 Rob Sarno serving with the U.S. Army in Baghdad, Iraq, in March, 2005. A combat engineer, Sarno helped search and disarm improvised explosive devices (IEDS), but this time thinks he may try infantry. Photo provided By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
A 24-year-old Iraqi war veteran is not waiting for anyone to shake his hand and say “thank you” today.
Rob Sarno is signing up again to serve his country, to secure freedoms and to protect those he loves on Veterans Day.
Honorably discharged after six years of active duty followed by two years as part of the Individual Ready Reserve, which calls soldiers up as needed, Sarno is re-enlisting in the U.S. Army for what he hopes is a lifetime.
Within two months, Sarno expects to be training again and shortly after that “back in the thick of things” in Iraq or Afghanistan. A combat engineer during a previous 18-month tour, Sarno is interested in changing assignments, maybe to infantry — some place where he can make a difference in a short amount of time.
“I don’t want to be 49-years-old and thinking about all the things I wanted to do,” Sarno said. “I want to be a soldier, as good of a soldier as I can be now, while I’m healthy and don’t have any other commitments.”
Still in high school and in class when he watched the planes crash the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Sarno said he knew then that his course, as well as the country’s, changed that day. Two weeks later, as a junior in high school, Sarno enlisted in the Army.
“I knew from the second it hit what had happened,” Sarno said. “I was ready as a kid to go run and do what I could to help.
“Before 9/11, I was just a young, immature jock,” Sarno said. “I didn’t worry about anything but playing football and someday playing college football.”
He said his parents Deeana Hunt and Steven Sarno were a little skeptical, but he felt confident about his decision to enlist.
Between his junior and senior years of high school, he went through basic training. Two days after graduating from Bath High School in 2003 he left for active duty.
Sarno’s grandfather, Emerson Moorman, of Spencerville, was his only known family connection to the military, serving during the Korean War.
“When I signed my name on that dotted line before, I knew I would be in harm’s way multiple times,” Sarno said. “I knew what the people before me had done and I was prepared to do the same thing. I know that now signing it again.”
He has concerns that he may not be fighting for the same thing he was before, but wherever he is called to go, he will be there.
“We’ve done too much work to pull out now,” Sarno said. “We need to finish what we’re doing, what America did.”
He said on Veterans Day he couldn’t think of a better way to show his patriotism than to re-enlist.
A soldier
Sarno spent his time in Iraq searching for and disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and roadside bombs, as well as guarding a prison.
“Statistics say that every time we found an IED that didn’t go off, we saved 2.5 lives,” Sarno said. “While we were there, we dismantled 53 of them. That’s a lot of lives.”
Describing how a team would scan areas to look for IEDs, Sarno said they faced challenges as insurgents would cast them into concrete and replace the new slab along with the old so it looked like it belonged there. Explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) were hid in garbage.
Sarno was part of the battalion that helped create a long extension at the front of vehicles to help set off lasers before any soldiers were impacted.
While doing his work, Sarno went partially deaf in his left ear and took shrapnel from a 500-pound aerial bomb.
Even though he is eligible for benefits from Veterans Affairs he has not pursued them.
“There are guys out there that are missing legs and arms,” Sarno said. “So what if I can’t hear a little?
“Help them, not me,” he said. “I’m ready to go back.”
Stateside he spent time constructing buildings on base, working on the barracks and responding to disasters.
“Of course it feels great to have saved lives, but on the flip side of that, it sucks that so many people lost their lives,” Sarno said. “You can’t save everyone and it feels bad to lay down at night in Ohio and know you can’t do anything about it.”
He said in the Army there’s a brotherhood beyond compare.
“Every veteran knows what I’m going to be saying when they read this,” Sarno said. “They may not know my face, where I live or what I look like, but they know who I am. Every one of us is exactly the same.”
Pick up a history book or turn on the news and Sarno said it is easy to see the impact war has had.
Sarno said he researched what was happening in Iraq before he left five years ago and prepared himself mentally.
“It felt like the right time to do it again,” Sarno said. “I feel like the enemy is making more moves and may start to do it on American soil.
“Fort Hood touched me kind of like 9/11,” Sarno said. “I asked myself what I was doing here. I’m not married, I don’t have any kids, I don’t have anything else.”
A veteran
Sarno, known around town as The Go-To-Guy, recently had started a business out of Elida, and had hoped to relocate to Wapakoneta, where he had developed a steady customer base. Performing a variety of jobs around homes, he offers discounts to veterans and seniors.
What makes the work special to him he said is the conversations he gets at the end of each job.
Even before the Army, Sarno was used to working hard for his father’s pallet business.
No matter what he finds himself doing these days, he implements lessons from both — discipline, teamwork, selfless service and giving back. He enjoys working with his hands and problem solving.
“When I go to work, I turn it into a mission,” Sarno said. “I plan it all out. In that sense, it is the same as the Army, but in other ways it is not. There is not that adrenaline rush every day. It pulls at me.”
He said soldiers who get out of the service often struggle with finding a job that compares in the civilian world.
“There’s nothing like it,” Sarno said. “Once you go there, it’s hard to do anything else.”
He said the military made him who he is.
“I am a great American who has learned a lot about himself and his country,” Sarno said. “I have become a person who is dedicated to the protection of our democracy, freedom, my brothers in arms, my family and my community.”
He said the Army helped him understand the value of life and love and give him a clear plan for his life.
“I am not blinded by hard times or bumps in the road because now everything in life is a mission, from my business to my relationship,” Sarno said.
He said serving in the Army taught him discipline and organization.
“It gives you pride when you walk,” Sarno said. “It makes you hold yourself different.”
The young veteran said he does not want anything from anybody for his service, but hopes for respect for himself and his fellow brothers, not just today but everyday.
“So many people go through their daily routines and never think about the sacrifices others made so they can have their freedom,” Sarno said.
He asked that people take even a few minutes out of their day and think about those who fought for their freedoms, those who continue to fight for their freedoms and those who lost their lives fighting for those freedoms.
“It’s Veterans Day, if you see a veteran, shake the man or woman’s hand, tell them ‘thank you,’ ” Sarno said. “They’ve done a lot.”
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