Staff Sergeant Sam Hansen, a 2000 Deshler graduate, will be the guest speaker for Friday’s Patriot Day Program at Deshler Public Schools on September 9th. The public is invited to attend this program at 9 am where K-12 students will also present their service projects, the eighth graders and seniors will present work they have completed in their social studies classrooms, students in grades 4-6 will sing, and three high school students will perform Taps and sing the Star Spangled Banner.
We are honored to have Staff Sergeant Hansen return to DPS. Upon his graduation from here, Staff Sergeant Hansen joined the Nebraska National Guard and went through basic training in August of that year with plans on using his GI bill to go to college.
Once 9/11 happened, Staff Sergeant Hansen wrote a conditional letter of release from the guards to transfer to active duty, which was granted, and he was then assigned to Fort Hood, TX in April 2002.
In March of 2003, his unit was put on orders to deploy to Iraq. His first deployment was in March 2004 to Baghdad Iraq to be overall security for the International Zone to protect the embassies and the new Iraqi government. Staff Sergeant Hansen returned home in March of 2005.
In October 2006, he was deployed again, this time with his unit being sent to Samarra, Iraq as a reinforcement force to help the 82nd Airborne division counter insurgency against Al qaeda and ISIS.
Serving more than a year, he returned home in December of 2007 after a long and very hard deployment.
In 2008, he re-enlisted to Fort Riley, KS, where he spent 4 years and, he was once again put on orders to return to Ft Hood,TX.
In 2011, in Fort Hood, he was there for 5 short months before he was again deployed to Iraq in June of 2011.
Once in Diwaniya, Iraq, Staff Sergeant Hansen was security on the MSR (main supply route) Tampa as the US military exited Iraq to end the war. Once his unit was closed down on their base in Iraq, orders were received to remain in Kuwait for 6 months as a quick reaction force for the Middle East.
Staff Sergeant Hansen returned home in June of 2012 from Kuwait. This was his last deployment, as he was medically retired from the Army in June of 2014 as a Staff Sergeant (E-6).
We are incredibly humbled and proud to have Deshler alumni and Staff Sergeant Sam Hansen here for our Patriot Day Program, who has proudly served our country for 14 years and 5 months. Thank you, Staff Sergeant Hansen.