March Air Guardsmen celebrate military moms

  • Published
  • By Megan Just
  • 452 AMW Public Affairs
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. --  While it is not uncommon to meet service members who had fathers in the military, it is rare to meet a service member with a military mother. In the California Air National Guard's 163rd Reconnaissance Wing, however, there are two senior noncommissioned officers who will be celebrating Mother's Day this weekend with moms who also served.

Instead of playing house when she was a little girl, Senior Master Sgt. Crystal Rossman liked to dress up in her mom's uniform and play Air Force. When her mother, now-retired acquisitions professional Senior Master Sgt. Pamela Francis, brought work home, the young Rossman would mimic her by pretending to write contracts.

Ironically, Sergeant Rossman is now the 163rd Mission Support Group's contracting officer, the exact job her mother held 19 years before.

"One of the biggest compliments I've gotten is 'You are just like your mom,'" Sergeant Rossman said.

As a child, Sergeant Rossman recalls being proud when her parents, especially her mother, would come to her school in uniform.

"They normally expect to see dads, but when it's your mom, it's so cool," she said.

Being the child of a military mother wasn't always easy, though. Sergeant Rossman recalls many milestones her mother missed, including her 16th birthday and high school graduation.

"There were things she gave up. She had to make sacrifices, but I understood why," Sergeant Rossman said.

It was during Desert Storm that the wider picture of what her mother doing was doing sank in.

"I realized that she's part of something really big, and especially at a time when our country needs service members the most," Sergeant Rossman said. "She was making a difference."

Sergeant Rossman joined the Air National Guard when she was just 17 years old. But even though she had left the nest, her mother was still in charge. Sergeant Rossman's first assignment was with the 163rd Logistics Readiness Squadron where her mother was the first sergeant.

"She wanted everybody to know there was no favoritism. I was the first one to get the hardest project, every time," Sergeant Rossman said. "It was sort of the opposite of favoritism."

Working for her mother gave her the unique opportunity to observe her strong work ethic, dedication and "service before self" philosophy.

"I wouldn't be where I'm at today at this age if it wasn't for the example she set," Sergeant Rossman said.

She said her mother continues to be the biggest supporter of her military career and is always prodding her to go after her next rank. Her mother also supports her by taking care of her three children so she and her husband can continue working during the kids' breaks in school.

Sergeant Rossman's colleague, Master Sgt. Laurice Souron, knowledge operations functional manager for the 163rd Communications Squadron, also has a mother who served in the Air Force.

"She raised me to lead by example and to believe that anything is possible. Whatever I set mind to do, I can do," Sergeant Souron said.

Sergeant Souron's mother, Mrs. Laura Froehlich, met her husband while serving at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. She separated after becoming pregnant, which was the policy at the time. Although Mrs. Froehlich was no longer a service member, she never stopped serving others.

"For as long as I can remember, she's volunteered in some way or another," Sergeant Souron said.

Much of Mrs. Froehlich's volunteerism has been in support of troops. Locally, she began volunteering with the military in 1985 as a member of the Moreno Valley Military Affairs Committee. After 9/11, when an increasing number of troops were deployed to the Middle East via March, Mrs. Froehlich rallied a team of volunteers and collected donations that transformed the austere deployment processing hangar into a welcoming place for troops to relax.

"My mother is extremely vivacious and full of life," Sergeant Souron said. "She's one of the hardest working people I've ever known. She gives her whole heart and soul into everything she does."

At March, Froehlich is known affectionately as "Flag Mama." Not only does she continue to run the hangar and its more than 100 volunteers, she personally gives a hug or handshake to every service member who deploys from the hangar. And even if it's three in the morning, Mrs. Froehlich will be standing next to the plane to greet those service members when they return. She has seen off or welcomed home more than 200,000 service members on 4,000 flights.

"She's been a patriot long before 9/11," Sergeant Souron said. "She truly does bleed red, white, and blue."

Sergeant Souron said her mother's volunteerism at the hangar is no small time commitment, but she says she is happy to share her mother with the service men and women she takes care of.

"She is my hero," Sergeant Souron said. "I am who I am today because of
my mother."

Sergeant Souron joined the military more than twenty years after her mother separated. After high school and college, Sergeant Souron said she reached a point in her life where she felt like she needed a change and was considering joining the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing. At the time, her mother was the honorary commander of the 163rd Operations Group and her father had just retired from the Air Force Reserve and was beginning an Air Force civil service career.

"They were extremely supportive and helpful because they both understood the life," Sergeant Souron said. "Joining was the smartest decision I'd ever made."

When Sergeant Souron enlisted in the Guard, she wasn't just a second-generation service woman. She was a third-generation service woman. Sergeant Souron's paternal grandmother, Mrs. Phyllis Esposito, served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II.

Sergeant Souron's father, retired Master Sgt. Larry Froehlich, remembers his mother as, "a very caring person who took care of everyone else's need before
her own."

Like his daughter, Sergeant Froehlich grew up with a mother who had served in the military.

"Anytime we watched war pictures, she knew the ranks and saluting procedures," he said. "She had firsthand knowledge of the military."

As a young boy, Sergeant Froehlich remembers his mother's military experiences being impressive to his friends, who only had fathers or uncles who served.

"I was pretty much one-upping all my buddies when I was a kid," he said.

Sergeant Froehlich's mother came from a large Italian family and was one of 13 siblings. Many of his aunts worked in manufacturing jobs that supported the military during World War II and five of his uncles served in the military.

"I couldn't get through a weekend without hearing war stories," he said.

When he was 19 years old, he decided he wanted some war stories of his own and joined the Air Force. He went on to serve in Vietnam from 1970-71, and between active duty, Reserve and civil service time, Sergeant Froehlich worked for the Air Force for 38 years.

For more information about March Air Reserve Base, visit the base's website, Facebook page and Twitter account.