Military man wants to make family proud

COLCHESTER, Conn. (WTNH) --It's Veterans Day, and what better way to celebrate our men and women in uniform than to tell their stories.

"I always had a strong belief in doing something you really believe in, that you're proud of and I want to make my family proud and my country proud and so I'm over here doing everything I can to keep my country and my family safe," Bob Roberts said.

Roberts is a man with a lot of power. The Connecticut native is responsible for supplying power on the base, or taking it wherever military efforts are needed.

He's been all over the world, often for humanitarian efforts, but also to places like Afghanistan where power specialists are needed. The work comes with inherent danger.

"That's the chance all of us take when we take our oath," Roberts said. "We're willing to give our life any time of the day for our country, it's what we signed up for."

When he's on base, for the last six months at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, he's tending to power supply, but his biggest responsibility is on the runway.

"You actually spend a lot of your time out here," said Sports Team 8's Noah Finz.

"Yes sir, we spend a lot of time out here on the runway, doing maintenance on the aircraft arresting systems," said Roberts. "We have ones on either side of the runway. What they are giant breaking systems on either side with a cable stretching across in emergency situations, the pilot needs to land, his breaks are hot, it'll come down, drop its tailhook, it'll gauge the barrier, it'll slow the aircraft down, it'll keep it centered on the runway, it'll save the pilot's life and the damage to the aircraft."

"Do you ever come out, look around and say, this is my territory to keep safe," asked Finz.

"Absolutely, we come out here, we're very proud of what we do, those are the main things, the fact that we can save a pilot's life in an actual aircraft in an F-15, F-16, something like that," Roberts said, "it's highly rewarding. We take pride in those things especially, that's like the cream of the crop, to make sure that stuff...that is what we take most pride in is aircraft rescuing systems."

Roberts' family is mostly in Colchester, a long way from Connecticut and likely a long way from wherever he'll be next. It's part of his sacrifice, but he's glad to make it. He says he now has a sense of pride that civilian life couldn't offer.

"I decided it was time for me to do something a little better with my life to better myself, something I felt proud of every day, I could wake up, put on my uniform and say I'm really proud to do what I do," Roberts said.