 By
PETER ROPER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAINBrian Foster (left) chats with Joanne Dehn, a patient at
Parkview Medical Center, during a visit to the Skilled Nursing
Unit with the local Al Kaly Shriner's clown team.
Brian Foster likes having a goal, a purpose, whether it's fixing
Army trucks in Iraq or donning a funny wig to visit the pediatric
wards at Pueblo-area hospitals to put a smile on a sick child's
face.
"I do it for the kids," the 31-year-old Florence man said Thursday
before the Al Kaly Shrine clown squad made its regular visit to
Parkview Medical Center's Kidsville and Skilled Nursing Unit. "When
you walk into a child's hospital room and relieve that youngster's
pain, even if it's just for a few minutes, it's all worth it."
Foster, who is married and has a daughter, isn't just doing what he
can for sick kids.
The former Army mechanic decided in 2005 that he wanted to do more
to support the U.S. troops in Iraq, so he went to work for LSI, a
U.S. contractor that repairs military trucks and other heavy
equipment. Foster's specialty is being a wheel mechanic and he's
currently back in the Pueblo area on vacation and will return to
Iraq in a few days.
"I'd
been an Army mechanic for nine years but I hadn't been to Iraq,"
Foster explained Thursday. "Basically, I wanted to help out where I
could."
So he arrived in Iraq last summer - "We had one day where it was 158
degrees" - and he will complete his first year in June. He works at
a U.S. air base at Al Asad, west of Baghdad.
"Iraq is hot and dusty, with incredible sandstorms," he said. "The
heat was the most surprising thing. All that, plus the dust, can be
hard on the vehicles, but we keep them running pretty well."
Foster doesn't leave the U.S. base while in Iraq and he works seven
days a week. He doesn't mind being confined to base, given the
threat from roadside bombs and such on streets of Iraqi cities and
towns.
"We pretty much have everything we need on the base so I haven't had
any involvement with Iraqi civilians," he said.
Foster said he knew he wanted to be a mechanic soon after finishing
high school in Florence.
"That's why I joined the Army in 1997. They said they could train me
as a mechanic in six months and they did," he said.
He became a member of the Al Kaly Shriners earlier this year and
immediately was attracted to the clown team.
"It's because we entertain the kids and that's what I love about
it," Foster said. "Kids in the hospital are having a tough enough
time. It's great when you can cheer them up."
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