Dad promotes daughter, half a world from home

Master Sgt. Ronald Hoover hugs his daughter, Sgt. 1st Class Jessica Boughan, after her promotion ceremony Sunday in Afghanistan. (Army photo by Sgt. Adam Eriewein)

Deployments can stop Army parents from attending a child’s rites of passage, everything from birthdays to graduations to recitals to touchdowns. Such milestones are the kinds of things that can’t tag along into a war zone.

Well, most of them can’t.

Master Sgt. Ronald Hoover was in Afghanistan when his daughter, Jessica Boughan, was slated for promotion to sergeant first class. Not only did the 26-year veteran get to see it, he got to do it — the ceremony took place Sunday at Bagram Airfield.

“This is the first big event that he has actually been able to be at so it’s pretty great,” Boughan said in a Wednesday news release. “For me to be able to share something, and progress in my career like this and have him still serve in the Army and share this with me is very important.”

Boughan, a Lima, Ohio, native on her third deployment and serving with E Company, 3rd Aviation Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, said he father inspired her to serve. Her father, with 4th Resolute Support Sustainment Brigade, said Jessica is part of “the new breed of soldiers” and praised her leadership skills.

“I am really proud of her,” Hoover said in the release. “You don’t get too many opportunities to promote your own child.”