Sudan refugee attends LTC as life-long fighter

By Shane Ersland
Staff writer

Cadet Abraham Deng’s life has been filled with conflict, which is why he says joining the military, and maybe being put into a war zone someday, is natural for him.

Alpha Co. (Co. 6) Cadet Abraham Deng from Western Michigan University leaps over barriers at the obstacle course. Photo by Michael Rivera

Deng, of Co. A 1/46th Inf. (Co. 6) at the Leader’s Training Course, is a refugee from Sudan. When the civil war between the northern and southern Sudanese broke out in 1983, a group of around 27,000 boys escaped their war-torn country, and roughly 4,000 eventually came to the U.S. The refugees are known as the “Lost Boys.”

Deng has been in America since 2001. He said he decided to join the military when his father died in 2008.

Up to that point, Deng worked two jobs to help pay for medical treatment for his dad, who had been shot in the head during the war. Since Deng was no longer sending money back to Sudan, he could pursue a career in the Army.

“If I go and fight in Afghanistan or Iraq, it makes sense because I’ve been through that,” Deng said. “I’ve seen injustice.”

Deng escaped his village, Duk, before it was burned and trekked across the Sahara Desert to get away from the genocide tearing through Sudan. He eventually found refuge in Kenya.

After roughly nine years there, he came to America. He lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., and started ROTC at Western Michigan University last fall.

He said he knows fellow Lost Boys who have also joined the military.

“We grew up knowing we were going to fight,” Deng said.

He has remained close with some of his fellow travelers, since they lived in harsh circumstances together for such a long time. He, like many other Lost Boys, doesn’t know how old he is since the Sudanese government did not keep birth records. When he was in Kenya, the government assigned him an age, so he now goes by 31.

Deng became a U.S. citizen in 2007, and he feels it is his duty to serve this country. He said the main problem he runs into at Fort Knox is communication, because of his thick African accent.

“People have a hard time understanding me, but they care and they’re patient with me,” Deng said.

Staff Sgt. William Cudmore, a drill sergeant for Co. A 1/46th Inf. (Co. 6), said the other Cadets in the company enjoy listening to Deng during drills because his tone breaks up the monotony.

“The platoon gets a kick out of hearing him sound off,” Cudmore said. “It just pumps everyone up.”