Page 94 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine

PFC Ricky Salas, Jr. Brenda Robertson - Why

She Talks About Her Son
by Jane Bromley

Her husband was an abusive alcoholic, so she left
him. “I received no child support, so I took every odd
job I could find.”

Ricky Salas, Jr. was the oldest of her boys. He became
“the man of the house” early on, and exhibited
leadership, at least over his younger brothers. “I
knew he needed guidance and male role models, so
I sent him away to the Job Corps in Roswell (NM)
when he was 18.”

Not long after Job Corps, Ricky asked his mother to
come to Roswell. He and his new wife April had had
a baby, and they needed her to move in with them
to cook, clean, and babysit little Jordan. Soon after
the birth of his son Jared, Ricky surprised his mother
with his decision to join the Army. It is obvious the
moment still pains her when she recalls her response,
“No. It’s too dangerous.” But as she relives the
renda Robertson is the mother of five children conversation, she also remembers saying, “It’s your
who were born a year apart, and whom she decision. I’ll support you.”
Bhas raised alone. “The hardest years were
when I had five teenagers,” she recalled. Her life Ricky enlisted in the Army as a Tank Crewman (MOS
started out hard. She was the ninth child born to 19K 10). He graduated basic training and AIT at Ft.
birthparents who put her up for adoption when she Knox, KY. PFC Salas reported to Charlie Company,
was three days old. A preacher and his wife from 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, 1st Armor
Crosbyton adopted Brenda and two of her biological Division in Friedberg, Germany on August 23, 2005.
siblings. Carrol and Eunice Robertson had four other He deployed
children, and the family of nine moved to Lima, Peru with his unit
as missionaries for three years. to Tal Afar,
Iraq, as part
“I learned to read and write in Spanish before I of Task Force
could in English,” Brenda remembered. She attended 2-37 in support
Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade with Peruvian of Operation
children, and then was sent to a private school in Iraqi Freedom.
Lima, where the teachers were all from England.
“My English took on a British accent.” After six years While Ricky
in Hebbronville in South Texas, Carrol moved his was deployed,
family back to Crosbyton where he resumed farming Brenda passed
and continued to preach. the SAT, and
moved to
Brenda earned her GED and got a job at UMC in Clovis to continue her education. Whenever she
Lubbock when she was 17, got married in 1981, and talked to her son on the phone, he always said,
was the mother of a daughter and four sons by 1987. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m ok. Nothing’s going to

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