
months apart.
“I can’t tell you how
many people helped us,”
she said. “Whether it was
my professors who offered
extensions on my assign
ments, the school who
offered to work with my
schedule, to our church, I
don’t know how we would
have made it.”
A native of Hawkinsville,
Wood has served in the
and former Coast Guard
officer Sam Nunn.
Her family in Georgia con
tinues to be important to her.
She says that throughout
her battle with cancer, her
sister-in-law Linda Whipple,
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Htibmitted
Perry Middle student Brad Boyst, left, and officer Keith Kindle pause for a picture fol
lowing their 6 a.m. bike ride from Perry to Warner Robins for the Special Olympics Law
Enforcement Torch Run. The 15-mile ride took about 50 minutes. The torch continued
from Warner Robins to Macon later that day. Brad Boyst was included in the Torch Run
this year because of his volunteerism and commitment to Special Olympics.
National Guard for more
than 19 years.
“When I was 17 years
old, I wanted to serve in
the military, so I decided to
sign up with the National
Guard,” Willie said. “But
then I met Kristie, and
decided to go into the con
crete business.”
The couple had set a Feb.
1991 wedding date, but the
48th Brigade was activated
during Operation DeseK
Storm and Wood was sent
to Fort Irwin in California
for desert training. With
only three days of leave,
the couple decided to marry
ahead of schedule, on
Christmas Day.
“He didn’t come back
until April,” she said.
“Those were four miserable
months for a new bride.”
With an electronics
degree, Wood had hoped
to secure a job working
at Robins Air Force Base,
but a hearing problem
kept him from working on
the flight line. He decided
instead to work for his
uncle’s concrete business
in Hawkinsville. He then
took a job with Lafarge
Concrete, working his way
into management. He plans
to return to Lafarge in the
coming months, either as a
plant manager or in a sales
position.
“The thing about Iraq
that everyone talks about
is the dust,” William said.
who lives in Macon, was her
constant long-distance “sup
port system.”
“We kept all our first cous
ins together, and that’s really
key, even with the distance,”
she says.
A good reason to ride
“It’s pretty much every
where.
But to me, it was just
like the concrete dust that
I had to deal with on the
job.”
Kristie was a self
described “stay-at-home
mom” for 12 years before
deciding to become a
teacher. She has already
accepted a job in special
education at Perry High
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