“I would like to do nursing school or attend the physician assistant program. This will help me to be able to pass the medical board and become a licensed doctor again.”
— Spc. Sergio Fernandez
By Sgt. James Geelen
4th Sustainment Brigade Public Affairs Office, 4th Infantry Division
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Spc. Sergio Fernandez, a petroleum supply specialist with 59th Quartermaster Company, 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, examines the gauges of his fuel truck March 21, 2019. (Photo by Sgt. James Geelen)
FORT CARSON, Colo. — The stories of people who gain U.S. citizenship differ greatly. Some involve people falling in love and getting married. Whereas others are more dramatic stories of individuals overcoming many obstacles to arrive in the U.S.
One Soldier’s story consisted of a journey across three countries and lasted three years.
Spc. Sergio Fernandez was born in communist Cuba, and his family struggled to provide for him and his three siblings.
“There were only two good things growing up in Cuba,” said Fernandez, a petroleum supply specialist with 59th Quartermaster Company, 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. “Your education is free and your medicine is free, but your overall living conditions are not good. Doctors are only paid $50 a month. This barely covers the cost of food and clothing.”
Early in life, Fernandez was influenced greatly by his parents to follow their path into the medical field.
“My father is a dentist, my mother is a nurse, and my aunts are doctors, too,” Fernandez said. “That’s why I went to school to become a doctor. I studied for eight years to be able to start my own family practice.”
Cuban doctors are often involuntarily sent on missionary trips to work for allies of the Cuban government.
“I was forced to go to Venezuela to work on a medical mission,” he said. “I didn’t want to go, but I couldn’t say anything. When that happened, I just saw the positive side of that mission as an opportunity to run away.”
On Aug. 23, 2015, Fernandez did just that. The day after his 27th birthday, he boarded a bus and headed to Colombia.
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Sgt. Jacqualyn Soper, left, team leader and petroleum supply specialist, and Spc. Sergio Fernandez, right, a petroleum supply specialist, both with 59th Quartermaster Company, 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, review documents in preparation for a mission at Fort Polk, La., March 20, 2019. Fernandez is preparing to become a team leader in the near future. (Photo by Sgt. James Geelen)
“I got on a bus near Caracas, and had to travel for eight hours to get to Colombia,” Fernandez said. “I was nervous crossing the border. The Venezuelan army has checkpoints there, they could have stopped me and taken me back to the mission. I feel that I got lucky (to get) out.”
Once he arrived in Colombia, Fernandez went to a U.S. embassy to seek asylum.
“I showed them all of my papers proving that I was a doctor,” Fernandez said. “At that time there was a Cuban medical program and the embassy gave me a visa to get to Miami.”
After he arrived, the program manager placed Fernandez in Austin, Texas, where he contacted friends who helped get him to Houston.
“I went to Houston and was able to get a job in a doctor’s office as a medical assistant,” he said. “I worked 12 hours a day in the office doing everything a doctor normally does.”
However, he needed to get his doctorate of medicine again, and between studying and the long days, it soon became a struggle for Fernandez to balance everything and his desire to help others.
“My main goal was to become an MD again,” he said. “In order to achieve this goal, I needed the time to study for my citizenship test.”
Fernandez’s sister-in-law suggested joining the Army to gain citizenship. Soon after, he met with a local recruiting office to see what it could offer.
“They told me that since I only had a green card, I could not be an officer even if I was a doctor,” Fernandez said. “However, they told me about their citizenship program and how they could help me, so I enlisted in August of 2017.”
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Spc. Sergio Fernandez, a petroleum supply specialist with 59th Quartermaster Company, 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, inspects fuel hoses in preparation for future missions March 21, 2019. Fernandez fled Cuba in 2015 to make a better life for himself and his Family. (Photo by Sgt. James Geelen)
Upon completion of basic training and advanced individual training, Fernandez was stationed at Fort Carson.
“He’s the type of Soldier you can ask (to) do anything and he never complains,” said Sgt. Jacqualyn Soper, Fernandez’s team leader, 59th QM, 68th CSSB, 4th SB. “He executes whatever task you give him without having to (micromanage). He’s super responsible.”
Fernandez passed his citizenship exam in 2018 and is currently retaking the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test (ASVAB) in order to become an officer.
“He’s meant to be so much more than what he is now,” Soper said. “Everyone in the company wants to see him succeed.”
Soper said the entire unit supports him.
“I’m trying to do the ‘Green to Gold’ program,” Fernandez said. “I would like to do nursing school or attend the physician assistant program. This will help me to be able to pass the medical board and become a licensed doctor again.”
Fernandez would like to be a doctor in Austin, Texas, when he retires from the Army and hopes to be able to bring his parents with him.
“They were mad at me in the beginning,” Fernandez said. “Now that we talk every weekend, and they know that I did this for a good reason. I try to help them by sending money, but I would like for them to move here with me.”