Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Massaro: In Iraq, it will be a family thing

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 4, 2007 at midnight

Text size  

More News Columns & Blogs

More stories »

BRIGHTON - Karren Buchanan is putting her postmaster uniform in mothballs while taking her Army uniform from the closet.

She'll probably be the second in her family to go to the war in Iraq. Her son Bill Watkins, 19, a Marine, is scheduled to be sent in March. Buchanan got her orders in December and expects to be in Iraq in April.

Bill knew his turn was coming, but not his mom's.

"It kind of shocked me when I found out she was going," he said. "But she's got to do what she's got to do."

Buchanan, 40, is postmaster of Brighton. She's a sergeant first class in the Army Reserves. She figures she'll be wielding wrenches as a light mechanic.

"I work on Humvees, not tanks," she said.

Buchanan grew up in the north suburbs. She graduated from Ranum High School in 1984 and briefly studied at Metropolitan State College of Denver before joining the Army full time.

A single mom, Buchanan gave birth to two sons while serving eight years on active duty.

"I just decided that active duty was a tough place to raise my boys," she said. "It's not hard every single day. But sometimes you're called away for a week or two at a time. I thought it would be better to be a part-time soldier and a full-time mom."

Soon, however, she'll be a full-time soldier again, taking a leave from her U.S. Postal Service job.

She hired on with the Postal Service in 1994, starting as a clerk and moving up the ladder.

"I'm just a hard worker," she said.

She will say goodbye to two other children, 18-year-old Kevin Watkins and 8-year-old Katie Buchanan, a third-grader. Her parents, Darren and Katie Duffield, of unincorporated Adams County, will take care of Katie.

"I have the most wonderful parents in the whole world," she said. "They are retired. And they are snowbirds in the winter. When I got orders, they quit their little snowbird vacation and they came home. They'll be here to take care of my baby for me."

Kevin isn't pleased that his mom and brother are going to war. He's worried about them.

"I don't like it at all," he said.

But Kevin said he will watch out for his little sister.

"I'll do the best I can," he said.

Buchanan said she was told in 2003 that all reservists would be called up at some time.

Katie seemed to buck up pretty good with the news that her mom was going away. When Buchanan first told her, Katie said, "That's OK. You've been away before."

Buchanan tried to explain that her tour is 18 months, and that Katie will be in fifth grade when she returns.

"That's such a long time," Katie said. "You've got to teach me how to do laundry."

That really touched Buchanan.

"It made me cry for a whole hour," she said.

or 303-954-5271