Bill Kadarusman Dikirim ke Iraq
Lehi lawyer, a former refugee, is heading to Iraq with Army
desert morning news/ sara israelsen
/ Indonesia Media
He's Chinese-Indonesian. He's Christian. He was once a political refugee. He's a college graduate. He's a practicing attorney. He's a husband and father of two.
And on Tuesday, he'll be an active soldier on his way to Iraq.
Kadarusman, along with about 450 other men and women from the 1st Battalion, 145th Field Artillery, will be deployed Tuesday for a yearlong mission in Iraq.
"In a way, I'm excited about doing something new," Kadarusman said. "At the same time I feel nervous. It's a long separation. (But) overall, I feel very honored to get citizenship and get to serve the country."
Like all soldiers, Kadarusman will leave behind family and friends. But his story stands out because at one point not too long ago, Kadarusman wasn't even a U.S. citizen.
Born in Indonesia, Kadarusman grew up as an ostracized Chinese-Indonesian-Christian in predominantly Muslim Jakarta. His parents had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1974.
In 1991 he came to the United States on a student visa and graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting from Brigham Young University-Hawaii.
He decided to return to Jakarta in 1998, so he shipped his things overseas and bought a one-way ticket. But he never got to go, as riots broke out weeks later, preventing any travel in or out of the country. Kadarusman, who had quit his job, lost his work visa and was stuck in the States.
"I had a dilemma," he said. "I can't go back, I can't stay."
Kadarusman traded in his ticket for a one-way flight to California where he applied for another work visa. A friend then suggested he apply for political asylum, which he did in October 1998.
Each Friday for months, he'd return to the immigration office to ask about results. By March he had lost hope and still hadn't been able to work legally.
"I don't have any money, I shipped out all my stuff, so I have nothing, really," he said.
With $20 in his bank account, Kadarusman began working in construction for cash. He said he still remembers that day in May when he got a certified letter announcing his asylum status had been granted.
"The difference between not having legal status and having legal status is like night and day," Kadarusman said.
Within a week he had a job at a bank and began saving money for law school.
He graduated from BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School in 2004. He had a degree, a wife and a year-old girl — but still no meaningful legal-related job.
"It was the hardest time in my life," said his wife, Seiko Shimada, who is Japanese. "He had to support a family, but even Lowe's didn't want to hire him with a law degree. He was overqualified. But he didn't care, he just wanted to work."
Kadarusman looked for any job — a cashier at a grocery store, a checker at a hardware store, but no one wanted to hire him, Shimada said. Maybe they were suspicious that he was a non-citizen, law-school graduate applying for lower-paying jobs.
He finally took a part-time job at a group home in Orem for $7 an hour.
When he wasn't at work, he took care of little Megumi while Shimada went to school. She's in the United States on a student visa, which requires her to always take classes.
In July 2005, Kadarusman enlisted in the U.S. Army — the same time he got his green card. "Part of it was I wanted to," he said, "but I wanted to support my family. The Army paid pretty good, paid my loan, gave bonuses — there were a lot of incentives."
Plus, the Army would help him get his citizenship faster.
"He had been out of a meaningful job for a year," said Shimada, who has kept her family name. "The military was kind of the light at the end of the tunnel."
After four months of tough basic training at Fort Sill, Okla., he returned to start his own law practice in Murray
"It was like jumping out of the airplane," Kadarusman said. "You're really scared, but once you jump, you're really excited."
"I'd never seen him so excited," Shimada said. "I really enjoyed watching him enjoy his job."
After a year, they had enough money to buy their first home in Lehi for their growing family, which now included a boy, Tsuyoshi.
"March 2007 was the best month I've ever had," Kadarusman said about his self-titled law firm. "I got a call (from a new client) every day. I got my citizenship. That's also the time that the deployment call came."
Kadarusman talked to his sergeant about how hard this would be on his family and his new business but finally decided to just accept it, to serve his new country.
"I made up my mind to be ready to go," he said. "The change of attitude was with me, it has nothing to do with my commander. My attitude was, 'I'm going. I'm going."'
Shimada said she had been bracing herself for that call since Kadarusman enlisted.
"I'm kind of in a denial stage," she said. "I try not to think about it."
She said she worries about being a patient parent without the help of her husband. She also worries about his spiritual and emotional well-being in such a trying place.
A new partner will manage the firm while Kadarusman is gone, and the neighbors have promised to rally around Shimada and the kids and keep an eye on the house.
"We'll just hope for the best," Kadarusman said. "I used to be stressed, but not any more. There are 450 stories out there. Each of them have different issues. We'll spend our time there together. Hopefully, we all come back alive."
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