The Daily Dispatch

A former Breckenridge High School teacher soon to depart for Afghanistan is leaving an electronic trail behind him.

Daryl Bubbers, former business teacher, has created a Facebook account so students can keep track of his exploits. Twenty-seven former students will follow him as he trains Afghan National Army personnel and engages in other communication work. He's more than happy to keep in touch.

"I do miss the students, staff and the best Connection group ever (they know who they are)," he wrote via e-mail. "I wish things would have been different at the end of last school year and I was still there. Maybe things will change and I could return in the future."

Bubbers, who is currently stationed at Fort Polk Army base in Louisiana, can't talk about anything with certainty yet. He has not been informed of his specific job duties nor his ultimate location, although he's been told he may be stationed at a base near Kabul.

"All I know for sure is that I won't be kicking in doors which is fine with me," he wrote.

This fact is still frustrating for his Fargo, N.D.-based wife and children, who are unsure of his arrival for Christmas. Although his training readies him for combat, Bubbers and his wife, Christi, hope he may never have to use it. His recent education on improvised explosive devices involved getting hit in a truck with real "small" explosives and learning life-saving techniques like treating a person with missing limbs.

"I keep thinking hopefully, he won't be on the front lines doing that job," said Christi. "I just have to keep hoping."

Although Bubbers, 42, is an information systems technician in the Navy, he's "on loan" to the Army in Afghanistan. After they got married, he used to reassure Christi that he would never be a "soldier in that sense," but the thought is ironic now, she said. Bubbers even brought his wife down to the recruiting office so they could reassure her.

The first week after he'd left for training was the hardest, especially for the couple's two girls. Morgan, 2, carries around a "daddy doll" - a pillow featuring Bubbers' photo on the front - at daycare, and Chelsea, 7, has a support group at school to connect with other kids who are experiencing the same thing. His deployment is a first for the family, but Bubbers was involved in the first Gulf War before he got married.

Mostly, he tries to avoid thinking about what he will encounter. He departs for Afghanistan in January 2010 and is planning for a nine-month stay without breaks, hopefully making his way back to the United States in October.

"I will tell you that I am scared...I think if someone over there says they are not scared they would be lying," he wrote. "I don't want to die. I don't want my wife to be alone. I don't want my two girls to have to grow up without a daddy...All I can do is pray for myself and my family and hope everything works out."

For Christi, life as a single parent has taken some adjusting. But she has a strong circle of support that includes her friends and the Navy community, and a commander has promised to call her once a month to check on her family.

"I'm very proud of what he does. He's my hero," she said. "I'd rather have him here, but if it's not my hero, it's somebody else's."

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