The staff of the Thomson GA Post Office is proud to have one of their Postal family members, Rural Carrier Associate Willie Sanders, safely home after serving a 10-month term in Afghanistan.
Willie and his wife Mary were both deployed to Afghanistan. They stated they met while serving in the military and no doubt they are definitely a perfect match of a couple.
Thomson Postmaster Paula Fuller said, “They are an amazing couple and their attitudes reflect everything we as Americans would want in our military as well as what we look for in our Postal employees. Willie is a phenomenal employee – always dependable, caring, conscientious, and proficient and Mary is just an added bonus.”
Willie serves his county as a first sergeant in the Army National Guard and his wife, Mary, is a Master Sergeant. During their deployment they could have chosen to have been housed together as a married couple; however due to extreme dangerous conditions, they chose to live in separate housing quarters.
Willie stated that if something had happened, “We did not want our families to be affected by two fatalities and the risk of an attack was very high. We had talked before we left that if anything happened we would rather be separated. That gives us at least a 50-50 chance of one of us surviving”.
Mary said, “At first I didn’t like it, but I think it was for the best considering where we were and everything that was going on.” Both now agree it was a very good choice to have been made. As long as we didn’t see each other geared up to go out on a mission, we didn’t worry as much.
They both stated they did not tell each other when they were going out because it was way too difficult, and the less we knew about each others missions the more focused we were on our safety and daily precautions – if we were worried about the other partner we probably would have placed ourselves in much more dangerous situations.
When asked who who runs the house now that they are home. they both replied, “We do”. They function as a team even in the responsibility of cooking and household chores. The best advice they say they have to share with other couples is about communication.
“Trust each other and talk to each other. Talk about anything and everything”, Mary says.
Willie says, “Just enjoy it. Have fun. You can be serious, but don’t take it to the extreme. We’ll be serious about a lot of things, but we can joke about them,” he said. “If it’s in your control, deal with it; if not, don’t worry about it.”
Ms. Fuller stated, “What better advice than that can you receive in life and especially from two devoted military personnel.” We love Willie as a fellow employee, friend, neighbor, and protected of our country.” Our employees of the Thomson Post Office showed their appreciation for their jobs and for our military by rallying around each other and doing what they had to do to deliver/process the mail during Willie’s absence.
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