By Nina Hébert

Gabriel Cedillo remembers his mother returning home from missionary trips, always empty-handed, often without her luggage, glasses or even her shoes. She was too generous to keep anything she could replace. “If you can help, help,” she would say.

Now Director of Manufacturing Process Excellence, Gabe always knew his path included the U.S. Army. He grew up watching “G.I. Joe,” listening to his parents’ military stories and waiting for his turn. “My dad always said serving your country is the highest honor, and no one can ever take that away from you,” Gabe said.

He was 17 years old when he walked into a Texas Army recruiter’s office, returning with a permission slip to enlist early. His parents proudly signed, and on Sept. 17, 1998, Gabe’s first act of service began with basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Don’t Tell Mom

Gabe enlisted as an Army medic and eventually commissioned into the Chemical Corps. He deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 4th Infantry Division, serving as the Tactical Operations Center Battle Captain, overseeing communications and control of his battalion’s movements. Gabe stepped up. He learned the area maps so well that when Task Force Iron Claw needed a commander, they knew he was “The Guy.”

Gabe’s new mission was hunting roadside bombs, called IEDs. His dad, an Operation Desert Storm veteran, gave him one piece of advice: “Don’t tell Mom.” Gabe now laughs about keeping it from her, a veteran herself, but knows it saved her a lot of worry. “My dad slept with his phone on him 100% of the time,” he said.

Day and night, Gabe’s team climbed into their Buffalo Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle and searched for IEDs, digging them up with its iron claw. The Buffalo was a new innovation, designed to protect them from the bombs they sought. After every mission they gave engineers real-time information to help optimize the Buffalo’s safety features.

Their advice? Get closer to the bomb.

Life-Saving Connection

Every IED Gabe’s team pulled from the ground was one less convoy or civilian casualty, but there was still a problem. Each military branch used different radio frequencies. Without comms, no one knew which roads were cleared. That’s when Gabe learned about Northrop Grumman’s Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN).

Put simply, BACN helped teams communicate by linking communications channels. They could communicate faster and get real time communications, air support and surveillance.

“I saw firsthand how that technology kept us safe. The days we had air support were the days we didn’t get attacked by the enemy,” Gabe said.

When he returned home, his dad hugged him tightly and shouted, “We made it!” Gabe realizes now what his dad meant: that even on a battlefield, his dad’s heart was right there with him, helping hold everything together. It was also time to tell his mom the truth about his deployment mission, “outside the wire.”

She was surprised, but not upset. After all, if you can help, help.

Mission: Always

Gabe left the Army in May 2007 and returned home to San Antonio to spend more time with his son Nathan. He recently joined Northrop Grumman as an Environmental Health and Safety Engineer. “I wanted to be part of the team that provided the engineering solutions and technology that we benefitted from, that brought my entire platoon home safe to their families,” he said.

Gabe’s passion for serving has only grown. For him, the hardest part of his job is staying off the field, leading a team from the office instead of the shop floor. Today he’s found a new mission: supporting the build of lifesaving capabilities and technology as quickly as possible, just as a group of engineers once did for his team.

“If someone needs a better tool, a better process, anything to do their job better, faster, get it out the door to the warfighter, that’s what we do,” Gabe said. “Being here, helping protect our warfighters, it’s like I’m still in the fight. For them.”