KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Maj. John Cofield often sits in his second-floor office, looking out the window. He chose this particular office for its view, he said, which few would describe as picturesque, but which offers Cofield a seat where he can watch jets lift smoothly out of the heat waves rising from Kandahar Airfield and disappear into a gray sky.
Cofield, a 57-year-old father of four from Indianapolis who currently serves as executive officer of Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Regional Command (South), and who once piloted fighter jets for the U.S. Air Force, has only been the Army for four years but carries with him a life's worth of service to family and country.
"I joined the Air Force (in 1981), because I always wanted to be a fighter pilot," Cofield said. "I was in the middle of law school and I said, 'I need to go fly. It's what I'm supposed to be doing.' So six months later, I was in the Air Force."
Cofield started his flying career in 1983 flying F-4D fighters at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. After a number of assignments that included time as a fighter pilot instructor, he found himself at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, where a desire to fly F-15s became reality and he was able to fly "the finest fighter (in) the finest squadron, the finest base in the world. That was a dream come true. I kept pinching myself everyday."
Following his time in Japan, Cofield was sent to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1994 for an assignment at North American Aerospace Defense Command. A few years later, with that assignment coming to a close, he said he was getting ready to go to his next assignment when family issues forced him to make the decision to walk away from more than 15 years of service in the Air Force.
"It was an easy decision to make because family always came first for me." The hard part, Cofield said, was walking away from flying.
"I love flying. That's why I got this office: I can watch the jets take off. Sometimes I just sit by my window and watch them take off. Sometimes at night, when I have trouble sleeping, I drive my bike to the flight line and watch the jets take off."
Once out of the Air Force, Cofield started and ran his own home-based corporate training businesses in which he contracted with companies to assist them with their training needs. During his years of working from home, Cofield said he basically was a stay-at-home dad for his four children, John, Mark, Sara and Matthew.
"I got to coach hockey and soccer for 22 seasons. I did Brownies and Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts. I was there for everything. I wouldn't trade those 14 years for anything. Those were the greatest 14 years of my life."
Cofield and his wife, Tari, who currently works as director of student development at Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs, and whom Cofield described as "phenomenal at her job," have always tried to be involved as much as possible in the lives of their children.
"My family was always my priority. I loved flying fighters, but the one thing I loved more than being a pilot was being a dad. I just loved being a dad."
Cofield has always participated as much as possible in his children's activities and, so when his two oldest sons joined the Army, Cofield said he felt the need to follow suit. On a recommendation from his son's Army recruiter, Cofield applied to get back into the military at the age of 53. More than a year later, he received a call informing him that he was in. After a 14-year break in military service, Cofield was officially a U.S. Army Soldier.
Six months later on his first day at Captain's Career Course in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in October 2010, literally hours after taking the oath of enlistment, Cofield said he realized that everyone was half his age.
"Someone said to me, 'Sir, how long have you been in the Army?' I looked at my watch and said, 'Three hours,' and he laughed, and I said, 'No kidding. Three hours.'"
After about nine months at Fort Huachuca, he was packed up ready to go to his first Army assignment in Korea, when the phone rang, Cofield said. An Army casualty notification officer was calling from Cofield's home in Colorado: His second son, Mark, had died in Baghdad from non-combat related injuries.
"That was a tough day," he said, no jets to break the silence filling his office. "But you can't change life, you know. For me, life is 'Option A' or 'Option B.' 'Option A' is you take everything life throws at you and you move on and you live your life to the fullest. 'Option A' is you take the bumps along the way and you remain positive. 'Option B' is you let it get to you. I'm an 'Option A' guy."
"We've had good days and bad days. Certainly losing a kid was a horrible day. You can let it get to you, or you can go do something positive. ... You just have to move on. I still have trouble sleeping at night, but that's just life. For me, it's 'Option A' all the way."
After his son's death, the Army changed his orders on a compassionate reassignment and he was stationed at Fort Carson. Cofield's oldest son, a Green Beret with Army Special Forces, was assigned to Carson and joined the family in Colorado Springs in May 2013, "So the whole family was together again, sort of," Cofield said.
Being together during a time of mourning, if only for a month before he deployed to Afghanistan, was important to Cofield, who speaks highly of his wife and children, proud of them all for the contributions they have made to the family, and what they continue to accomplish in their various chosen paths.
"I'm proud of all my kids. They've all done amazing things. My kids are my heroes."
Cofield's attitude and dedication to his family and the Army are both obvious and contagious to those he's worked closely with while deployed to Afghanistan.
"Obviously Maj. Cofield does this for his love of country, but he also does it for his love of family," said Capt. Jason Bolsinger, of new Braunfels, Texas, commander of Operations Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 4th Infantry Division.
Cofield and his son, John, were able to serve at the same time at Kandahar Airfield, though in different capacities, and were even roommates for a while. The time has become an important milestone for Cofield.
"My goal was to come back and serve with my kids, and I was able to do that with one of them," Cofield said. "I consider it an honor and a privilege to serve with my kids. I didn't get to serve with my second oldest son very long, we never got to be in uniform together doing something for the Army, which I will truly miss for the rest of my life, but I consider it an honor and privilege to serve with my kids. That's why I came back in. I thought it was a wonderful way to end the working years of your adult life."
As for the future, Cofield said he would love to be able to serve with his son in Special Operations, certainly not in the jobs the younger guys do, but in any capacity they will take him.
"He doesn't care how he's serving the military, how he's serving the country in the Army, he just wants to be with his son and serve concurrently with him," said Bolsinger. "Maj. Cofield is probably the most selfless person I've ever met in my life. ... He's the type of guy who will bend over backward twice to make sure that something gets done. And at the end of the day, regardless of whatever challenges he faces, he has a positive attitude."
Jets continue to rattle Cofield's office windows. Soon, he'll give up this space on the Regional Command (South) compound for an office back at Fort Carson. He'll trade his barracks room for his own bedroom. Though he doesn't know yet just what's in store for him in terms of the military, and though there certainly may continue to be sleepless nights from time to time because of past losses, Cofield's approach to the future conveys an unending optimism.
"I'm staying in until they kick me out," he said. "If I could be deployed half the time I have left in the Army, and I could be helping the people on the pointy end of the spear, that's what I want to do. There's got to be room somewhere for an old guy," he said with a chuckle.
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