Tony Wyatt of Rochelle served 10 years in the United States National Guard, including a deployment to Kuwait.
After growing up in Rochelle, Wyatt graduated from Rochelle Township High School in 1999. He enlisted in the Illinois National Guard in 2001 and was part of an artillery unit.
“After high school, I really wasn’t doing much with my life and I was struggling,” Wyatt said. “I had some friends that joined the National Guard and they talked to me about it. I never thought that would be the route I would take. I moved to Florida for a year and tried to make a life there and it didn’t work out. I came home and one day I decided I needed to do something. I called the National Guard recruiter and decided to enlist. Two weeks later I went to basic training. I needed some guidance and something to do.”
After a few years, Wyatt transitioned into the reserves. In the last year of his 10-year contract with the National Guard, he had deployment paperwork dropped off at his door. He then reported to South Carolina for the intake process. Because he wasn’t attached to a unit, Wyatt went through processing and training.
He was sent to Fort Sill in Oklahoma for training before going to Mississippi for another 2-3 weeks of training. Still without a unit attachment, Wyatt was then flown to Kuwait to a base with 50-100 others for assignment.
“They just started reading off names and assigning people,” Wyatt said. “It got down to the end of the alphabet and there were like four of us that hadn’t been called. We all ended up being attached to an Army Reserve unit that was stationed at that base in Kuwait that ran the day-to-day operations for the base. I was stationed in Kuwait for a year. When I came home, I had two months left on my contract, and then I was done.”
Wyatt said he found the added discipline, responsibility and military experience he was looking for during his deployment to Kuwait after his earlier National Guard years of drill one weekend a month and during the summers.
“It wasn’t until I was deployed that I figured out what the military could actually do for people,” Wyatt said. “The year of active duty deployment was where I really figured out what I needed to do to be successful, both in the military and as a husband, father and teacher.”
Attached to a unit where he didn’t know anyone during his deployment, Wyatt found others in Kuwait who were in the same situation he was. After not being an active part of the military for years before deployment, he found guidance from the colonel and sergeant major on base and was put in a position to be successful, he said.
Wyatt’s duty in Kuwait involved housing. The base had permanent housing for about 600 soldiers. He made sure anyone coming in had a safe place to live and every accommodation they needed.
The larger purpose of U.S. troops during Wyatt’s deployment was withdrawing troops and equipment from Iraq. His unit did convoy security to remove equipment and get it to the Naval base in Kuwait.
“It wasn’t bad when I was there, but I could see how it was 8-10 years beforehand,” Wyatt said. “When I got deployed, I could have gone to Afghanistan. That was probably the scariest part. In Kuwait, you line up in a tent and there are signs for where people are going. There was Afghanistan, Qatar and all these different places in the Middle East. I had no idea where I was going. I just got lucky enough to be stationed in Kuwait because my last name starts with a W.”
When he got his deployment orders, Wyatt had just enrolled in the Northern Illinois University teaching program. He had to pull out of the program and put his job and apartment on hold. He married his wife a few days before he left. He returned with a different perspective on life.
“My service made me realize how much more difficult I was making my life and that I needed something to help me with structure,” Wyatt said. “I wish I would have learned that when I started my career in the National Guard. I eventually got there by the end of my 10-year contract. My deployment gave me that wake-up call and I knew what I needed to bring back to my marriage, college career and teaching. I needed structure and now I see how well my students function under structure.”
Wyatt returned to school at NIU after Kuwait and graduated from the teaching program. His first teaching job was summer school at Focus House. He also worked as a coordinator for the Rochelle Elementary School District’s HUB Program and as a seventh grade English teacher at Rochelle Middle School. He became the head teacher at Focus House in 2021 and has been in that position since.
Located north of Rochelle, Focus House provides a continuum of services for at-risk youths including residential, counseling, education and alternative programming. The facility offers residential treatment for boys ages 12-17 in the justice system that are court ordered by a judge to go to the facility. Kids in the program eventually transition back to their homes after education, treatment and public service work at Focus House.
Wyatt said his experiences in his youth and in the military have helped him with his interactions with kids at Focus House.
“My service helped to pay for my school and also helped to pay for my wife’s school so we could become teachers,” Wyatt said. “I’m glad I served in the military. I’ll always wish that I would have done more earlier on with my service. That’s probably why I put so much energy into teaching now. I know where I made mistakes in the past, so I want to make sure the kids I work with don’t make some of those mistakes. I want to make sure they have that structure and know what they’re getting themselves into. I wouldn’t have that experience of being a teacher like I am now without that military experience.”
Honoring our American Hero is a feature on local veterans that runs once a month in the Rochelle News-Leader. To submit a veteran or service member for consideration, please email Jeff Helfrich at jhelfrich@shawmedia.com.