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| | | Fayetteville judge gets Pentagon award | | |  Washington, D.C. -- Chief District Court Judge Beth Keever has a lot of administrative duties to oversee from her office in Fayetteville (Judicial District 12), but she never thought sending one of her court employees to Iraq would be one of them. Willie Christian is in charge of coordinating all access and visitations for the local family court. He attempts to get parents with joint custody, to agree to a plan for sharing the children, working to open communications between the couples and even helping to reunite the families if possible. Judge Keever had no idea he also lived a secret life, one of a military intelligence analyst and teacher.
Willie is also Staff Sergeant Christian in the United States Army Reserves and serves at nearby Ft. Bragg. He teaches courses in how to evaluate the enemy information to other soldiers. When informed that the sergeant would be needed for a year of active duty in Iraq, her first reply was, “What can we do to help?” Judge Keever was citied by the Department of Defense in Washington, the Army Reserves and the N.C. Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserves (ESGR) for her assistance. Sergeant Christian says she prepared all the paperwork necessary with the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts and because his position is grant funded, worked with the Family court Administrator in Raleigh to locate someone to “fill-in” while he was gone so the grant would not be lost.
“This is a wonderful way to show her my appreciation for giving me the support to continue my military service and work for the North Carolina court system also,” said Christian. “Maybe we can show her and other civilian employers that we really appreciate their dedication and understanding during the most difficult and trying times of deployment and training missions,” he concluded in his nomination of Judge Keever.
The Judge and the Sergeant were invited to the statewide awards banquet sponsored by the Employer Support group and were presented the “Above and Beyond Award" by N.C. Congressman Brad Miller, Lt. General Harry Wyatt, Director of the Air National Guard for the United States, Dr. Gordon Sumner, Executive Director of the Employer Support Program at the Pentagon, Major General William Ingram, Jr., Adjutant General of the North Carolina National Guard, and Bud Baker, State Chairman of the ESGR program in North Carolina and retired Chief Executive Officer of Wachovia Bank.
During the crisis in Iraq and Afghanistan, several North Carolina DA’s, Assistant DA’s, Judges and Clerk of Court employees who are members of the National Guard or Reserve forces, have taken a leave of absence from their court jobs to deploy for active duty to the combat zones. United States law requires employers to ensure there is no discrimination against the employee while on active duty, but it does not require support which is “above and beyond” as displayed by Judge Keever.
| | | | Publish Date: 06/22/2009 |
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