By Dave Kavanaugh\/Luna Community College<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne day you have a regular life. The next, you have your body armor and an AK-47.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When Russian forces invaded Ukraine in recent days, Aaron Harford \u2013 a student living there and remotely attending Luna Community College thousands of miles away in Las Vegas, N.M. — found himself relocating his family from the capital city of Kyiv to a different part of the country — and preparing for the worst.<\/span><\/p>\n Harford, 45, who\u2019s been living in Ukraine the past four years, said he anticipated a violent attack by Russia and joined his wife Lesya and stepchildren in leaving their home — a high-rise apartment with glass walls and windows — for more secure accommodations elsewhere. He also readied his combat gear from a prior six-month stint with the Ukrainian third battalion, just in case.<\/span><\/p>\n Harford\u2019s body armor, chevrons and combatant identification now share space with materials he uses to log into his Luna Community College math classes. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSadly, it is the biggest news in the world right now,\u201d he said of his adopted home country, \u201cand it looks like it\u2019s going to get bigger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe situation changes hourly,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere I am near the border, it is a very odd tension, and we understand that there is nowhere safe to go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Originally from Los Angeles, Harford said he visited his mother, a longtime Las Vegas, N.M., resident, in the Meadow City a couple of times a year before moving there himself in 2016 and enrolling in classes at Luna. While he\u2019d already attained a master\u2019s degree in counseling, he wanted to go back to study math and engineering \u2013 \u201cI love the honesty, simplicity and purity of math,\u201d he said. He resumed his studies during the COVID-19 pandemic and began taking classes remotely.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt Luna, the mathematics instruction under (STEM Director) Francisco Apodaca and (math instructor) Dr. Rita Surdi, it really is world class,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m quite proud to go there. I\u2019m going to be proud to finish (my degree), God willing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While he plans to pursue a career in the aerospace industry, he has currently found a niche in teaching English to engineering students in Ukraine. That\u2019s where he moved in May 2018, seeking to learn more about his mother\u2019s family origins. His late grandmother, he said, fled Ukraine under duress decades ago, eventually returning to visit years later.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI always wondered why someone who fled a country come back and visit,\u201d he said. \u201cComing back here filled in so much of our back story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While he said he has enjoyed living in his ancestral homeland and has no regrets despite the current situation, he acknowledges the history of Ukraine as \u201cabsolutely horrific.\u201d \u201cI understand and have an appreciation for the families who fled in these dark times. I know now what it\u2019s like to have this big, scary neighbor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Harford said he\u2019s previously heard from a 93-year-old cousin the accounts of Stalin-era seizures of small farms and forced starvation. Fast forward to the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it\u2019s shelling of cities and reported use of hyperbaric weapons, he said. \u201cThey started launching these at the capital a couple of days ago \u2026 They started bombing cities all over \u2013 a massive attack. They kept saying they weren\u2019t going to attack, but they lied. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve gotten used to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In Ukraine, the ominous telltale signs of war or pending war are abundant, and it\u2019s nothing really new.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUkraine\u2019s been at war for eight years,\u201d Harford said. \u201cSo you know this has been a possibility. They\u2019re trying to be more progressive and they want to be part of Europe. Since they gained independence in 1991, they\u2019ve been trying to find their place in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There are encouraging signs and reason for optimism, he contended. The outpouring of global support for the Ukrainian cause has coincided with an internal rising of Ukrainians stepping up to defend their country.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe quality of life is fragile,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s worth defending. If you don\u2019t have freedom, you don\u2019t have anything \u2026 The Ukrainian people are not victims. They built an army out of nothing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(Russian leader Vladimir) Putin\u2019s going to fall,\u201d Harford predicted. \u201cAll of Europe is now united \u2026 We have a country of 1.1 million soldiers and a country of 40 million with over half of them willing to defend themselves. It really disrupts things for people. But we understand that this is probably the end for modern Russia. Some of the finest patriots are in the Ukraine. They know what they\u2019re fighting for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Harford acknowledges that it\u2019s been a scary time for him and his family and their fellow Ukrainians. A countrywide mobilization is in effect, and many of those are able to are fleeing homes, either within the country or to neighboring countries. Key places like airports have been targeted, and cities especially in the eastern part of the country are under fire. Stories of Russian shelling of civilian buildings, including a children\u2019s hospital and a kindergarten, are circulating in media accounts. \u201cPeople are just going to work or on the bus home, and the shelling starts. It\u2019s the damnedest thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m scared like a lot of other people,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I understand what we\u2019re doing. And I don\u2019t really want to leave. My grandparents had to; they had no choice. One of several different armies would be the end of you back then. That\u2019s what happened. (But) we have a real chance of independence and finally be done with this former Soviet power.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHow do I feel? Tense a bit. You stay in a war zone, you get used to it, and you understand this could happen at any time. I\u2019m angry my two stepdaughters (aged 17 and 15) have to live through it, instead of getting ready to go to college. They\u2019re making camouflage. They should be having a carefree life getting ready for university.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Harford said he\u2019s focused on taking care of his family but considers it an obligation and duty to serve should the situation devolve into partisan warfare. In the meantime, he said he continues writing and trying to keep people back home informed on what is going on.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m no Rambo, but I\u2019m more than willing to support, whatever the situation is,\u201d he said. \u201c(The Ukrainians) bravery and willingness to step up is the primary reason the world\u2019s been able to help. We\u2019re going to win \u2026 It makes it very clear to me (though). Freedom is not just an abstract concept. It\u2019s not something you just watch in \u2018Braveheart.\u2019 It\u2019s a real thing. Here, it\u2019s so stark.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While Harford said he\u2019s ready to help his home country however he may be needed, he said he does hope to be able to finish his math degree by the end of the summer if all goes well. He wants to continue teaching English to engineers and engineering students in eastern Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI never knew there\u2019d be a demand for it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe take it for granted, but the rest of the world does not. That\u2019s a project I\u2019m working on. That\u2019s another way to open up the former Soviet countries. I really want to work on something in aerospace. I\u2019m frustrated that in humanity we have so much technological progress and we\u2019re still killing each other. It\u2019s so frustrating to me. The world is so open to us; nothing is impossible. You can be just about anything you want to be, and the Internet has changed it so it doesn\u2019t matter where you live.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n ###<\/span><\/p>\n Luna Community College student Aaron Harford, who lives with family in Ukraine, served in the country\u2019s third battalion as a paramedic from December 2018 to June 2019, as shown. He said Ukraininan soldiers are true volunteers who work 10 to 12 hours a day sometimes six to seven days a week. (Courtesy photo, Aaron Harford)<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jesse Gallegos Public Relations Coordinator Luna Community College March 3, 2022 Luna student says he\u2019s ready to help defend country By Dave Kavanaugh\/Luna Community College \u201cOne day you have a regular life. The next, you have your body armor and an AK-47.\u201d When Russian forces invaded Ukraine in recent days,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":57509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","entry","rows-excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77042,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77040\/revisions\/77042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Photo-1-300x400.jpg\")
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