BRAZORIA, Texas – By Marievel Santiago - Staff
Dividing time to his community as a Brazoria County Sheriff's deputy, serving the nation as a Marine while being a father of two children, defines a day in the life of Elder Gomez.
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If there was any way Ashley Gomez, the wife of the local deputy and Marine could honor all of his hard work, it was to fill out an application in search of nominees for the Military Times to honor its annual Service Member of the Year.
Just before Elder left for his three-week annual Marine training to California on Friday, the couple heard back from the newspaper, notifying them that he is now one of three final nominees for the award.
"Going this far has meant so much already. He's such a humble, hard-working person," Ashley said.
Gomez joined the Marines in 1998. In 2003 and 2005, he was deployed to the Middle East. The next year, he became a sheriff's deputy for Brazoria County and eventually took a six-month leave of absence to deploy again in 2009.
Today he is the logistics chief for the 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, a mentor for the troops in his command and a tactical officer for the Brazoria County SWAT team.
"He comes and goes. It's not just weekend stuff, it's every day all day for the community. If only people knew what that entails," Ashley said.
As a teacher at Alvin High School, she mentions that Elder even visits the school often to motivate the students in her class. He also works with the ROTC students and helps them with military recruitment.
Regardless if he is not on the job, Ashley and their two children know Elder would go above and beyond to help anyone around him in need.
"Even if it is someone on the side of the road and he isn't on duty, my kids and I already know he's going to pull over, put on the hazards because they know that daddy is going to do whatever needs to be done to help someone out."
Brazoria County Sheriff Charles Wagner, Elder's boss, said he is nothing less than the excellent candidate for the award.
"If you give him an assignment, it's going to get taken care of and if he's not at work, he's with family. He's very deserving of the honor and is capable of doing anything."
The Military Times has images of the nominees on their website where people can cast their votes by Sunday. The finalist with the most votes will win the award.
If Gomez is chosen as the Marine Service Member of the Year, he will win an all expense trip to Washington D.C. for a week, a scholarship from Kaplan University, a formal reception at Capitol Hill and will be featured in the Military Times.
Vote here for Elder Gomez.