After Iraq, next assignment takes him, family to Indiana
MURFREESBORO — Home for Christmas means something extra special for Capt. Gavin Lichenwalter, 31 and his wife, Tracy, this year.
Gavin Lichenwalter was serving his country in Iraq at Christmas a year ago and missed out on the family celebration. And while he's home today, it will be his last Christmas in Tennessee.
He has found a full-time military job in the budget offices of Camp Atterbury, Ind., but that will require the family to move from home.
"It's hard," he said. "We've been in Tennessee all our lives."
"We love Tennessee," Tracy Lichenwalter said. "We have family here. But our (own) family is priority."
The couple has been married for seven and a half years, and has three daughters: Ruby, 6, a first-grader at Mitchell-Neilson Primary, Reagan, who turned 4 on Dec. 17, and Riley, 2.
Christmas in Tennessee has been a lifelong tradition for the soldier, who was born in West Tennessee but moved to Middle Tennessee with his mother at age 6. He attended Brentwood High for two years and was in JROTC there until it disbanded. Then he transferred to Centennial High where he graduated in 1999.
"I joined a split training programs with the Army National Guard," he said. "I attended basic training between my junior and senior years in high school."
He moved to Murfreesboro and lived with his older brother.
The captain was in the 30th Finance Battalion in Smyrna (before it disbanded in 2004-05). The three remaining finance detachments moved to Nashville in 2010, where he served as one of the commanders of the 1129th Finance Detachment.
Christmas in Rutherford County has also been a nearly lifelong tradition for Tracy Lichenwalter. Now 30, she lived in Woodbury until she was in the fifth grade, before her family moved to Murfreesboro.
The two met in 2002, while Gavin Lichenwalter was working security at the Nashville International Airport. They got engaged before a possible 2003 deployment in Iraq, which didn't happen, and married in 2004.
In the meantime, Gavin Lichenwalter worked with the Tennessee National Guard in its counter drug division, educating children and adults to stay off drugs and assisting law enforcement out of an office in Nashville.
In October and November of 2009, Gavin found out that the 1129th Finance was getting deployed to Iraq.
"We spent (from that time) to September 2010 getting ready," he said. "During that year, I was exclusive to the 1129th."
Members of his unit had to be physically fit, carried rifles and pistols, and were trained to fire them. But they also handled the technical side in the field, including money/finances and computer systems in support of other units.
In October 2010, his unit left for the Middle East, leaving Tracy at home with three young children. The youngest had been born in February 2009.
"Most of all, I worried about the kids missing him," Tracy Lichenwalter said. "He is a hands-on dad. He does all he can to help out with the children, including homework, helping to make dinner, cleaning house and helping with the two dogs and cat."
While in Baghdad, Gavin Lichenwalter was able to talk daily with the family via Skype and Magic Jack on the Internet, which offered him a Murfreesboro phone line.
"I was fortunate to have wireless Internet at Camp Liberty," he said.
He was at the base from Nov. 23, 2010, to September this year.
"I got back to Tennessee on Sept. 30," he said.
Their last Christmas together before this year was actually celebrated online.
With deployment looming, the family purchased most of the Christmas gifts for the children before Gavin Lichenwalter deployed.
"We went upstairs to the playroom (last Christmas) and opened the gifts in front of the computer," Tracy Lichenwalter said.
It was 7 a.m. in Murfreesboro and afternoon in Baghdad on Christmas Day 2010.
"The kids were kind of distracted by the toys," she admitted. "They are so young and they got to see him (via Skype) and talk to him every day. But it made it feel more like family."
Gavin Lichenwalter said he could hear IEDs (improvised explosive devices) going off outside of the base in Baghdad.
"We heard some, but we were relatively safe," he said. "I felt God was going to bring me back to my family."
And when he did return to Tennessee, there were hugs and kisses among family members in Smyrna.
But after his full-time counter drug task force position, which he has been with off-and-on for three to four years, was cut, he had to find a new position elsewhere, meaning this will be their last Christmas in their Murfreesboro home.
"We've put a contract on a house in Indiana," Tracy Lichenwalter said.
The new home is a 4.5-hour drive from Middle Tennessee. But that is still close enough for visits with family members, and maybe a future Christmas visit.
"God is making sure everything is prepared for us," she said.
"It will be a little sad leaving Tennessee this year," the soldier said. "But it will be Christmas wherever we are."
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