Reservist from Maize served two tours to Middle East

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – After Rafael “Beau” Alarcon graduated from Wichita Northwest High School in 1999, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next. College or the military?

Alarcon joined the U.S. Army, and he’s still a reservist to this day.

He was close to finishing basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

“There was a good amount of us that were actually excited. We’re thinking, ‘Hoo-Rah! We’re going to go overseas!’ Because that’s what they put out is, ‘We’re going to push you guys through, and we’re going to send you overseas when 9/11 hit,'” said Alarcon.

“It didn’t really change anything. Just probably the way that most of us looked at being in the service now because there wasn’t really much going on at the time at first, and then that hit, and we knew that things were going to spark up,” he added.

Alarcon was part of a transportation company. He was deployed to Iraq in January of 2004.

“My first deployment, we were a PLS unit (Palletized Load System), and we made gun trucks out of it and provided our own security in ‘04,” said Alarcon. “It was Camp Anaconda, which is Bilad. It’s the town. It’s 30 miles north of Baghdad.” 

“I was a heavy wheel operator. We had the PLS system, which pretty much put the flat rack on the ground, put a Connex on there and then load it back onto the truck and take off. So, we hold anything and everything. Whatever needed to be moved,” he said.

Camp LSA Anaconda earned the nickname “Mortaritaville” for the daily mortar and rocket attacks on the huge supply base.

“Yeah, it was definitely more extreme than my second one. You have your Air Force there, and they like to send mortars in,” Alarcon explained.

His first tour lasted 14 months. Alarcon returned to the States for five or six months. Then he was called back into action, this time in New Orleans.

“Me and a couple buddies that were deployed together got our own place together. And then shortly after that is when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit, and me and one of my buddies that were living together went over with Blackwater security and pulled security for FEMA for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” he said.

After working security in Louisiana for FEMA for four months, Alarcon came back home to Kansas.

“I just kept reserving, and then around 2008 is when I got called upon to go again,” said Alarcon.

Back to the Middle East. This time, he was sent to Kuwait.

“And that’s when we started kind of bringing our stuff back. So, we would convoy far north and bring equipment and stuff back,” he said. “Yeah, things were a little bit more tamed down than the ‘04 deployment. We didn’t have, I want to say, maybe the first seven-eight months we didn’t have armored vehicles anyways. So, we were making welds to metal and hanging them on the doors, which means you had to have your window down. Then, about seven months later, Oshkosh came in, and they had prefabricated up armor to put on the vehicles, which then the windows have to be closed. So, they have AC in the vehicles. We liked that.”

Alarcon returned from Kuwait in 2009, and since then, he’s remained active in the reserves. The Iraqi War veteran plans to retire from the reserves when he hits the 20-year mark next May.

“I mean, I served with a bunch of great people and met a lot of people. You know, kind of traveled around a little bit. My first deployment it was kind of strange because half of us were Midwest, and the other half were New York and New Jersey. So, that weird clash at first. You know, it was pretty neat, but I met a bunch of cool people for sure,” he said.

Alarcon says the one thing he misses most from his deployments is the camaraderie with other soldiers. But now, he lives in a full house. He and his girlfriend share five teenage daughters and two young sons. All under the same roof.

If you want to nominate a veteran for our Veteran Salute, email KSN reporter Jason Lamb at [email protected].