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PDF Text
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Grand Valley State University
Veterans’ History Project
Bryan Pogodzinski
Cold War, Iraq War
15 minutes 38 seconds
(00:00:10) Early Life
-Born on September 15th, 1964.
-Served as a Master Sergeant in the Air Force.
-Born on Carswell Air Force base in Fort Worth Texas.
-Father was in the Air Force for four years.
-Later became a factory worker for Rockwell.
-Mother worked for a bank.
-Siblings:
-One brother a year older (also born at Carswell).
-A sister (born in Michigan).
-Before entering the military worked for a farm, grocery store, hung dry wall, misc work.
-A friend of his father’s convinced him to join the military.
-Flew to Cleveland to the recruiting station to join.
-Chose the Air Force due to his father being in the Air Force.
(00:01:50) Training and Cold War Era
-Began training around the start of 1986.
-Training “old school” break you down to build you up approach.
-Some difficulty with being away from friends and family.
-Eventually adjusted to the routine.
-Not as focused on physical training in the Air Force.
-Tedious attention to detail activities. E.g. folding clothes.
-Desirable to pay attention to detailed technical info.
-Lived in 70102nd basic military training squadron (BMTS).
-Started with 58 members, lost 8 dropouts over time.
-No free time.
-No set routine aside from meals.
-Lots of running and marching.
-First station after training: Dyess Air Force base in Abilene Texas.
-First daughter was eventually born there.
-Dyess was a Strategic Air Command base (SAC)
-High profile for its nuclear weaponry during 60s-80s.
-B1 Bomber was introduced there.
-Congress people were present often.
-His role there was a security police officer for the Air Force.
-Cold War ended while he was in Europe.
(00:07:07) Iraq War
-Served in Operation Desert Shield
�-Worked for the 555th MP Company
-Experienced drive by shootings, insurgent attacks, security risks with Kuwait politicians,
helicopter crashes, etc.
-On his role in the military:
-investigated and found $4 million of stolen helicopter parts.
-Dealing with drugs, alcohol, pornography, prostitution rings (mentioned later at 13:12)
-Similar roles to a county police officer.
-Made good friends in the military.
-Keeps in touch with a lot of fellow military members.
-Communicating with family at that time was with phones, and there was e-mailing.
-First deployment lasted four months, second deployment lasted eight months.
-Before deployment “Spin up training”, in New Jersey for five weeks.
-Not much free time while deployed.
-Swimming in the pool or simply catching more sleep.
-Difficulty with re-adjusting to civilian life.
-No family/children overseas to have to orient yourself toward.
-Not a community that shares the same knowledge/experience.
-Values the education and experiences the military offered.
-Pursuing a PhD which should be completed soon.
-Seen places others may only read about. E.g. Germany before and after Berlin Wall.
-After returning from military worked at a car manufacturing job.
-Changed paths to focus on education.
-Received bachelors, two master’s degrees, now finishing a PhD.
-Worked for Children Protective Services in Allegan County.
-Now works with children with behavioral disorders and autistic children.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27_PogodzinskiB1824V
Title
A name given to the resource
Pogodzinski, Bryan (Interview outline and video), 2015
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-25
Description
An account of the resource
Bryan Pogodzinski was born on September 15th 1964. He was active in the military during the Cold War as well as the Iraq War and served as a Master Sargent in the Air Force. During the Cold War he was stationed at Dyess Air Force base where the B1 Bomber was introduced. Later he was part of Operation Desert Shield in Iraq. There he worked for the 555th Military Police Company dealing with security risks. After leaving the military he focused on education and is soon to complete his PhD.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pogodzinski, Bryan
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaczanowski, Claire (Interviewer)
Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Air Force
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Moving Image
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Format
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video/x-m4v
application/pdf
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fa4bde5ae4aeb47fd758455df7dc44ae.mp4
19a3107222c57337ab559c8b8e93f9fa
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/06677191aebedf9b558245ceb20e372a.pdf
dbe60239bef0b46348167004df0e16e1
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Desert Storm
Chris Petty
124 Minutes
(00:00:11) Pre-enlistment
Born October 1969 in Cedar City, Utah
o Moved to Salt Lake City and was raised there
Father worked at local copper mine
Mother was a waitress
Attended a Mormon church
Graduated High School in 1988
o Immediately moved to Las Vegas, Nevada
o Worked construction there for six to seven months
Made good money but had no goals, eventually decided to join military
o Joined the Army for wider selection of jobs, other option was Marines
(00:02:28) Enlistment and Basic Training
Enlisted in May 1989, Went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for Basic Training
o Basic Training consisted of "Soldierizing," Breaking down recruits with little sleep, lots of
exercise, was very regimented, active schedule
o Many team oriented tasks to bring soldiers from all walks of life together as a team
Drill Sergeants were recently prohibited from striking the troops
o Biggest problems in training came from recruits who refuse to comply with team life
o Grouped into platoon for 12 weeks, troops become close, most made it through, 2 or 3
guys didn’t
(00:06:00) Advanced Training
Went to Fort Gordon, Georgia for Communications training
o Never used equipment he was taught with
Training lasted 2-3 months
Most learning was in classroom, working with radios, setting up antennae
Learned Morse code, never used it
(00:07:30) Airborne School
Consisted of lots of running in full uniform and jumping out of airplanes
�
Learned how to jump and land safely
Physical conditioning and training was very important
Trained to go anywhere in the world and drop in within 36 hours
Finished Airborne School in November 1989, waited two weeks for assignment
(00:11:10) Ft. Hood/ LRS Competitions
Was assigned to Special Operations
Was technically stationed in Fort Hood
o Arrived amidst Long Range Surveillance competitions throughout army to form a new
Long Range Surveillance Company
Bounced around a lot, was in Fort Camel, Hawai'i, Germany, short field ops 2-3 months
Chris' Airborne unit was the only one in Fort Hood, and they won the competition
Chris' company acted as eyes and ears for the Division
o Would be inserted behind enemy lines and perform recon, report back to Division
o 5-6 man squads, highly outgunned, essential to remain undetected, had to silence dogs
for survival
(00:16:30) Desert Storm
Company was deployed without warning, briefed about Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait on
the flight to Egypt
o Landed within 36 hours of invasion
Met with a 7th group Special Forces group meant to train them on operations in the area
o Entered Saudi Arabia and practiced methods of insertion using teams of helicopters and
Jeeps
o Saudi Government would watch radar and tell what would appear, goal was to find a
way to evade these
o Settled on a plan that involved a rolling stop, making it appear on radar like the
helicopters turned around without landing, had to jump out at high speeds
o Prepared this operation for five months
There was a compound on the outskirts of the city called Arabian Chicago Bridge and Iron
o Chicago based company, brought in trailers for troops to stay in
o People who worked at ACBI were laborers imported from Sri Lanka, brought interesting
culinary dishes
Chris' unit was kept away from the front lines, set up a base in the East with 18th Airborne corps,
was paired with Brainiac intelligence troops
(00:26:20) Crossing the Border
Was embedded with intelligence units, gathering data on the enemy, began crossing border into
Kuwait in October
o Would fly directly over enemy encampments
�
Searched for low spots between hills and would set down under camouflage and gather enemy
intelligence
o Operated under extreme heat, most of carry weight was water, operations lasted 2-3
days
Main function was to recon the terrain for future movements, was not informed of larger scope
of operations
After main US attack is launched, Chris' operations move further and further into Kuwait
Wore sterile uniforms, no markings, caused a few close calls and misunderstandings
One team in the company took some Iraqi troops prisoner, they were in such awful shape they
received medical attention while the team waited for extraction
Volunteered to stay back and clean out trucks after operation was over, then returned to Ft.
Bragg, redeployed to fight the War on Drugs in South American countries
(00:37:00) War on Drugs
Served in the new 18th Airborne Corps, acted as eyes and ears of the War on Drugs in South
America
Operated all over South America, Columbia and Honduras
o Not permitted to go into cities, kept in confinement to prevent bias of locals
o One mission in Honduras featured the team's heavy being dropped onto a cow
Mission was to watch villagers tending to drug fields
Soldiers knew to recognize cartel presence by the presence of vehicles
Tension was always high, soldiers were told if something went wrong, they were on a "training
mission"
Chris' team would often be attacked by spider monkeys, team took coordinated shots to
disperse them without making too much noise
Served with a West Point Lieutenant, let ants eat through his backpack to teach him a lesson
Chris' team was never compromised by locals
Performed these missions for about a year and a half, made maintaining a life at home very
difficult, Chris requested reassignment
(00:42:18) Reassignment
Assigned to a signal battalion, didn't really find a place there
o A military intelligence officer happened to be there and handpicked Chris to be his
Training Officer
As Training Officer in Ft. Hood, Chris was in charge of physical training, gas chambers, and the
rifle range, operated here for about 8 months
Sent back to Ft. Lee for supply school, consisted mostly of logistics, much less physical, lasted
about 2-3 months
Chris was granted a short leave, then deployed to Korea
�
(00:45:40) Korea
Flew to Korea on commercial flight from LAX straight to Korea, extreme jet lag from changing
international time zones
Assigned to 1-5 Infantry for battalion logistics, managed supplies for the entire battalion, only
got two weeks of training with the current crew, forced to learn the system quickly
Stationed at Camp Casey, largest northern post in South Korea
Korean Nationals with wealthy families would serve alongside American forces, Chris requested
to room with the Koreans so he can learn about their culture
o The Koreans didn't know much English, sometimes had selective understanding
o Korean Republic Army was rough on its soldiers, Chris witnessed a disciplinary beating
o Had a few issues but overall enjoyed serving with them
Chris traveled all over the country using the Korean transit system, visited 2000 year old
temples, experienced local cuisine, went scuba diving, ate freshly caught and cooked octopus
Opted to go to mountaineering school on an island off the coast rather than taking mid-tour
leave
Operated here for a year 1993-1994
Traveled in civilian clothes, most people still knew he was military, local Koreans seemed to like
the Americans
Went from Korea to the 82nd Airborne Division
(00:59:58) 82nd Airborne
82nd is America's reactionary force, built to go first, soldiers were in one of three cycles
o When on mission cycle, everything was packed and ready to go, had to keep officers
informed of location at all times, be able to return to base in two hours, could not drink
Didn’t know where they were going, most often were training drill
o When on support cycle, was responsible for loading trucks and preparing supplies for
those on mission cycle
o When on training cycle, would do field and range training, kept skills sharp at National
Training Center
o Average cycle was 1-2 months
Stayed with 82nd for about 6 years
Got married and had first son in this time
Attended Police academy for a semester, paid for by the Army, started working as part time
officer in sheriff’s department
Majority of people surrounding the base were veterans, most people were friendly toward
military
Chris never really served with female troops
Reader’s Digest wrote an article on the 82nd, spent a couple weeks with the troop, called them
Most Fit Alcoholics On The Planet
(00:07:17) (Timer has restarted) Getting out
�
Never deployed with 82nd, served as supply guy for the artillery, liked to play with the guns in
off time
Left Ft. Bragg and left the military
Chris didn’t really like Utah, Wife was from Jackson, Michigan so they moved there
Chris went to college full time under the GI Bill
o Earned his pilot's license
Was still in the Reserves at this time, helping with criminal investigations, worked one weekend
a month
o Much more relaxed environment
Chris always wanted to be a pilot and fly, required 700-800 hours of flight time, only had 100 or
so after flight school
o Best way to fill the gap was instructing, Pay was too little and the hours were dependent
on students and too inconsistent for Chris to pursue further
(00:10:05) Going Back In
Joined the ADSR, (Active Duty in Support of Reserves) in 1998-99, stayed for 5-6 years
o Became full time member of a transportation unit in Battle Creek, Michigan
Still a major shift from the 82nd Airborne mindset
Commander was a new guy, also a fireman, First Sergeant worked for a trucking company
Chris became known as the Black Market First Sergeant
o Had 10 years of experience and knew how things worked
o People came to him to get things done
o Taught the guys how to rappel, was one of two rappel masters in Michigan at the time
Worked closely with Battle Creek law enforcement, teaching the SWAT teams how to rappel
o Received an award from the police department
While working for the Sheriff’s department in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Chris was handpicked
for the special teams because of his training, even though he was a rookie
(00:14:35) Iraq
Chris’s Battle Creek unit was deployed to Iraq with the Striker Brigade, part of the large Task
Force, and assigned to an active duty battalion, worked with more contractors than soldiers
Deployed from Ft. Lewis, WA, got new equipment and refreshed training
o Chris secured the team better trucks than they were assigned
o Chris focused on getting everyone what they needed to go
Chris was sent with the Advanced Party to Kuwait, flew on Hawaiian Airlines, had layover in
Ireland, flew to Kuwait from there
Chris’s unit came from average walks of life and were able to set up their own AC and electricity,
were self-sufficient
Had to salvage armor and materials for their inadequate trucks
Much of the force was ready to go for months while waiting for Strikers to be finished properly
o Strikers were lighter vehicles, could get in more places on weaker infrastructure
�o
Drivers trained without large cages that were added in the field for RPG protection,
caused them to run into everything
o Strikers were spoiled by the Army
Deployed every-other with the Strikers, separated by twelve hours, got through most of country
unopposed
Iraq was much more battle-torn and scarred by war than Chris’ previous visit in Desert Storm,
Stayed mostly on the roads
At one point set up headquarters in a former mental hospital
Conflict was relatively quiet around Chris, unit was in Tikrit when Saddam Hussein was captured,
not involved in that operation though
Moved north to Mosul, the unit’s final destination, transport took fire on this journey, often
took mortar fire completely out of nowhere
Chris’ unit had 18 Iraqi’s working for them, got to know culture through them,
o Some were Kurdish, some were Iraqi, Chris saw the hatred and forced them to work
with each other, eventually they found their common humanity
o Some of the workers accrued bounties for working with the Americans
Chris consistently saw an extreme lack of humanity, no one kept records, many didn’t know how
old they were
Chris’ commanders were control freaks, networked to get his guys supplies
o Picked up a whole truck of air conditioners for his troops, got in trouble and got
grounded for it, whole truck got shot up and air conditioners were ruined
Chris’ unit took several casualties, Humvees were improperly armored
o Two men had close calls with death and had to be sent to Germany for mental therapy,
one eventually returned to duty
o IED’s were the biggest enemy, biggest killer
o Iraqi’s believed that large satellite dishes produced force fields around the truck,
attached trash bags to RPG’s to penetrate them, made rocket flight erratic
o Chris was fired at by an enemy taking cover behind a cow
Chris spent 16 months in Iraq, volunteered to stay behind an extra month
Chris’ only problem with Iraq was the disruptive effect it had on his family
o Troops had phone banks to communicate with family, Internet came toward end of
Chris’ stay, no cell phones
o Had big impact on Chris’ relationship with his son
The inhumanity of daily life in Iraq stands out to Chris the most
The strength of the insurgency was increasing during Chris’ stay, many were crossing the border
from Syria
Chris saw that Halliburton was stealing oil from Iraq and taking it to Kuwait, Americans were
guarding their trucks with their lives
Halliburton contracted out many positions that the Army was trained to do
Chris’ Iraqi workers told him stories of the insurgency kidnapping kids and threatening their
death to coerce parents into car bombings
One of Chris’ workers was captured and mutilated on video because he was working with Chris
(00:46:42) After Iraq
�
Chris spends a week in debriefing, making sure his physically and mentally okay, help acclimate
to civilian life, everyone is impatient to go home
o Many vets have driving issues, can’t drive at night
Chris begins working as an Army recruiter in 2005, Chris enjoyed the work and helping kids out,
hated the chain of command climate
Chris was top recruiter in MI in his first year
Chris encountered people avoiding him in uniform at Andrews University, met resistance from
the Dean in obtaining student records
o Talked to students about his philosophy on Iraq and reasons for being there
Many recruits joined for same reasons as Chris, searching for direction and something to do,
needed a future, some want to do their part for their country
Had issues with recruiting commander, who wanted him to change his successful recruiting
methods, Chris refused and won out because he outranked him
Chris was given station of choice until his retirement, chose to be sent to an MP company in
South Bend at one rank lower than he was in order to keep his kids in the same school district,
ended up being promoted to First Sergeant, one rank higher than he started
Retired from Army as First Sergeant of that MP company
Worked security at a nuclear plant, was mind-numbing work so Chris left
Chris’ wife works as a nurse, Chris takes care of kids and is going back to school for things he
enjoys
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27_PettyC1911V
Title
A name given to the resource
Petty, Chris Allen (Interview outline and video), 2015
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-12-15
Description
An account of the resource
Chris Petty was born October 1969 in Cedar City, Utah, and was raised in Salt Lake City. He graduated high school in 1988 and enlisted in the Army a year later. He received advanced communications training and completed Airborne School. Chris was soon assigned to a Long Range Surveillance Company which would become part of the 82nd Airborne Division. He operated with this unit performing reconnaissance in Kuwait during Desert Storm, and later in South American countries for the War on Drugs. Chris was reassigned to South Korea, were he operated supply and logistics for a battalion stationed there for a year. He was reassigned to the newly formed 82nd Airborne Division, where he served about six years. He left the military for a while to spend time with family, then went back into the reserves. Chris' reserve unit was deployed to Iraq in support of the Striker Brigade, where he served for 16 months. After Iraq, Chris worked as a very successful recruiter for a few years, then retired from the military as a First Sergeant of a Military Police Company in South Bend, IN.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Petty, Chris Allen
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Moving Image
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/90a29cb65d5ceab0602bf5c0b2da99ec.mp4
c5cd4545b9aac42c397fac66a5a1fb36
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e6ae7e9f184c6d29ef52f91a7d961abc.pdf
5d5f44c987bb621d1244847e4ea95242
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Justin Pelham
Length: 52:09
(00:20) Background Information
•
•
•
•
Justin was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on February 23, 1983
His father worked in manufacturing in Byron Center, Michigan and his mother stayed at
home
Justin went to Baker Elementary and then Lakewood High School
He grew up on a farm, rode horses often, got involved in rodeos, and played football
(7:00) Enlistment
• Justin had been not sure what to do with his life after high school and worked on a lot of
odd jobs
• He was in the Army from February 2005-May 2008
• Justin went through basic training in Fort Sill, Oklahoma for 7 weeks
• When he first arrived at the fort, it was not at all what he had expected
• The men had to get up every day at 4:00 a.m. and work on exercises for 3 hours before
they could have breakfast
• They then spent time in classrooms until lunch around noon
(14:15) Advanced Individual Training
• Justin went through AIT in Texas
• He was not sure what to choose for his occupation, but eventually chose truck driving
because he would receive a larger bonus
• Justin spent 6 weeks in AIT and then was allowed to return to Michigan because he had
been in the National Guard
• About 10 months later he was called up to go to Iraq in May 2006
(18:40) Truck Driving
• Justin drove a HET, heavy equipment transporter and hauled tanks, trucks, and trailers
• The HET was so large and heavy, it could not go faster than 25 miles per hour
• He drove at night from one base to another
• He had before seen only a few road side bombs go off, but no one ever got hurt
• Justin was driving a HET with his officer in the passenger side when a bomb went off
under them
• The HET caught on fire and his door would not open
• He had to crawl across the truck and jump out of the passenger door
�• Medics worked on Justin in a Humvee; he had shrapnel in his leg and hand
(29:00) Hospitals
• Justin was brought in a medivac to Mosul in Northern Iraq where he stayed for 24 hours
while they performed surgery on him
• He was visited from other men in his unit and his commanding officer
• Justin received a purple heart and was told that he would soon be going back to the US
• He was sent to a hospital in Germany for 4 days and then flown to Walter Reed
• Justin spent one month in Walter Reed and then 5 months in out-patient, where he stayed
in a hotel
• Justin then moved back to Michigan and began working in the armory
• He was flown to Illinois about once a month for more physical therapy
(43:30) After Service
• In February 2008 Justin began going through medical exams to determine whether he
could be discharged
• He retired with 70% disability and his last day was on May 2, 2008
• Justin got married on May 4, 2007 and now has a 14 month old son
• His wife is a stay at home mom, but they both want to go to college when their son is a
little older
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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PelhamJ
Title
A name given to the resource
Pelham, Justin (Interview outline and video), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pelham, Justin
Description
An account of the resource
Justin Pelham was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on February 23, 1983. After high school he was not really sure as to what he wanted to do with his life, so he decided to join the Army National Guard in February of 2005. Justin was allowed to return home after training, but called up to serve in Iraq in May 2006. In Iraq, Justin drove Heavy Equipment Transporters, but was injured by a road side bomb. After his injury Justin went through a few different hospitals in Iraq and eventually ended up at Walter Reed.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collins Sr., Charles E. (Interviewer)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Army
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-09-08
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9ba88397cda0e842dece570f7d22ff8d.m4v
0ac9c3396ab3cc259e1d1130a27f5cd6
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/51c49294fa8a6ca0451fd465b61ed3ce.pdf
0961a82e5979f6d2046dd4c28632b856
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans’ History Project
Phil Owens
Iraq War
43 minutes 5 seconds
(07:10) Early Life, Boot Camp and Training
-Born on December 31st, 1984 in Grand Rapids Michigan.
-Served in the Marines with the highest rank of E5 sergeant.
-Mother is a teacher, and his father is an automotive engineer.
-Siblings – an older sister and a younger brother.
-Enlisted in the military out of high school.
-Wished to join the military since he was young.
-Father and his brothers were both in the Marines.
-Basic training in San Diego lasted 13 weeks.
-Graduated in October of 2003.
-Supply operations and administration schooling at Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, North
Carolina.
-Then returned to California to be stationed with an infantry battalion he was with before.
-Role and duties: continuing training Marines with infantry, gear inventory, tracking serial
numbers of weaponry gear and food, and budgeting.
-Instructors are intense but serve their purpose.
-Living in barracks, similar to dorms.
-One or two roommates. Based on a squad.
-Food is basic, not bad but not great.
-Made good long term friends socializing.
-Deeply trusting.
-Physical training (P.T.) everyday from a variety of exercises.
-Running, squats, etc.
-Needed to be able to haul an 80 lbs pack of supplies 13 ~ 15 miles.
-Went to machine gunner school.
-Such as the 50 caliber, mk 19 grenade launcher, M240 machine gun.
(18:20) Fallujah and Haditha Iraq
-Sent to Fallujah, Iraq from 2004 to 2005.
-The Second Battle of Fallujah, or Operation Phantom Fury.
-Second tour was at the dam in Haditha, Iraq.
-Locals were more present in the Fallujah area.
-Atmosphere was like the Wild West.
-Seemed similar to Vietnam in terms of War similarities.
-Citizens were not necessarily reticent to assist the US military.
-“House to house”, little by little approach.
-Battles were very intense.
-Considers that the American Sniper movie was fairly accurate in terms of battle portrayal.
-Played soccer with some of the locals.
�(25:00)
-Recreation: watching movies, internet cafes, listening to music, video games, pranks, working
out.
-Making use of the limited things available.
-Being part of the supplies crew he was able to direct exercise supplies to further remote bases
with less options.
-Family and friends would send food they couldn’t otherwise receive on base.
-During holidays attempted to make do. To make wherever they were feel like home.
-After two tours in Iraq, he extended his time by six months.
-His battalion went on a deployment by ship.
-He stayed in the US in order to direct supplies to them quicker.
-Also took funeral detail.
-Has respect for the colonel and sergeant major he worked with during the Battle of Fallujah.
-After the first tour he was able to meet with his family in California.
-Continued to see them here and there during 10 day spans of time.
(33:35) Discharge and Returning to the US
-Discharged from the military in 2008.
-Re-adjusting to civilian life can be difficult to “turn off”.
-He is part of the VFW, Wounded Warrior Project, and Disabled American Veterans.
-Recently started a reunion with others for a 3rd Battalion reunion.
-Post discharge, worked at a machine shop for a while.
-Received his degree in athletic training.
-Worked as a clinical athletic trainer for a hospital.
-Now planning to work for the State Police.
-Always been a very athletic personality.
-Participated in football, track and field, wrestling, and gymnastics at the junior Olympic
level.
-Sports and medicine seemed appealing.
-Married six months before being discharged from the military.
-Married for a little over six years until divorce.
-While the conflicts are over politically, the lingering effects of the War are a common problem
for military members.
-Wishes to live in a way that justifies the struggle of the conflict and the deceased.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27_OwensP1827V
Title
A name given to the resource
Owens, Philip James (Interview outline and video), 2015
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-24
Description
An account of the resource
Phil Owens was born in 1984 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He enlisted to the Marines and undertook boot camp in San Diego, California. After graduating in 2003 he was educated for supply operations and administration at Camp LeJune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. His role involved training, keeping track of inventory and serial numbers of gear, and budgeting. Additionally he trained to use specialized weapons in machine gunner school such as the MK19 grenade launcher and the M240. Owens returned to the 3rd Marines battalion in California before being sent on two tours of duty to Iraq. From 2004 to 2005 he was situated in Fallujah where the Second Battle of Fallujah was taking place. The second tour was located in Haditha Iraq. In 2008 he was honorably discharged from the Marines and continues to participate in a variety of groups for war veterans and working as a clinical athletic trainer.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Owens, Philip James
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Houser, Bryce (Interviewer)
Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Moving Image
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Format
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video/x-m4v
application/pdf
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f4f168f174ec0a2509ca38ec3349f174.mp4
87e575a98d1e9c4e47580a378dda9926
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/165e2cc92c22a4e45adc42cf2555f933.pdf
79719d538aaf2b239cb846af93a9f7c8
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project
Oral History Interview
Veteran: Matthew Oudbier
Interview Length: (2:24.12)
Interviewed by: James Smither
Transcribed by: Chloe Dingens
Interviewer: We're talking today with Matthew Oudbeir of Allendale, Michigan and the
interviewer is James Smither of the Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History
Project. Okay Matthew, start us off with some background on yourself and to begin with,
where and when were you born?
So, I was born in Bremerton, Washington. My dad was in the Marine Corps and so he was
initially stationed out on Camp Pendleton in California and then it was assigned to leave marine
security guard at, in Bremerton. So, my mother relocated up there. I was born and then shortly
after they moved back down to Pendleton, but that's where I was born.
Interviewer: Okay and then did you move around a lot when you grew up or did you stay
in the San Diego area?
(1.15)
Not so much, we I mean we for the most part all I remember is Camp Pendleton, we lived on
base housing for the most part. I think we lived out the uptown for a while, but my parents are
from Grand Rapids, Michigan so after my dad had gotten out they moved back and I think I was
about ten at the time we moved back and then I spent the rest of my time growing up in Grand
Rapids.
Interviewer: Okay then now what do you remember, or what sticks in your mind about the
time growing up in Camp Pendleton? Just being a kid there.
�So, my dad served during the Persian Gulf, so he had actually gone on deployment, so I mean
there was a small period that I remember him being gone for a while and then just family
watching the news. Kind of checking up what's going on there and then I remember the
homecoming, actually I remember the before they left they had a family, a family day and they
had lined up all the- all the weapons and had blank rounds in them and stuff and had some of the
Humvees and the tanks out there so we could, the kids can you know check them out and stuff.
But you know I- I don't think I really understood the, especially when we lived on base housing
didn’t really understand the community that we lived in, that everyone there had a parent serving
in the military in some capacity, and I don't think I really understood that it was just kind of
being a kid and…
(2.47)
Interviewer: It's just what was there. Okay so then you're ten years old and you moved to
Grand Rapids, and then what was that transition like?
You know it wasn't difficult, I think. So we ended up staying with my dad's mom, my
grandmother for the first couple months when- when we moved back in, while my parents were
looking for housing and then I know my dad had kind of bounced around jobs for a while when
he got out and eventually got a position at the post office which he has been working ever since.
So, but for me it was kind of, kind of roll with it. I had three younger… or two younger brothers
at the time who were in somewhat close proximity of age to me, so I was you know busy with
them and you know just kind of being a kid, I guess.
(3.38)
Interviewer: Alright and so where'd you go to high school?
�I bounced around high school's quite a bit. So, I initially went to East Kentwood for freshmen
and sophomore year. Then I went to Creston for a year and then after that I went to Northview
Alternative. My, at that point my- my decision was to join the Marine Corps so at that point I
was kind of ready to finish school and I was actually in a position where East Kentwood had
more credits, I'd earn more credits than I needed and so going to Northview alternative I'd only
have to stay there for another semester and then I'd be able to graduate early so I was able to
ship- ship off to boot camp you know before the summer, before I actually graduated.
Interviewer: Okay and- and at what point did you decide that you wanted to go into the
Marine Corps?
(4.33)
I think it was my- my sophomore year what I really kind of made that decision. You know I
think it was a lot of things that kind of played into that my- my dad being in the Marine Corps. I
think the year, the year prior to my sophomore year the September 11th attacks occurred, and I
really, I guess I didn't see any other kind of options, there wasn't a whole lot I guess I had going
for me at the time. I was not the, I mean I was a bright student but I was not I had a problem with
authority and I guess joining the Marine Corps was maybe not the first conclusion you make, but
I figured I- I could use that to kind of get myself straightened out in a way.
Interviewer: You would kind of have to learn to deal with Authority at that point.
Yes.
Interviewer: Because you were going to get a lot of it, but you had a pretty good
understanding on some level of what the Marine Corps was all about because you'd grown
up with it.
Yes.
�(5.35)
Interviewer: Okay, alright and do you remember how you learned about 9/11?
So I was, I believe it was my freshman year. I was in, I want to say a history class if I'm not
mistaken and someone came down the hall and said, you know, “turn on the TV,” and they
turned on the TV and we sat there and watched what was kind of unfolding and no one really
knew what was going on so, you know what you know I believe we finish out the day you know
as- as kind of normal after that but it was kind of people were kind of confused on what was
going on.
Interviewer: Right.
For the most part.
Interviewer: Okay, alright so then so when do you actually you- you finish high school and
so when you actually enter the Marine Corps?
So that was in February 2004. I had, they had the Delayed Entry Program and I had signed up for
that in my beginning of my senior year which I believe is where they will accept people in the
Delayed Entry Program. So, I was signed up for that and I had let the recruiter know what was
my plans were to graduate a semester early. So after December I had gotten all the credits I
needed to graduate and then he told me that “well we're just gonna once we have an open slot for
you we're gonna put you in there so you are kind of at a moment's notice at this point,” and then
come February I got the- the call saying that they're gonna take me down to MEPs in Lansing
and process me to- to enlist.
Interviewer: Okay, now how much, in the year when you were going in, I mean how much
kind of test taking and processing did you do before you actually went off to training?
(7.25)
�So, I mean there was the ASVAB that we had to take, and I took that in I want to say my- my
junior year maybe, and I had done exceptionally well on there. And then like in the Delayed
Entry Program they, because you have to do a… they want you to do an initial PFT so it's…
Interviewer: Is it a physical?
Yeah physical training test and it's like a half- a mile and a half run and sit ups and pull ups and
so I had done that before I enlisted, before actually when I was in the Delayed Entry Program
and in the Delayed Entry Program they kind of go through a, you know they tried to help training
acts, kind of some of the- the basic things you're gonna need to know. You do a little marching,
they do physical fitness activities some, a lot of organized sports or hiking stuff like that. I
actually didn't participate a whole lot with that because I figured I was going to be joining and I'd
be getting a load of that stuff so…
Interviewer: Right.
But they- they had some of that and I did participate with some.
(8.33)
Interviewer: Okay and then were you, before you go out there, were you given a chance to
kind of express preference for what kind of training you would get or would that all come
later?
So yeah I was asked and I asked to join the infantry and they for some reasons said they didn't
have any positions open for that because I had and I, I don't know if it was because I had a high
ASVAB score that they didn't want to put me in there, or it was because they were actually full
in infantry position I don't know if that's possible. But so, I ended up signing for a general field,
which was command and control electrician. It's kind of a broad field and then I ended up getting
assigned to a radio operator because I initially was going to sign in open contract, just so I could
�you know they could put me where I needed to, kind of roll the dice. And see how that goes and
my recruiter was like well you got to pick something or at least an area of specialty and stuff. So,
that's what I end up doing and I come to find out I be a radio operator which is, in my opinion
kind of the- the next best thing and in a way because you actually get to, there's more flexibility
with the radio operator, every unit has radio operators, every unit needs them so you can be an
infantry units, you can be an air units, you can be in whatever.
(9.56)
Interviewer: Okay, alright so now they take you, okay so where do you do your basic
training?
I did mine in San Diego and at the Recruit Depot there and that was 13 weeks and lots of fun.
Interviewer: Okay now in the Vietnam era there was gonna the whole ritual surrounding
actually arriving there, coming in in the middle of the night, and all of this kind of stuff. So,
what happens when you go out there? When you first arrive, how does that work?
I mean I believe it's not a whole lot different than- than it's been in the past, I mean we arrived
and it was it was late at night and we get to the yellow footprints there the- the bus driver was
really nice and then when we pulled up yellow footprints and they got blinding white lights
shining on the- on the area and then the drill instructors come on and start barking orders,
everyone get out on the footprints and then you kind of go through in-processing. You know the
I think the- the first thing you do is get the haircut and then you go through and you get- get
loaded in with equipment and stuff, so you get uniforms and then hygiene equipment all kinds of
stuff. You just kind of you know corralled through this thing and then eventually you get into a
receiving barracks and I think we're actually in receiving for like three days. Waiting and after
that whole initial period it kind of really slows down and you're just kind of being marched from-
�from chow to you know, breakfast to lunch to dinner and then I think you're doing cleaning and
stuff in between just kind of to hold you over but you're not doing a whole lot in the receiving.
(11.38)
Interviewer: Okay and how much of this were you expecting when you went in?
Well the initial stuff I was expecting the- the latter part of the receiving, not really, I mean I think
a lot of us it was kind of we were all anticipating you know the- the boot camp and the receiving
was not, I think the- the drill instructors that are in receiving are generally on their way out of
being drill instructors they, they've done their time and they're kind of been started their last leg
of their drill instructor tour. So, they're not as, you know hard-nosed as the- the drill instructors
you're gonna get for your platoon.
Interviewer: Okay alright so and then out were you waiting just to fill up the ranks of a
training unit or?
I'm not sure, I think they just have the receiving cycle, where you know I believe we also went
through shots and medical screening and stuff like that. So, I think it's just that time to process
you in and get everyone situated, and it may be… well I don't know if they're waiting on to fillfill everyone up, because I think everyone, we- I had came with was ended up being in the
platoon that I was in after the most part.
(12.55)
Interviewer: Alright okay so know when training actually starts what does that consist of?
So, there's the I mean so the Marine Corps does three phases of training. The- the first phase is
they are just kind of breaking you down. A lot of it is getting used to the- the system they've got
going on you know we do a lot of physical training, a lot of, what they call ITing, which is the I
figure out the- the act what it stands for but essentially the drill instructors would take the group
�and have them do push-ups until they scream for mercy. And there were some classes in there
also, I think a lot of it was general Marine Corps history that kind of stuff we went over. A
second phase we actually move, so that's in San Diego, and then the second phase we go up to
Camp Pendleton and there's barracks there and that's where we get into our field training portion.
So, a lot of classes on the rifle, on patrolling and maneuvering, we do the rifle range up there and
then at the end of that is when we do our- our, the crucible or the final exercise for that. Which is
the I think 72-hour movement I- I think they give us like two hours of sleep a night or something
like that, if you're lucky and you could I think a meal and a half for the three days. And then
ending with a, I want to say a 15-kilometer hike and I think at the top is where they that's where
we got our- our I think MCMAT belts. I in the past they've… I know they've changed it around
in the past that was kind of the very end you would do this, and you'd get your Eagle Globe and
Anchor. For us by that time it was you get to the in the second phase and we're in the middle you
MCMAT belt and then third phase is kind of refining, where they going over additional classes
and stuff you're- you're focusing a lot on drill. And we get to gloss our boots at that time and we
get to unbutton our, they had us button our top button on our- our blouse for most of the training
and third phase we got to unbutton it so we actually look somewhat like Marines, and then at the
very end graduation is where we get the Eagle Globe and Anchor. But yes, so that was- that was
training for the most part.
(15.47)
Interviewer: Okay, now how would you characterize the group of people you were training
along with?
You know I'm not sure, I mean we hit a lot of people, there was people from all over. I mean we
usually we come to find out that most people are from California or Texas and then there's
�people from other places also. But I mean it seemed that, it seemed to me that most people were
kind of like me and I- I looking back I would say probably you know lower, middle class kind of
backgrounds that kind of thing.
Interviewer: Were there many with military families?
Not that I'm aware of. I mean we didn't… so there wasn't a whole lot of socializing.
Interviewer: Okay.
(16.32)
So, I really didn't get to know a lot of people personally. I think we got like an hour at the end of
the day to kind of square our things away and for the most part we weren't allowed to speak
during that time and on Sundays we, I think it was a four-hour block that we were actually
allowed to kind of… get the newspaper, use the bathroom at your leisure kind of thing. And so,
and usually that’s what I did, I read the newspaper and I used the bathroom so…
Interviewer: Okay, now did you have many people drop out? Or have problems along the
way or did most of them go through okay?
We had a few dropouts, I think there was, there was one guy that ran away during the first phase
and then they actually found him during the last phase, and they brought him back. I believe he
got actually home, and his father convinced him to go turn himself in and they bring you back to
the platoon you- you were assigned to before and then they process you out from there. We had
quite a few people get recycled to us. So, if you are you know say you get to third, the third
phase or you get to the second phase they, they'll bump you back to the beginning of a phase if
you… for medical reason, like if you had a medical injury. You'll go to the medical platoon until
you get better and then they'll- they'll put you back in. And actually, we had a guy that I ended
up going to comm school with, who had gotten cellulitis and they actually found him with that
�on the last day or so of the second phase. So he was actually on his way up the Reaper which is
the end hike and then he was, they- the medic found him or the corpsman found him with a limp
and stopped him and checked it out and they're like, “oh you got to go- go back,” and he was
pleading not to go back because he actually had to do second phase all over again. So, the- the
whole exercise that he had done he had to do all over again with us. So…
(18.40)
Interviewer: Alright so now once you finish that, now what do they do with you?
From there I, so, from there I think we got like our ten days of liberty we got to go home and…
but after that we went to- I went to marine combat training. Which is if you are other than
infantry, you'll go to marine combat training just like three weeks, 27 days of combat training if
you're infantry then you go to a school of infantry SOI. And that's I believe a five-week course
that they send you through, and it's basically more in-depth on infantry skills. So, you do a lot of
bivouacking, a lot of patrolling, learning how to fire a variety of different weapon systems, that
kind of thing. A lot of more classes and instructions and stuff.
(19.35)
Interviewer: Okay alright and then and that was that at Camp Pendleton or someplace
else?
That was that camp Pendleton. That was, they had the school of infantry and marine combat
training relatively the same place out there, so we were out in the Hills Camp Pendleton doing
exercise. I think we for the most part we- we'd go out for the week and do our training out there
in the field, and then come back on the weekend for a couple days to kind of rest and refit. And
then we go out again and it kind of was the cycle for those three weeks.
Interviewer: Okay alright and then once you're done with that, now what?
�(20.13)
Yeah after yeah after that I went to Twentynine Palms for the field radio operators’ course and
I'm not quite sure how long that was I want to say that was like a six-week course that I had gone
through. And you're pretty much learning how to operate the radios, set up antennas, that kind of
thing.
Interviewer: So, where is Twentynine Palms?
Twentynine Palms is in the Mojave Desert outside of Southern California, it's in Southern
California. Outside of San Diego a ways, kind of between San Diego and Las Vegas. And pretty
much in the middle of nowhere. One of the largest training areas, we didn't go out into the
training area so much we were mostly at the schoolhouse, and they had a space designated for
mostly setting up antennas and doing some communication stuff but...
Interviewer: Okay and at this point, and so this is mid 2000s here, what… how
sophisticated was the equipment you were using? I mean did it look like stuff they used in
Vietnam or was it more better than that?
(21.20)
Yeah so, I think the… we later on I had gotten, we had gotten much more modern radio
equipment. In the field, in the radio operators course we were working with prick-104s, prick19s for the most part that’s what we were using. They had for the- the 104 they had a- an
encryption device that attached to it. I forget the name of that, but you had to load the crypto on
it and then you’d set it up. Field phones that kind of thing. So, a lot of the stuff was- was kind of
older and I'm assuming it- the… some of the stuff was kind of at least late Vietnam era
equipment. The schoolhouse didn't get the best equipment I think either. But yeah it wasn't
nothing modern, later on and we had certain we started getting much better equipment where the-
�there wasn't- there wasn't an external and an encryption thing it was all built in, or it could cover
a lot of different frequency wavelengths. The 104 was a high frequency radio and the 19 was a
VHF radio and then we also had the prick 113 which is UHF so if you wanted to cover different
spectrums depending on what your- how you’re trying to communicate you had to use a different
radio for each one.
(22.52)
Interviewer: Okay alright and then what kinds of sort of applications were you learning?
What could you, were you being taught to do particular kinds of things whether it's
communicating with aircraft or artillery or other things?
I think we covered radio messages because there's some standard messages field artillery is one
of those things where they definitely have a standard message system that they used. And I think
we- we touched on that, most of it was just learning how to put in the frequencies for the radios,
set up the radios for communications. So, and we learned how to if you wanted to talk with the
aircraft you wanted to use the UHF radio. If you're going to be talking with, in close proximity
you use the VHF radio, usually for ground troops and stuff like that, for movement. And then if
you want to talk for a long range then use the HF radios. And that was, that was kind of the
extent of it. You know they- they, there was actually quite a bit on kind of numbers, and you
know the- the frequency ranges and kind of the characteristics and capabilities of the equipment.
Which ended up not being that important, but that's what they taught anyways.
(24.08)
Interviewer: Okay alright and then having finished this do you now get assigned to a unit?
Or do you have more training?
�Yeah, no I was- I ended up graduating first in the class. So, I had gotten a meritorious promotion
to Lance Corporal and then I also got to pick, first pick a duty station. So, they get the list of all
the duty stations and I get to take a pick, and I ended up picking a unit in Japan. And it's kind of
all they gave us; was you go to Japan, you go to the east coast, you go to the west coast. At the
last minute they actually gave me the option to go to Cuba, to Guantanamo Bay for a year and I
passed it up. I had wanted to go to Japan, I thought that'd be a good time there.
Interviewer: Alright and so that is where you went then?
Yes.
Interviewer: Okay and now what unit were you assigned to there?
And when I got there, I was assigned to 1st Stinger Battery or 1st LAD (low altitude air defense) I
think they're interchangeable for the most part. But so, it's a part of the Air Wing and they focus
on intercepting low-flying aircraft and to shoot them down essentially. And I think I went there
with five other guys that were in the radio operators’ course with me. We all got to the unit at the
same time.
Interviewer: Okay now where was the unit based?
That was on Futenma on Okinawa.
Interviewer: Okay, alright and now can you kind of describe what that base was like and
what you were doing?
(25.37)
Yeah so, the so Futenma was the airbase so mostly air wings. So, on Japan they had Camp Butler
I think is the system of camps that they have.
Interviewer: Yeah.
�On Okinawa and so down the road was Foster, and then they had Schwab up north, and they had
a bunch of other places and it kind of depended on what you did. So, the Air Wing was on
Futenma and they had the air- airstrip there. Foster was the logistics so if you were you know the
service support guy you were on Foster and if you were infantry you were probably get with
Schwab somewhere. But for- for us it kind of was a we ended up picking up a day-to-day routine
with training and stuff. We, our barracks was on one side of the flight line and they had a bus
system that would- that would kind of shuttle back and forth. We’d hop on the bus and we'd have
to be back after PT in the morning our physical training in the morning. We generally every day
do 3 to 5 mile run or something like that. And so, I was attached to the headquarters. It was a
company sized unit, and I was attached to headquarters in the in the comm shop and they had
two platoons of gunners. And I believe, you know 30 to 40 people are gunners in each of the
platoons and they would attach radio operators to the platoons as needed. So, usually there'd be
one or two radio operators assigned to a platoon and if they were gonna go out to do some sort of
training or something like that they might attach one or two more. And I mean our day to day
was you know maintenance on the radios, stocking the platoons with the radios that they needed,
and things like that if they were doing training exercise. And then we do our own training and
stuff when we were able, so, setting up antennas and…
Interviewer: And would you sometimes go out with the platoons on their exercises or did
you just stay in the headquarters?
(27.41)
Well we would go out usually for the most part, well so, the platoons went out and did some
independent training, for the most part it was the- the company would do company-wide training.
On Okinawa it's difficult to get, there's-there’s limited training areas and stuff so when they do
�get a training area it's usually the whole company going, and it’d usually be for about a week or
so that we'd go out. And that would you know maybe once every couple months we'd go out and
do something like that. And you know we'd set up the headquarters radio command posts with
radios and stuff we'd sit there and monitor radios and we set up a rotating watch. And because
we had the field phones, we had all of, so all of our radios were remote access, so we'd have our
wire running to our remote sets and then our antennas and the actual radio systems. You know
sometimes a half-mile away and we'd have field phones running so we can communicate
between the two. And then we'd be handling traffic from the gunners and they’d mostly do
practice with spotting aircraft so someone would call in saying, “hey there's an aircraft flying this
direction.” And they'd have to identify it and they'd call and report it and then engage or
disengage or something like that.
Interviewer: Okay now do you have a sense of what all of this was directed toward? Was
there a likely enemy in mind? Is it the Chinese there or not really sure?
(29:25)
That was kind of a, one of the points that had kind of been in discussion especially with a lot of
the officers and stuff was kind of the relevance of the Stingers. Mostly because in most theaters
the US has air superiority so it's not like anyone's gonna be flying aircraft through. And then
there was a number of other you know missile systems that could be employed to that effect also.
So, and I believe they actually, they may have disbanded them altogether by now. I know there
had been talk about that, you know, and I think it kind of goes back to kind of the you know the
Cold War era. You know Russian enemy or Chinese enemy kind of the big powers and stuff
were the US may not necessarily have air superiority.
�Interviewer: Yeah so, it's really a traditional weapon system in some ways, or at least one
geared toward a conventional war.
Yes.
Interviewer: Yeah okay now how long did you wind up staying in Okinawa?
I was there for two years and that's generally how long a- a tour is gonna be in Okinawa if you
are, if you, if you're married and are doing an unaccompanied tour than they do one-year tours. I
did two years and while I was there, I think towards my last, in my second year I was ended up
getting attached to the 31st MEU. So, I was assigned to one of the platoons and that platoon was,
or there was a detachment made from one of the platoons and then I was attached to the…
(31.12)
Interviewer: Okay you said 31st MEU, what does MEU mean?
Marine Expeditionary Unit so essentially, it's a helo deck carrier and then they have two other
ships that go along with it and we pretty much toward the South Pacific, doing training. I think
the, one of the- the notable things is, we were actually pulling into I believe Subic Bay in the
Philippines; I think it's in the Philippines and we were supposed actually it was just I think it's
supposed to be a Liberty port they were going in for and as we were pulling up we were inches
away and we started backing up, there was a mudslide in Leyte. So, we moved went over there
and we helped with relief efforts there and that was I think the- the most notable event that we
participated in with that MEU.
Interviewer: Okay and then when that was going on, the relief effort was going on, what
were you doing?
So what we ended up doing we were in charge of the landing zone, so they had the- the mud site
area where they were digging for survivors and I believe there's a school that had, the whole
�village I think was- was engulfed with mud and just outside of that area they had set up a landing
zone in one of the- the villages right next to it and we were landing in helicopters for you know
food and water and that kind of stuff. Actually there was a… one of the locals there was a retired
navy, and owned a number of houses in the Philippines and he opened up his house which was
just across from the landing zone that we had and allowed us to use that as the headquarters for
the- the humanitarian mission. But we would be out in the field you know monitoring the radios,
landing and helicopters I think we had space depending on the aircraft a 53's we can land one at a
time. 46s we could land two at a time, that's kind of the space we had. Yeah that's what I was
doing for the most part.
(33.39)
Interviewer: Okay now when you were on Okinawa did you get off the base very much and
go anywhere?
We did, at that time we could get off the base, right now I think they're pretty much not allowed
to go anywhere in Okinawa. They had a Liberty card system at the time so when you get there
you have a red card which means you have to be back by midnight and normally you have that
for a year unless you're a corporal then you could be… there's all kinds of rules and it depends on
the unit you're with, kind of what they allow. But I eventually got my gold card then I could go
out 24 hours and that kind of remained, there was some, sometimes someone would do
something on one of the bases and then they would pull everyone’s liberty cards so we had to
stay and that usually lasted about a week or so and then they'd reissue cards. But yeah, I got to go
out quite a bit mostly the areas outside of Futenma and Foster. I think my second year one of my
buddies had gotten a car and so we were able to kind of travel around the island a bit more.
�Interviewer: Okay now at times there's been a lot of tension between American military
personnel at Okinawa and the locals. I mean were you aware of that at the time or was any
of that going on?
(34.59)
I mean so areas right- right outside of base were- were very accommodating for the military
mostly because they were businesses and they relied on military.
Interviewer: Right.
And you know I don't, I didn't feel any- any tension or anything with the locals. Now there were
places you go, and they said no Americans can go no gaijin, but I didn't feel that was a tension
thing I- I felt that was more kind on their want to preserve kind of what they got going on. And it
wasn't that there was, they didn't want us there they just didn't want us at their place of business
or whatever. But you know most people I you know spoke to especially the younger people
going on the bars and stuff we talked to the locals and you know I never felt that there was any
kind of animosity or anything.
(36.08)
Interviewer: I guess a lot of it may have been at times of all the problems where the
American personnel does sort of misbehaving or getting drunk or other things like that.
Rather than things being really directed to happen by the locals, so if you were nice, they
were nice and.
Yeah there were and at times were protests right outside of the base and something like that and
that would usually be you know you know you know be for a day or two that would go on. You
know, and I’d always… so I had heard that this was that a lot of the push to get the- the basis out
was not necessarily from Okinawa itself but from mainland Japan.
�Interviewer: Yeah.
Not wanting the Americans there but the Okinawans actually preferred it, and I think it was a lot
had to do with the economy and stuff because there was the US personnel brought all this money
in and you know imagine, I can imagine them closing down all the bases there and then pretty
much all the businesses right outside of the bases are gonna be have to shut down because they
won't have any business.
Interviewer: Alright okay so once you get through that that first or two years assignment,
what do you get next?
From there I get assigned to two- five and so by that time I had actually contacted my- my
monitor which assigns where people go and I told him, well I want to go infantry because… and
I want to go to the, a unit that's going to be deploying soon. You know I had hoped that I would
have, would deploy and I got the 31st MEU and that’s somewhat of a deployment but you know
Iraq was going on, there were people in Iraq. And that's kind of where I wanted to go so, I told
the monitor I want to go to the next you know that's going to be deploying. So, I end up getting
assigned to two- five which is in Camp Pendleton, San Mateo which is north of Camp Pendleton
and I get there and you know they're pretty much on a deployment cycle; where they will deploy
for seven months and they have I think about twelve months that they're back to rest, refit, and
then get ready for another deployment it's kind of the cycle that they're on. And by that time, we
were the- the build-up was just starting. So, actually we ended up deploying in 2000… the
beginning of 2007 and that's I think we were kind of the, one of the initial units for deployment
when they're trying to expand the- the areas. We ended up deploying to Ramadi and we took
over an- an army units AO and then we actually got a smaller portion of what they were covering
�and then other units’ kind of filled in the gaps. So, they were putting more units in that one
space.
(38.52)
Interviewer: Alright is this part of what got referred to as “the surge” where the number of
American ground troops was getting expanded?
Yes.
Interviewer: Alright now how do they, so I guess what sort of preparation do you get for
going over to Iraq? Well this units gearing up to go, what's happening?
So for us it was a lot of, we do so they- they for the battalion they do training phases and it's, I
mean it was like that for the MEU too because we did training buildups for that where you work
on individual training, and then you do unit level, and then you do company, and then battalion
level, and then before you go on the MEU then you do a MEU exercise where it's everyone
working together to train and qualify for the MEU. For- for two- five that was the same kind of
thing, so individual training making sure you have your rifle qual, your- your PFTs up, and
you're your individual, then you focusing on your- your squad or your company, training
exercises and then eventually you'll start doing battalion exercises. And then we do culminating
events in Twentynine Palms so we're going to go back to Twentynine Palms, yay. And do
Mojave Viper which is a month-long exercise in the desert where they have mock villages and
stuff like that and in that they also do kind of the, that kind of training where you start with
platoon levels then company and then battalion level exercises within that month.
(40.23)
Interviewer: Okay and was this geared specifically for Iraq at that point?
�It was yeah it was- it was, they had native speakers there in mock villages doing patrols and they,
by that time they had I believe they were doing the like simulated explosions and stuff and they'd
have makeup teams out there you know doing injuries stuff like that. So, they I mean they at that
time they were trying to make it is it's realistic as possible to prepare specifically for Iraq.
Interviewer: Okay now had your unit deployed to Iraq already? Had they been there?
Yes, so the unit a lot of the guys had already been to Iraq in 2006 they were there so they were
on the previous cycle and 2006 was a really intense time for Iraq. Especially in Ramadi where a
lot of the heaviest fighting was. So, there was a number of guys that had had combat experience
and kind of had gone through that day-to-day routine and yeah. So, there was there was, there
was a lot of veterans, you know in the units that we are with. So, it was it was pretty veteran
heavy going in.
(41.49)
Interviewer: Alright now how do they get you out to Iraq?
We, so we think it was I want to say Anderson, which is in- just is it north of Pendleton we
would bus up there and then we take a commercial flight over to - I think Bangor, Maine and
then we hop on other flights into Kuwait, and then from Kuwait we bus to a receiving base there,
and that's where we get our ammo and a lot of other stuff. I think they give us like three days for
acclimatization for the weather and stuff and then from there we ended up we end up I think c-17
it was either c-17 or c-130 into Iraq. And I'm not sure which base we flew in, but we flew into
one of those bases and then from there we take helicopters into whatever subbase were going
into and stuff like that.
Interviewer: Okay so then where do you wind up getting sent to?
(42.57)
�So we get, we get sent to Ramadi and we're pretty much a sign to the- the- the city itself so when
I got there, so when I when I got there I was assigned to Headquarters Company I was, or
headquarter… yeah headquarters company I was with the comm shop and weapons company
each of the companies had radio operators assigned to them, weapons company being having the
most radio systems because they have our mobile, they would have more radio operators, well
one of the radio operators broke their arm the weekend before they deployed. So, they were
down a man and I actually talked to my lieutenant I said I was- I was a corporal at the time and I
talked to my lieutenant I said, “hey if there's a slot for one of the companies that's where I want
to go.” And when we got into country, he- he asked me if I still wanted to go and I said yes so, I
end up getting assigned to weapons company where I was the company radio operator. There
was someone that was the company operator before me, but I took over his spot because I was
senior.
Interviewer: Right.
So we get there and we're in charge of southern Ramadi so we got the it’s actually considered, I
think it's in one of the poor sections of Ramadi, the south west and then the there's farmland to
the south that’s kind of, you have city and the farmland is essentially how it is split up.
(44.31)
Interviewer: Alright okay now weapons company what kind of weapon systems do they
have?
So, weapons company: heavy machine guns so 50-cals, mark 19's which I actually don't think
they even took out because using grenade, machine grenade launchers is probably not the- the
thing they wanted to do.
Interviewer: Right.
�So, 50-cals for the most part. In a lot of ways, so they were in charge of the area operations, but
they also ran a logistics through, to other companies and stuff because they had all the- the
vehicles. Now when we got to Ramadi, we took over for an army unit, and they did, they didn't
do any dismounted patrols, all their patrols were mounted patrol.
Interviewer: Okay.
And this was, so this was right before they… you know I guess the- the sheiks in the area
decided, “hey we should stop fighting the Americans and kind of start cooperating.” And I think
that happened about a month maybe a month and a half into our deployment is when that
transition took place, because it actually when we got there- there was still quite a bit of fighting
going on and then about a month and a half into it everything just kind of stopped. And so, we
were- but when we got in, we were said we're gonna do dismounted patrols that way we can
engage with the- the populace and stuff and have a stronger presence in the city. And we ended
up, we also did, so the army units also had one main base and that was pretty much it and then
we broke down all of our companies into platoons and had them occupy buildings. So, we
occupied a CPO… Iron, I believe it was called, and in the southwest it was like a compound,
building compound that we, the headquarters controlled and then down the road there was two
other outposts that we also controlled for weapons company alone and then each of the other
companies also did that, so there would be I think Falcon was another cop that they had and they
broke out into other outposts or platoon would- would find an abandoned building and they
pretty much set that up as a compound. So, they're more dispersed throughout the city, covering
larger areas.
(46.55)
�Interviewer: Yeah and it was sort of part of the logic of the sort of strategy was to get into
the community, make connections, show your presence and then stay there and not just
stay hidden here vehicles or in the big bases.
Yeah no we were doing daily patrols out in the community and stuff, some days we would
actually get, we do…. So, we do clearing operations and if we did clearing operations so we'd go
through and pretty much search you know entire sections of the city that we- we covered and if
we were doing that we'd also coincide that with food and water supplies. So, we'd bring in food
and water supplies so wherever handing out food and water to kind of get people to come out of
their houses so we can go in there and search the houses, essentially is what we're doing and you
know bags of flour and rice that kind of stuff we would be handing out. We’d coordinate with
the community leaders and let them know what was going on so they can organize how they
wanted to distribute the food and stuff because- so there wasn't like a mad rick rack for food.
And a lot of it was like large bags of flour or stuff like that and they would know best how-to
kind of distribute that to their village and stuff.
(48.08)
Interviewer: Alright now you mentioned at the beginning there was still a lot of fighting
going on, I mean was that, were your people getting directly engaged and was there, were
there casualties or?
We do not have any casualties, I'm trying to, I think. I think we had I think we might have had
one guy in the battalion that stepped out an IED and lost a leg, but I think that we had no, no
deaths with the time we were there. You know with fighting and stuff there'd be fire fights you
know it was kind of difficult, because and that was one of the things that was most difficult I
think when there was fighting going on, is that a lot of the fighting was from it they'd shoot from
�a distance and they'd move so it was hard to identify where firing was coming from. And when
we were going in it was all about hearts and minds and so it was, if you can't identify the target
then don't shoot in that direction and that's kind of what we, had been harped on us is you have to
identify what you're shooting at before you start shooting. So, if you get shots and you look in
that direction and you're looking where you think you hear it coming from you start trying to find
it by that time they're- they're moving to another location and shooting from there, so you're kind
of trying to figure out where this firing is coming from. So that was one of the difficult things, a
lot of times you’d get pop shots going on a patrol you'd get a couple of shots and then you'd hear
nothing at all after that and- and that was for the most part. And even after the, a lot of the
fighting stopped and you know- you know once a week or so you'd get shots if you're doing a
mounted convoy, you might get shots that you're the convoy from a distance and again you
couldn't identify where a single shot’s coming from. And you just kind of look around and throw
your hands up and say, oh I guess we’re just gonna keep moving.
Interviewer: Okay what impression did you have of the Iraqi civilians in the area to the
extent that you saw them?
(50.24)
The area we were at, a lot of poor people. You know, the-the further in the city there were a lot
of nice buildings and stuff. The buildings we were at kind of bare bones you know single room
kind of shack looking buildings. They’re all concrete buildings out in the- the- the rural area
which it was kind of like here’s a city, here's a rural area there was some more makeshift stuff
going on. But yeah mostly poor, so after we had started building up out there, we also started,
that's when they started implementing the Iraqi army, Iraqi police and we had our “mitt and pit”
teams for police training and the army training. And pretty much what the deal was- was stop
�fighting the Americans and joined the police or the army and so it seemed that it was, it was a
money thing. I had talked we had… so we had a MiTT team which is the military advising and
training team, and we had a section on our, on cop iron that was for the Iraqi army where they
would come in and do training and stuff. And I talked to some of those Iraqis and you know, we
asked them, “so oh you know what you’d do…” They just joined the army, “but what’d you do
before then?” It's like oh “we were placing IEDs on the road, you know a week ago.” And you
know it just seemed that the- the thing was it wasn't about you know, they had some sort of
hatred for anyone it was mostly a money thing, they would get paid to go put in IEDs. Now
they're getting paid to be in the Iraqi army. So, and it was another thing with the Iraqi army and
Iraqi police the so the Iraqi police were generally local from the area, and the Iraqi army was
generally from, could be from all locations. All over Iraq and they- they relocate them and stuff.
So, you'd get that Shia/ Sunni tension between, because a lot of times the- the local population
would be one and they'd be importing via the Iraqi army, the opposite group. So, there were
tensions between and I'm pretty sure there were shots fired between Iraqi army and Iraqi police
on several occasions, that kind of thing going on. So, there's I mean when you have someone that
you talked to and they're saying that they used to plant IEDs and you know there's a, and by that
time I think there was already reports on friendly fire between Iraqi army, Iraqi police, and US
forces so it's you know- you know you'd never kind of never let your guard down even when
you're supposed to be on the same side kind of thing.
(53.31)
Interviewer: Now did you also have interpreters assigned to you that were…?
We had, so the, there were interpreters with the unit and the- the MiTT team, MiTT teams they
obviously had interpreters. I speak, I spoke every once in a while, to interpreters but for the most
�part I didn't do a whole lot of engaging with the local population for the most part. We do, I was
the company RO(radio operator) so if our company commander went on and needed to do a
meeting with local sheikh or whatever we'd have an interpreter go with us and he would wander
off, that's how our company commander was, he would wander off onto a patrol, and he’d just
grabbed his stuff and say, “hey we're gonna, we need to do this meeting.” And he just start
walking off and while we're like prepping for an actual patrol, because we're the military he
would just kind of walk to wherever he's going and we would have to patrol around him because
he would be walking and he'd be like, let's go this way now, and kind of divert where ever he
wanted to go.
(54:45)
Interviewer: Okay how effective a commander was he?
I mean I think- I think he was I think he was fine you know, maybe a little arrogant in that way.
You know he, we would all be suited up and stuff flak and Kevlar and he would be walk out and
he'd take his Kevlar of kind of wander around and, checking you know things out, and you
know-- you know he seemed to be a great guy. I talked to him on several occasions he wasn't a
you know a hard-ass or anything, but the same, at the same time it's kind of one of those things
were you know I've always been kind of ‘lead by example’ kind of thing. It's like you want you
guys to wear their flak and Kevlars, you should probably wear your flak and Kevlar when you're
going out, and you know, luckily nothing happened. I mean at the time IEDs were out mostly
targeting vehicles. You know it wasn't to the point where we were using you know metal
detectors or anything like that, so it wasn't that serious in threat but you know those things had
happened before and it was kind of one of those things like you know, you are the commander
you should probably be in line you know with the patrol and stuff like that you know. Or at least
�let the point man know you're gonna be diverting because our point man would be going forward
and he'd have to keep turning around to make sure that he was going the direction the
commander was going which was just a pain because we’d have to yell out, “hey point man
we're turning left now.”
Interviewer: Alright now what- what kind of living conditions did you have there?
(56.30)
So, we were occupying these pretty much blown up buildings, there was a lot of rubble, damage,
they had rigged up lighting, electrical systems, and they were run on generators. The- the
building I occupied, they had brought in you know beds, little twin sized beds that we slept on, if
I got sleep. I was actually doing a lot, quite a lot because I was, I was the radio operator, so I
automatically made me an electrician also, so anything that was a machine I had to do some
work on. So, frequently the lighting system would get jacked up or someone want to put in new
lighting so I'd have to grab lights and wire and try to rig something and I'm not the best with
electricity I'm kind of afraid of electricity because it can hurt you and I got shocked a number
times doing that. Yeah, we… and I it was me… we had a data guy with us because we were
running Sipper and Nipper net which is the pretty much the Internet service out there. We had a
satellite dish that we'd point and get, so we were able to get internet out there on a small scale
anyways for- for operations stuff. So, we had a guy running that in case it went down and then
we had people kind of come and go depending on what they did, we kind of were a transient
space that we occupied. We had a head guy which is a human intelligence guy came out and was
doing operations out of there for a while, we had a wrecker guy that stayed with us for quite a
while, there, we had started getting more IED strikes on vehicles so the- the location we were at
was best to have him operate out of and because we had actually, we were running all the
�convoys so any logistics convoys we'd run. So, they had the wrecker there because he could
jump, they can organize the logistics convoy and he could jump on there.
Interviewer: Okay and how well-fortified was the compound?
(58.51)
It was pretty, I mean the compound was walled and then they you know as we were there, as we
were building on what was there before us. So, there was already cement structures in some
locations as we were there longer, they were building even more so we get more concrete
barriers. We'd put those up these giant T barriers we had guard posts at different locations and
they would you know the- the battalion XO would come by and say, “let's raise this roof,” and
we'd have to take the roof off and throw more sandbags on it and make it taller you know so, it
was pretty well fortified. While we were- while we were in the compound flak and Kevlar we
can walk around pretty much at ease, for the most part. I did antennas and stuff so all my
antennas were on the roof and if anything happened I'd go up there and I'm supposed to have a
flak and Kevlar but most times I want because climbing a building and maneuvering antennas
with the flak and Kevlar is really a pain butt. I think we I've gotten pop shots up there are several
times I don't think anything landed close anyways, but I mean it was- it was nerve-racking
because it was on the top of one of the biggest buildings in the in the area, so standing out thereyou know maneuvering this antenna which stretches another 30 feet in the air you know, you
kind of saying please shoot me.
Interviewer: Right, okay now did they have air conditioning on a base like this anywhere
or was it all just... open?
(1:00.00)
�I- I think they did have a see unit set where they were getting- getting in. I know- I know the
second tour in Iraq they had AC units I don't… I think we had to the AC unit I think they had the
AC units by then.
Interviewer: And where those just be in places where you had to have computer equipment
or were they sleeping areas or…?
The so the- the COC the command center they would have AC there. I don't recall if our room
had AC, I think it did and the ACs would go a lot of times, so they have to be replaced often and
because the dust, you know they just mal function, they break down. So, you'd have it for a
while, bus and you’d have to try to figure something out. So, I think we ended up at least
halfway through I think we ended up getting air conditioning units, I mean you know I didn't
spend a whole lot of time in the- the living space. I mean a lot of people talk about downtime and
stuff like that but I tried, I stayed busy I was up so I was the- the radio operator for the company,
weapons company which had the ability to maneuver around the whole AO pretty easily because
we had vehicles. So, I was running all, running on all the logistics convoys and those would
occur every day, every other day. I do patrols with the, any company commander, any patrol’s
company commander went on I was a part of that but I also was, did any wrecker runs any time
there was an ID strike and they need to send a wrecker out there to recover the vehicle. I'd run
those and then any time communications that they needed, someone needed support at one of the
other out post I'd do a, have to jump, I'd pretty much go into the COC, “who's on patrol right
now. Hey, call them tell them to swing by here and take me over to this other location.” And fix
that and that was for our company but also for the other companies because I was senior than
some of the other radio operators and in some of the other companies. I frequently get requests to
�go over to other companies and help them with their communications. So, I would be doing that
also, so I pretty much, if something was going on, I was trying to be involved in it.
Interviewer: Okay so how much sleep did you get?
(1:02.50)
I didn't get a lot of sleep and then I mean on top of that when I did get sleep there was a field
phone from the COC to my room in case communications went down in the COC because I'd
also have to maintain those communications. I mean luckily I didn't have to stand radio watch in
the COC they had the- the platoons did rotating shifts they would have a platoon that was
patrolling, a platoon that was in a- in kind of work and party mode, and then you have another
that was kind of on a, you know relaxed schedule. And they'd rotate through those so that they
had those maintained but if it went down and a lot of times they'd call and say, “hey, the radios
not working.” Well it’s like, “did you change the batteries?” And they'd say “no.” It's like, “well
change the batteries and then gave me a call.” And they change the batteries and they’d call and
say, “everything's fine.” But I mean I’d get calls like that; you know all hours of the night also
so.
(1:03.53)
Interviewer: Okay the you mentioned the- the dust being a problem for the air
conditioners, did it cause problems for other stuff too?
Yeah, I mean radios is one of those things, clean connections and stuff like that. You know
they'd be one of those things where I get- I get calls about radios and stuff and it's like well you
need to clean them. You need to take them out and clean the port's we'd go through handsets
quite a, quite often just because the dust and everything. Weapons would have to be cleaned on a
regular basis, the m16. We were… so we had the M16A2 and they are not the best when- when
�dirty. They have to be regularly cleaned, so that was another thing with the dust. You know and
our base they had, they like a receive, a staging area for vehicles and they had what they call
moon dust, was the very fine powder and it would be about a you know a half foot to a foot deep
and you'd be trudging through this- this thin powder. That stuff gets everywhere and if the wind
picks up and it blows it everywhere, and then you know in the off chance that it rains and then
you're walking around and you know foot of mud and you know caking your boots and stuff like
that.
(1:05.17)
Interviewer: Okay now over the course, so how long was that tour?
That was seven months.
Interviewer: Okay now over the course of that time did you feel like you had made
progress or were accomplishing the mission? Or did it seem like you're just going in
circles?
It sort of seemed… it's hard to tell because you know, they by the time we left we had the- the
Iraqi police and Iraqi army in the area. Where pretty much up and running I mean there are
problems here and there definitely. We had also started working on public works projects and
stuff like that, so employing people to clean the streets that kind of thing. So, I mean there was a
progress in that regard, but at the same time it's hard to tell from where I was at anyways. You
know by the time I was just in my routine.
Interviewer: Right.
You know trying to get things done.
Interviewer: So, you're just there and doing your job and not worrying too much about
bigger picture.
�Yeah at that-that time in my career big picture was not on my- my radar for the most part. It was
just yeah; I got a job to do and this is what I'm doing.
Interviewer: Alright so now we get kind of late in 2007 that tour comes to an end. Are there
any other particular events or incidents or things from that first tour that kind of stand out
for you that you haven't talked about yet?
(1:06.43)
No, well so there was, you know I don't know the Battle of Donkey Island which was this island
in the south of the city, and they had gotten reports, intelligence reports like 50 enemies
occupying this- this reed covered island. Which it wasn't a big island, I don't even know if 50
people could possibly occupy the place, but they had worked on clearing the brush from there
and then they did like a company push through the area. And I believe it was on like the fourth of
July or the third of July, it was right around the fourth of July and it was I think like a hundred
and forty degrees out and they decided to do this in the middle of the day. And we do this push
across this- this you know farmland and they have vehicles kind of behind following up and
we’re like on-line, you know trying to push out this area. No engagement at all and I think we
lost more people, not we didn't lose them, but more people went down from heat exhaustion that
day than anything. I mean but I mean it was they had, we had air on station so like that. We had
you know a lot of support on this mission and I don't think anything really came of it for the
most part.
(1:08.15)
Interviewer: So, some somebody somewhere was pulling your leg.
Yeah, I guess I was like what is going on here?
�Interviewer: That but okay alright so now late 2007 now you rotate back home and at this
point do you have about one year left on your original enlistment? Or had you already
decided to stay in or?
Yeah so when I was in- in Iraq I talked my, my I'm trying to think… I ended up talking to my
monitor at some point in time when I was in Iraq and I might have been, I might have had
emailed him or was talking to a third party or something but I had been communicating to him
because my enlistment was coming up. And actually, they were doing reenlistment bonuses at
that point, so I was definitely going to reenlist because I think I got like $30,000 for reenlistment
and again I told them you know, I want to get back here as soon as possible. This is while I was
in Iraq still and so I want to go to the next unit that’s pulling. Actually, one of the ANGLICO, I
think it was first ANGLICO was actually doing operations in our area for a week or so and they
were actually staying in our building. And I had been talking to them so I talked to the monitor
and I said, “hey well you know what's up with these guys, can I go here?” He said, “yeah it's like
well which one you want to go to?” Because they have first, second, third and fourth ANGLICO,
I think and they’re on different locations and he said that first ANGLICO was going to be
deploying again soon. They’re pretty much on a, an on/ off deployment cycle so they go for
seven months, they're back for seven months, they go, and they kind of going back and forth that
way. It's like, well that's where I want to go and so I had gotten orders there while I was in Iraq
to go there. So, I got back and was with two five for maybe a couple more months and then I
move it first ANGLICO was actually just down the road so.
Interviewer: Okay so back at Camp Pendleton?
Yeah.
Interviewer: Okay now explain what ANGLICO is.
�(1:10.32)
So, Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company.
Interviewer: Okay.
They do fire support so surface fires and air support mostly there, I think 50% of the unit is
officers and we get pilots, no blows which are naval gun officers in some sort, and artillery
officers, and infantry officers, and they run teams and they do small teams that they're primarily
working with foreign militaries or units that do not have- that need the, our capabilities or the US
capabilities that don't have them. Or like Special Forces units, US Special Forces units that need
a specialized air support. They need someone dedicated for air sport because that's all we do so
and we work and they have small teams so generally four or five main teams and they have two
or three of them assigned to a section, and then like two or three of those assigned to a platoon,
and then three- two of those in the company, in the headquarters company. And I got there I was
assigned to a, a fire team or a fire power control team which was a, we had five-man teams by
then. So, it's two forward observers or two scout observers, radio operator and a- an officer of
some sort. So, four people actually and our officer was a FAT pilot. Yeah and we do we help
provide fire support so that's all we kind of train on.
Interviewer: Now then, when you join in with Camp Pendleton are you kind of gearing up
for the next rotation over to Iraq?
(1:12.39)
Yeah when I get there, they're already kind of in the stages of a preparation. They had already,
they already knew where they were going to be going, or that they're gonna be going because
they get all the units get detached to other units throughout the area. So, there- there's no like
central like everyone's in this area. They're all over, so Iraq and Iraq it’d be all over Iraq
�disbursed and they don't run a, a traditional workup or training plan for Iraq like the infantry
battalions do with Mojave Viper and kind of that kind of thing. They do whatever training with
who they're going to be working with. I'm trying to think, I'm not sure what we did for… oh
yeah, I'm not sure what we did for our workup, we might have gone to Twentynine Palms for, for
some sort of exercise, but I don't remember going with them. We had to have done something
though.
Interviewer: Alright about how long did you have between deployments?
(1:14.02)
I think it was a year no- no so October I got back and then I went back in March, so October,
November, December, January, February, March; five months.
Interviewer: Okay yes so not- not too long a time necessarily to just hang around and have
that much of a routine necessarily well you’re there. Alright, now why had you been eager
to go back as soon as possible?
There was, I mean that's why I joined for the most part, so that's why I wanted to do, and you
know with, with a deployment there's, it kind of simplifies things. I mean when you're back you
got bills and you've got family and friends you're dealing with. In Iraq or even Afghanistan, you
just worry about the mission and you know it, things are a little clearer in that way. And you're
just busy and you know I enjoy doing that, I was doing my job. I was doing what I had, I signed
up to do.
Interviewer: So okay now were you married at this time or?
No- no.
(1:15.21)
Interviewer: Okay you probably ought to know what year you got married.
�Well I had, a I'm actually, I was married twice so.
Interviewer: Okay, alright.
There was another marriage in there.
Interviewer: Alright and so you've got the better name of you but still there was there, was
enough life intervening when your back home that you notice that kind of thing okay.
Alright so now going back over then, second time so now what year is that 08 you're going
over?
Yes.
Interviewer: Okay is it the same process as before or do you do something different?
No, the in process is pretty much the same. We ended up flying into Kuwait, we stayed there, we
get our ammunition, and stuff like that. You know what was the big difference was, I was we
were instead of being in Ramadi we were in northern, northwest Iraq so I ended up… our
firepower control team was assigned to an Iraqi army unit. I think a battalion north of Al Qayn,
which was I think was like 40 kilometers north and it was just kind of in the middle of nowhere
they built this kind of base out there and our, their mission was to control traffic or stop AlQaeda from moving from, between Syria and Iraq. So, we were pretty much doing patrols in
open desert you know nothing for miles and miles. So, we were doing all, everything was
mounted we would drive out and a lot of times we would do two or three day patrols out into the
desert. And we'd be attached with, so we, there was a MiTT-team which was helping advise andand train the Iraqi army and then there's us and we were attached to the Iraqi army to provide air
support for the most part because there's no artillery out there or anything. It was all air support,
so we’d get air on station at different times and we'd scope out places of possible interest before
we went out into the area.
�Interviewer: Okay and were you finding much?
(1:14.43)
No, no we would get tips on caches and things like that, so we found a number of weapons
caches. A lot of them were really old weapons caches so I'm assuming that the people who told
us about him probably put them there in the first place a long time ago and that's why they knew
they were there. You know that would- that would happen frequently where we'd get tips on
IEDs because that was another thing because we'd have to go down maybe once a month we'd go
down to Al Qayn, which was, you know a 40 kilometer movement to get down there to the city
so we can resupply, getting you know repairs on vehicles, and that kind of thing. And you know
we'd have people that would, Iraqis that would point out IEDs and stuff and a lot of times I'd be
like well how the heck did you know that that was there? It's like there was no indicator you
know and it's not on the beaten path, it's not like you're wandering behind you- you know sitting
in front of you. It's like off to the side somewhere that you wouldn’t know unless you actually
place it there. So I mean we'd come into that quite a bit, you know we're pretty sure a lot of
people that are spotting these actually had placed in there at some point or another and just knew
that they were there, and I think the same was for the weapons caches for the most part. So yeah,
we'd and we'd stop we'd drive right through the desert. We'd stop and talk to the locals a lot of
bad winds out there so you know people would pile up their tents. There was camel trade so they
had caravans that would go back and forth and we'd stop and there'd be hundreds of camels and
moving by, and so we'd wait and we'd stop and talk to the whoever was running the caravan, you
know and they'd always asked, “do you want to ride the camel?” it's like “no we don’t want to
ride the camel but thank you.” But yeah not a whole lot going on out there.
(1:19.45)
�Interviewer: And what impression did you have of the Iraqi army that you were with?
You know so the, some of the officers that had been around a while, some of the senior guys,
they had been around for a long time and they were, you know most likely were fighting when
they were, you know fighting Iran. So, they had been around a while. A lot of the new guys you
know, not a whole, not a lot of discipline that's for sure. And that was one of the things, by that
time they had- you had some guys you know had cell phones and they'd be sitting there and we
were doing some training or something out and people would be on cell phones and stuff and it's
like you know…
Interviewer: It’s like teaching a class.
(1:20.34)
Yeah but, you know and some… but some of the senior guys and stuff they- they would be
hesitant to take advice and stuff like that, it's like you know, they had been around the block and
they don't need our advice kind of thing. You know some would be more accepting, but yeah, I
mean I, on the lower levels I don't think a lot of them took it seriously. I think it was a paycheck
for them and they were coming to get paid for the most part and they were trying to stay out of
harm's way as much as possible.
Interviewer: But at this stage there wasn't a whole lot of harm necessarily.
Yeah no not- not where we, where we were at.
Interviewer: Okay now aside from the Bedouins do you see any civilians or only in the
town or?
No not really, there was a few towns that we would go through mostly on our way to Al Qayn
because it was a larger town, I think the they had a train station, a power plant right outside of
there. But there's small villages and stuff we’d pass through along the way, so we'd see civilians,
�but we weren't engaging with those because that was not part of the area that we were covering
we were just transiting through. So, no real engagement with the Iraqis at this point.
Interviewer: Now this time around did you have any more of a sense of so, the larger scope
with a war or what was happening or were you again just kind of doing your job and not
worrying about the rest of it?
(1:22.09)
No I mean I- I knew, I had been, I mean I had been following the news for- for the most part
and- and I knew, I mean I knew it when the- the previous deployment we were doing the surge
that this was part of the surge and that's kind of what we were. And I knew at the second
deployment that we were at a point where a lot of the fighting had kind of just died off in that
way. A lot of the, actually so a lot of it went from engaging in the city and stuff and just focusing
on so IEDs and IED makers were the largest threat and they were getting better at making IEDs
and making more powerful, which is why the military was starting to transition over to the
MRAPs over the Humvees and we had Humvees at that time and I think they had just started
implementing the- the mine the mine-resistant vehicles because they were making IEDs that
could blow up Humvees and so you know. So I understood that that was, that was going on that
the threats were kind of changing and it seemed everything that we were doing you know there
was some sort of response to it and then we'd have to, it’s kind of back and forth they figure
something out – to get past our defenses or you know– to hit us and then we figure out a way to
prevent it and then they figure something new to get around that. So, I mean with I- I mean IEDs
was always, has always been like a progressive thing where you know, they go from remote,
they go from wire command detonation, to remote control detonation where they have cell
phones or the Motorola base stations connected to these wireless phones that had like extremely
�long distances they can do, and then we started implementing you know the Chameleon
Defender systems which would block radio signals around the vehicles so it’d create a bubble so
if they, you know press the button the radio signal wouldn’t get to the- the IED they're trying to
detonate. But then they'd go back to, they you know try pressure plate ones again or they do a
combination of remote and wire command, you know they were getting better at making
homemade explosives so they were starting to add additional chemicals into their explosives to
make them more powerful or they, you know depending on who they were targeting whether
their personnel, IEDs, or you know for vehicles stuff like that. And this, by the time they’re also
doing a lot of secondary stuff, so they'd have an initial blast and then they'd have secondary ones
off to the side. So these were threats we were all aware of, where we were at, the you know the
biggest threat was going into Al Qayn because it was you know became a large going, into a
more urban area and there was quite a bit of traffic on the roads we were traveling. We were, our
thing in Iraq anyways it was drive as fast as you can, and hopefully the blast will leave you
behind. Or you will leave the blast behind kind of thing, so we were pushing you know 55- 60
miles an hour down roads to get we were going. In Afghanistan everything was like four or five
miles an hour. Anytime you traveled anywhere it was really slow because you'd have IEDs were
much bigger there and it was, you'd have EOD teams and route clearance teams in front of you
which would do a snail's pace to get anywhere.
(1:26.14)
Interviewer: Alright, okay so with Iraq on some level in a conventional sense you sort of
had the- the upper hand, but there was still an enemy out there. They were still active,
there was still threats.
Yes.
�Interviewer: Okay alright and again with this- with this second tour again are there
particular aspects of that standout for you or distinctive?
No, I mean so I think there was a- a murder of some official while we were out there. So, we
went to investigate, the Iraqi police went there and did their investigation, but we went to- to
assist with that in some capacity. You know I don't remember a whole lot, I, actually no I think
we were- we were doing- we were doing a patrol in the desert and we came across, because out
on the outskirts towards the border they had like a border teams out there, and the border team
was investigating some murder. And so, we’d get to this compound in the middle of the desert
kind of area, and there were all these essentially police vehicles out there. So we stopped in to
see what was going on and it ended up being a murder or something like that, but you know we
were just kind of patrolling through and they, we come across this and you know the border team
was taking care of it.
(1:27.43)
Interviewer: Alright and then how common was it for the vehicles in your convoys were to
actually set off IEDs or hit them?
Because we were operating in the middle of the desert, I mean there was essentially no, because
there was no roads where we were going; we were like traveling open desert. There was no, there
were some like tracks that had been made and I, you know that seemed to be at some sort of you
know at least frequently traveled avenues that they had, but we weren't sticking to any of those
we were just traveling the open desert. So, I mean there's no way someone could anticipate thethe route we were gonna be going.
Interviewer: So, it's only the occasional trip into town that had an established route.
�And we no, we didn't hit, we didn't hit- any have any ID strikes. I know we stopped on quite a
few occasions and called EOD, we had found a few IEDs and had EOD come in and disarm and
dispose but no IED strikes.
(1:29.01)
Interviewer: Alright so, okay now when then do you get home from that tour?
That was October 2008 is when I was done there.
Interviewer: Alright now at this point are you still looking to get another deployment or
what are you gonna do next?
Yeah so, I had already reenlisted so for me it was, I was planning, and I enjoyed being
ANGLICO there much more relaxed, because these had all these officers. They were pretty
much lax on kind of the- the menial tasks. If it wasn't something we needed to get done, then
we're not gonna do it, we're not just gonna be cleaning for the sake of cleaning. Which some of
the, like the infantry units is definitely they want to keep you busy. So, we didn't do busy work
we, we trained. By that time, I picked up sergeant, so I was in charge of a, the communications
for an, a SALT, which is a support and logistics team. So, we had three teams under us or three
firepower control teams and then the headquarters for that. So, I was in charge of the
communications and essentially, I was in charge of the team, I was essentially the senior enlisted
guy in charge. Also, by the time I had kind of gotten a good grasp on the air and fire- fire support
aspects of it and how to set everything up and coordinate everything. And then the and because I
had a, the ability to actually get people to do what I wanted them to do in an effective way and
the officers listened to me, quite a bit of officers and they took my opinion seriously and I
actually kept a lot of things from them so I, I kept training going, I kept things going. I kept
everyone on task, so I didn't get bothered by the officers for the most part I let them know what
�was going on it's like this is what we're doing. So, the guy that was supposed to be in charge he
pretty much said, “hey you just keep doing what you're doing and I'm just gonna sit back,” and
that was fine with me because it's you know, I enjoyed taking the lead on that.
(1:31.17)
Interviewer: Yeah well it is something that an awful lot of officers will say, is that they
ultimately depend on the senior NCOs to keep things running and know what's going on
and the smart ones by and large will let them do that. So, you basically become one of those
NCOs.
Yeah so yeah I and I pretty much every morning I'd go in and brief the officers on what our,
what we were planning for the day and I’d asked if there's anything that needed to be done or
they had anything and then I would implement it into the training plan. And I'd give them
training plans for the week and for the month of what we were planning on doing, so I'd set up
training areas and I'd set up, you know depending on what we needed to work on. So, if we
needed to work on you know land navigation, I might set up a land application course to send
guys through. We might need to work on communication setting up radios antennas we might
need to work on fire support missions we do that kind of thing and I'd set all the training up andand I you know we'd get input from the officers and they'd get tasking from headquarters and
say, “hey these things need to get done.” So, we'd get them, a lot of times it'd be, you know some
sort of online training thing that you had to do, or you know everyone needs to go into medical to
get screened for shots or something like that. So, I would add that into the training schedule and
make sure it all got done. Pretty much if you head things off, before, if you do things before, they
tell you to do them then they just stop telling you to do things because they already know you
have it done so.
�Interviewer: So alright now were you doing that was this Camp Pendleton where you were
based, or you go somewhere else?
(1:32.56)
Yeah this is Camp Pendleton I was, it was Los Flores which is like in the middle of Camp
Pendleton along the coast there so we had nice access to the Pacific Ocean right there so we’d
often do runs down in the morning to the Pacific Ocean and then do a swim, so we do a run,
swim, and then run back and by that time I had, so we the- the section I was with we had been
attached to the 11th MEU so we were getting ready for a deployment then. Because actually they
weren’t, they didn't have a company. The last deployment we went on to Iraq was a companywide deployment to Iraq, so the whole company went out and detached to all these units.
Interviewer: Right.
They didn't have a company-wide deployment schedule in the future. They had a- brigade, which
is I like a platoon sized unit which was like six teams and the headquarters and stuff like that that
were gonna be attaching to units, but they didn't have the company-wide so they had to figure
out what they were gonna do with the other companies. Because there was a thing with about
relevancy for ANGLICO because this type of thing could be taught to other units, and other units
could possibly take over this mission. The commander had to make sure that we remained
relevant and we're participating a lot of, a lot of things and stayed busy so that people knew that
you needed the unit, because they had been disbanded at one point. So, they wanted to not get
disband again so they said, “hey we're gonna jump on the, were gonna send a detachment on the
MEU.” So we were the first ANGLICO unit to go on a MEU since… forever, I don't… they had
been on in the past but it'd been a long time since they sent the detachment on the MEU, and we
detached, so we were part of the headquarters of MEU. And that was actually a great experience
�because right off the bat, once we started training with MEU, we had been able to get,
established communications really quickly when we got to shore for any operation. So, it became
apparent that anytime anyone went to shore we had this an ANGLICO out to shore also because
they would have communications for sure, and then they could go around helping other people
get communications. Which is great because I'd go out there and I’d set up three or four different
nets to talk to the ship so we, by that time we had satellite communications that we could do and
I’d have a mobile set up, and then I’d get up and set up field expedient antennas and do HF shipto-shore communications. You know hundreds of miles away.
(1:35.53)
Interviewer: Okay so when do you ship out you then? You’re at Pendleton you train and
get your assignment so now when do you head out?
This I want to say was in October of 2009 is when I ended up because it was, I think we had
Halloween and then…
Interviewer: That’s on October 31st.
Yeah so would have been just after November.
Interviewer: Okay.
And yeah, we again were… I think we were just scheduled to do the South Pacific tour again, but
we ended up mostly hanging out in the Gulf of Aden at the, by the Horn of Africa and Yemen.
They were doing operations from the ship into Yemen I believe and at, because there was
nothing for us to do that's the- the ship operations they were doing operations, we ended up
going to Djibouti and working with the French commandos that were stationed there and some of
the French Foreign Legion. Our officer really great guy, Captain Comangeon, he didn't like
sitting around doing nothing and wanted to stay relevant. So, while we were waiting there, he's
�like, “well when we're doing…” Because we’d do these squares in the ocean, “it's like at one leg
when we're close enough that we can attack at helicopter and get into the base on Djibouti.”
Because there's a military, a US military base there. And so, he started doing air naval gunfire
liaison company, we were- we liaison with people so we started, he started working with- talking
to the US forces on that base about working with the French forces in the area. So we were able
to set that up and then we were able to set up follow-on training for the battalion landing team
because they were sitting around doing nothing, so they got to get like two-week training
exercise in Djibouti also because we were able to set up that relationship there with the French.
(1:38.06)
Interviewer: Okay and what impression did you have on the French military?
They are pretty good, arrogant for no reason. I don’t know, it was weird because like we- we
have a lot of good, we had a lot of capabilities with us. We brought laser target designators
which could guide you know bombs from aircraft. We had laser pointers, we had spotters, and
range finders and all kinds of great equipment for you know getting bombs on to, on to targets
and stuff like that, and the… and we were- we came- we were a very professional team. They,
we were kind of a hand-picked group because we were gonna be the first MEU and we wanted to
make a good impression, so we were all hand-picked. So, we were working with everyone ourour team were, they were all very mature, very responsible people for the most part. So we came
in and we were very professional and you know very humble, like you know “hey we want to
help out, and we want to work with you guys, and we want to learn from you guys,” and they
were just like they go “oh were so much better than you guys,” and I was just like [Laughter] not
really necessary but it wasn't, it wasn't that bad. We worked with the, so the commandos weren't
that bad, so we work with them and we didn't really get that a whole lot from them. Then we
�worked with their artillery, one of their artillery units and some of the other JTAG so we ended
up doing like a combined arms exercise. We had a, there was an aircraft carrier that was going
close by, and so pilots need to get certain qualifications. They need to drop bombs to stay current
on some of their qualifications, and we were in a position where we had control of a range area
and we could, we could do that for them. So, we got to a… we ended up working with the
aircraft carrier which has you know dozens of aircraft they can drop bombs and we have our
helicopter deck which has Harriers that can you know drop bombs also. So, we did like two or
three days of just continuously destroying this range. We were doing like stacks and just flying
aircraft in and doing controls for aircraft and stuff like that. And we were working with, we had
the French come out with us, so they were you know doing that also because they had JTAGS
which is, it's all part of a NATO thing. Kind of a… where there's like a NATO standard for air
support and fire support kind of thing. But yeah- yeah, the French they were, I thought they were
a little arrogant, but you know they had their wine and their cheese, which they actually did. You
know I- I think it's funny because we, I've worked with a number of other militaries and they you
know, a lot of especially a lot of other countries drinking is kind of they will bring alcohol on to
field ops with them and… but the US is kind of taking a hands-off approach to alcohol. And its,
they don't do any alcohol and stuff. So, it's kind of you know funny to see how they'll go out and
they'll have, you know at the end of the day they'll crack open the beers and they'll have a good
time. And we are just like no we're not, we're we are working it will after our seven months then
we'll have a beer kind of thing. But you know…
(1:42.09)
Interviewer: Alright well they have their way. Alright and so how long did you spend out
and in that area?
�A month and a half we were out there.
Interviewer: Alright and then from there then what?
From there… I think that was the most… I know we stopped it a number of ports on the way in
and the way out because they wanted to give us, because most of people on the ship didn't get off
the ship we were lucky we were able to get of the ship for quite a while, so we were getting
towards the end of the deployment. We ended up making our way back towards… or the other
way to Hawaii, I think we stopped in Thailand, and maybe Singapore I, we I think we stopped in
two places then we stopped in Hawaii and they did a tiger cruise on the way home where they,
where family members can- can pick up the ship in Hawaii because they drop off a lot of people
in Hawaii that are you know forward advance party so they prepared the- the place to unload
equipment and stuff. So, yeah, I think that was for the most part.
Interviewer: Okay, alright and then is it just back to Camp Pendleton at this point?
(1:43.27)
Yeah back to Camp Pendleton.
Interviewer: Okay and then how long do you stay there this time?
Until so I'm at Camp Pendleton until I think 2011 is when I redeployed to Afghanistan and this
was a, this was not a company-wide it was most of the company, but not all of the company.
There was another unit that had went to I think Iraq, another section of ANGLICO they went to
Iraq, and there was another… we got back, and then they started doing rotations with the MEU
so there was another group that went with MEU. And then the rest of the company went to
Afghanistan and that was in May of 2012, so we got the summer of, in Afghanistan.
Interviewer: Alright so what was your assignment then in Afghanistan?
(1:44.17)
�There, so we were assigned to the Georgian Army we were attached to the- the Georgians, held a
section in… outside of I believe Sangin I think the Marines held Sangin and then to the west of
Sangin was another area across the river that the Georgians, the Georgian Army occupied. And
we were assigned to them, and actually we did a workup with them. So, instead of doing like
they- they there's a special training plan for units going to Afghanistan, usually I think
Bridgeport is where they'll go. And I had been to Bridgeport actually several times for training
just kind of regular training kind of exercise stuff, but we trained with the- the Georgians and
because they were in Georgia and we were in the US we met halfway we met in Germany which
is somewhere halfway, but we ended up doing a training exercise with them in Hohenfels,
Germany for the workup and then they went back to Georgia and then they deployed to
Afghanistan, and then I think we were two weeks before… two or three weeks before they got
there, so we switched over. There was an ANGLICO unit with the, I think 33rd Georgian
battalion and then we switched with that ANGLICO so we're with the 33rd for like two weeks
and then they swapped out with the 31st Georgian battalion and that was the unit that we had
been in Germany with.
(1:45.53)
Interviewer: Okay, and what was that battalion’s assignment at that point?
They were pretty much to secure the, keep the area secured. They were running patrols and stuff,
the Georgian army. Eventually they wanted to, they expanded on the- they're- they’re AO they
expanded West and they include I think it was like 20- 30 kilometers west they expanded to an
area that was like known for IEDs that they wanted to clear out that area. So, but yeah, a lot of it
was you know clearance kind of and just hold space for the most part.
�Interviewer: Alright now by this time you you've seen a number of different militaries from
different countries, what impression did you have of the Georgians?
The Georgian's they were, they were stuck in Soviet times.
Interviewer: Okay.
(1:46.54)
They were… you know I talk to a lot of guys; I talked to a lot of guys there and they were saying
you know that Afghanistan for them was their training to fight Russia. Because the- the- the
2008 deal in South Ossetia had been not too long ago and there was a lot of hurt feelings on that.
So, they seemed… and you know sometimes people would joke about those things, it didn't seem
like they were joking for the most part, maybe I just didn't get their humor, but they seemed
serious that they thought this was training for fighting Russia. You know Georgia is not a large
country and they I think three battalions is the extent of their- their infantry so I don't know how
well they'd fare; I mean South Ossetia was, it's a couple days.
Interviewer: Yup and they might have to borrow tactics from the Afghans at that point,
rather than be like the Russians.
(1:47.53)
Yeah, and but they were- they were a lot of their tactics and stuff were kind of soviet-era kind of
conventional warfare’s, what they were looking at, you know the US had been in Iraq and
Afghanistan for a while now, so we were kind of, I mean our whole mindset had changed at that
point. So, we were trying to keep them on, on par with that. One of the biggest things was trying
to convince them not to shoot at everything because that was a big problem, they would be
trigger-happy and they'd just start firing away at anything that moved and it's kind of like, don't
do that. You know not everyone that you see is an enemy, you know there was a, an old man that
�was walking, because there was… we were- we were on COP Sherdvani, which was this outpost
on the hill, on this hill and we had you know guard posts all around and it looked down and
there's a river, I don't know maybe five- ten kilometers away and then to the north and south
there was villagers that kind of spread up and down. Or actually nothing down, it was a desert
down. Up is where all of villages spread north and there was an old man coming towards the gate
and the- the Georgians were, started shooting at him because they said he was holding what
looked to be an IED which, yes he was, he was actually trying to bring them something he had
found which was like wires and stuff for making IEDs. We don't know if it was actually being
used for anything or what it was, but you know so we had to you know bring the guy and get
medical treatment and stuff like that and- and get him to further on care because didn't have
facilities where we were at. But yeah so it was it was we had to kind of rein them in like you
know this isn't the West, this is, you know you got to be careful what you're doing.
(1:49.57)
Interviewer: Okay and you had mentioned before that moving around in Afghanistan was
a very slow process.
Yeah so everywhere we went there was, there were a IEDs everywhere, you know I- I think 50%
of the patrols we went on we probably hit, someone hit an IED and most times we went out we
had EOD or route clearance that went ahead of us. Most- most was mounted SEF because we
were, there it wasn't- there was villages that we you'd stop and you do dismounted, a few of the
basis, so we had Sherdvani and there was a smaller base north of us, about five kilometers, and
five kilometers north that was another base. Kind of like how it was in Afghanistan or in Iraq
where they had them split up. And they would do ones that were, had a village nearby they
would do my dismounted patrols and stuff and they'd have mine sweepers with them. And they'd
�carry backpack chameleon things which help prevent from remote-control IEDs and stuff. But
yeah so, we had, but we there was IED strikes all the time. The vehicles we were using were the
M ramps were the mine-resistant vehicles so I mean usually the most damage would be blow off
a wheel and someone would smack their head on a hard surface inside the vehicle, or an ammo
can would come flying and knock them in the head, or some sort of concussion blast would you
know cause an injury of some sort. I think we had; I was doing LZ operations when I was there
for the most part. I was again doing communications right at the main gate communications with
everyone and help fix equipment and- and- and stuff like that but then I, we’d would be running
the- the landing zone so anything that was going in and out of the AO came through our landing
zone, so any injuries would come to our landing zone, they get pushed out to one of the larger
bases with medical facilities or supplies, anything coming in and out. We, we do supply runs
every couple days so helicopters would come in drop off equipment and stuff like that.
(1:52.21)
Interviewer: And so, it was a lot of the movement by helicopter rather than on roads?
Yes, every once, I think once a month maybe we had a very large convoy come through and it
was great because we'd see them, and they'd be like thirty kilometers out and they'd be moving at
three, four miles an hour and so slow. And like you'd see them there and because you're waiting
for them to get here because they're gonna come with supplies like, I, you know and they’d have
like a mobile PX that they’d bring with them so snacks and that kind of thing that you could buy,
and you'd be like, “oh man I can't wait till they get there.” And you'd see them on the map for
like two days traveling at the snail's pace and…
Interviewer: Yeah alright how much did you see the Afghans themselves?
(1:53.08)
�Not a lot, we had, so we had an Iraqi army… or
Interviewer: Afghan.
Afghan army unit that was also on the base so, and I communicate, I would go talk to them
because they had, they could get local food and stuff like that so we actually got a goat at one
point and we talked to them and they’d go out and they do patrols and if you wanted something
they could bring it back. So, we pooled together some money and we got a goat and they fixed it
up for us. I ended up getting beans and rice… a bag of beans- a bag of beans and rice and some
vegetables and stuff I’d get on a regular basis so I can cook something myself instead of eating
MREs every single day. So, I would have some communications with them, but the local- the
local people not so much communications with them. You know when we pushed west, we were
in an area that was again heavily IED’d and so often the locals would know where everything
was because they’d have to know so they can move around and stuff like that. And a lot of the
people we were, that lived there were like farmers so it was I mean it was pretty rural- rural area
and you know we would, I think we would engage with them for like intel purposes from time to
time. You know I was mostly, like I said I was mostly doing the landing zones we’d get locals
that were injured so we had several occasions where there was either a firefight sometime before
then and you know 20- 30 minutes later you'd have a local coming with a pickup truck and say,
“oh so-and-so was- was hurt or injured from fragmentation or from crossfire.” Or something like
that and you know it's questionable whether they were in the crossfire or they were the people
that were being shot at because they moved from one… like so the Marines in the area of
operations adjacent to us, they'd be in a firefight and then because we’d have all the traffic that
was you know going on in the area we were monitoring it and there'd be firefight going on and
then 20 minutes later we'd have a local come by and say “oh yes someone you know they were
�caught in a crossfire.” It's like well we don't you know, we can't tell it's you know we try to talk
to the other unit and say, “hey can you identify anyone?” It's like you know you can't identify
this guy as being you know your target. Or we get and there’s, we’d get small children
sometimes with injuries of some sort. Sometimes they would be related to- to combat other times
I think would just you know regular injuries health issues and stuff like that. And we do, we'd
send them out.
(1:56.18)
Interviewer: Now would your teams that you were with, would you have anybody who
functioned as a medic and would you get that kind of training?
Yeah, we so, we had gotten in… so in, by the time… I had gone I mean in basic training you get
medical; you know basic first aid. By the time I did my second Iraq deployment we had do, they
had developed a, it was a combat response course where they go through specific training for
combat trauma injuries and stuff like that. It's much more in-depth and they had, you know they
had changed a lot of things from when they initially had been teaching us. So, tourniquets were
now a good thing, in the past it had been pressure dressings and you don't want to put a
tourniquet on unless it's necessary because if you put a tourniquet on, they're like “oh you're
gonna lose the limb.” Now it was everyone was carrying tourniquets you have people carrying
tourniquets for each limb, you know they'd have, you’d carry them up on here and they'd have
ones in their cargo pockets you know in case, you know they hit an IED and then you could put a
tourniquet on and then it was pretty much standard, it's like if someone is injured throw a
tourniquet on it and you know, let the doctors deal with it when you get down the road for the
most part. So, we had gotten more advanced combat training. We actually before Afghanistan we
got to go to what's called the pig lab which is, they do, they sedate pigs and they do like gunshot
�blasts and stuff on the pigs in different ways and then we have to treat those injuries and keep the
pig alive so it's a sedated so it's not moving or I can't feel anything but they would do like a
shotgun blast to the leg and then we’d have to do like tourniquets on the pig, you know stop the
bleeding and that kind of thing. And you were pretty much tested on your ability to keep the pig
alive for as long as possible, they’d do lacerations and different things like that.
(1:58.28)
Interviewer: So, you’re learning a fair amount of sort of wound treatment and so forth.
But you guys would not normally have a navy corpsman with you?
No, we… I’m trying to think if we had a corpsman with us because we- we would I know on the
MEU we had a corpsman with us, and I want to say yes, we had a corpsman with us. Our- our
section was attached with the corpsman. Because they wanted us to be self-sustaining so they
wanted our- our section with ANGLICO so what, we had our headquarter section and then we
had our teams and we wanted that whole entity to be able to go anywhere and be autonomous
and not have to rely on the unit to support us. We wanted to be able to support the unit and not
have to rely on them support us. So we had to go with everything that we needed so we would
bring our own food, we could get our own… so we often we would get supplies, supplied
through the unit we were supporting but we can also get supplied through our own avenues,
which is great because we had two routes to work for supplies and getting things. So yes, we
went with, we did go with our own corpsman and then when we got there, he ended up going
into the, they had a small aid station and pretty much work directly for the aid station there, so
treating injuries and stuff. A lot of like scorpion stings and bites and stuff like that, often that was
kind of an excuse for them to get out and go to one of the main bases and go eat at a- a chow
hole or something like that.
�(2:00.12)
Interviewer: Alright so was daily life there any better or worse than it had been in Iraq?
No, I probably- I probably stayed as busy as I had, I mean I, I had more of a routine in
Afghanistan than I did in Iraq for that first deployment. For the first deployment I was kind of
running around with the chicken, like a chicken with my head cut off where I you know, I didn't
know what was going on from day to day. There it was, we had set up a routine, so we were for
the most part in the command center, we'd have a shift there running operations. So, supporting
units with air, we get air on stations UAVs to kind of do overwatch of any patrols going on. If
there was a fire fight that broke out, then we could call air on station quickly, we would, I, in the
evenings I mean Afghanistan seemed to run on the- the- the enemy, they ran on a schedule. So,
like in the morning you could count like between eight and nine you get a fire fight, or you get
some sort of activity going on. Around eleven o'clock things would stop, it's lunchtime no one's
fighting, no one's doing anything and that would go on for you know the day, because it was hot
all day and then once the Sun started shutting down and it started getting cooler then things
would pick up again, and then once the Sun went down then you'd start having people and place
IEDs and we’d, so we'd have different aircraft, four different things scheduled like around that
routine. So, like in the morning we'd have some sort of attack aircraft that's on schedule and we'd
have them fly at a distance so they couldn't be heard or seen, and if something broke out, wewe'd fly them in. In the evening we'd have UAV support you know covering routes that we knew
IEDs to be placed in and then we'd have like HIMARS or GMLARS which are long-range
missile systems and we do; you know prosecute those targets like that. Or we’d have artillery
within range that had I think they had… though they had guided artillery pieces that they were
using at that time that we could use. But often we’d do, so we’d have that, and we'd have
�illumination arounds so we might do illumination rounds and, so we can do like a BDA on the
targets and stuff like that. So it was, but there was kind of a routine setup, and like you know in
the mornings I would do you know, we'd switch things around a little bit but for a while as me in
the mornings I would do landing zones, and then so I would sit there standby to run down to the
to the LZ if there was some sort of casualty that we need to evacuate or something that, I can run
down the LZ, aircraft would be inbound I secure the LZ land them. You know assess the- the
injured and then relay that information, make sure they're getting treatment that kind of stuff. So,
and then in the evenings then I do COC watch and I'd sit up there for a while.
(2:03.32)
Interviewer: So, was there, did you have much to shoot at?
I didn't, well…
Interviewer: Target.
Yeah- yeah, I mean so you know, small arms fire, not for me because I was on the base. For thefor the most part I mean, I’d go on patrol every once in a while. But you know there's nothing
that came to my attention for that, for the most part, but as far as like targets for you know IED
in places and things like that or if other units were out getting a smallish fire, I mean that was
you know IEDs almost every other day you’d find someone. Small arms fire we'd have ended up
finding, yet again we come into a problem with identifying where the- the shootings coming
from. Now it's a little bit easier because it wasn't a large urban area that people could hide at, but
often it’d just be a couple shots from the distance and you’d get a report on the radio like, “oh
shots fired.” It's like “which direction?” You know, “what's the distance?” Like, “well we don't
know.” It's like, “well call us back when you know.” It's like, we'll put a UAV in the area and see
if we can spot some things out.
�(2:04.40)
Interviewer: Now was it possible to spot people actually planting IEDs?
Yeah- yeah, we’d do that like almost every other night. We, I mean I think it was like a couple
weeks straight where it was like the same spot. They were, someone was out there trying to put
an IED in for like a week straight, or like two weeks straight, and it was like every night we were
like, it's like you would think they would stop putting an IED in right in the same location.
Because we'd sit there and watch someone putting in an IED and then we'd hit that target with
you know, usually it's the long-range missiles or something like that. And then you know, two
hours later someone would go by and try to pick up the, you know they take the body away and
they- they do that and then you'd have them, someone else go up there and try to take the IED
that they were just trying to implant and try to put it back in and then we'd hit them again. So, it's
yeah…
Interviewer: So how were you observing this?
We had UAVs; I mean we had pretty much we had, could have aerial surveillance. We also had a
like an eye in the sky, so we had on- in middle of the base we had this giant camera a FLIR
system which does, you know regular color images, black-and-white thermal, so all kinds of neat
stuff and it has zoom capability and all that stuff.
(2:06.12)
Interviewer: So, you could see them at night?
Yeah.
Interviewer: But it didn’t register with them that you could see them at night?
I don't know, I mean because like it would register, like we- they could tell if we had aircraft on
station. So, like they knew that if- that if they heard the helicopters that they need to get away,
�get out of there. And that's what they did and so we would have to, like if we were doing patrols,
we'd have aircraft on station with the patrols going out, but we'd have to keep them at a distance.
So, they couldn’t be, couldn’t be seen or heard, so they’d be in, have them in defilade you knowyou know quite a ways a away. So, because if they were on station then they wouldn’t attack so I
mean that kind of registered and even with like fixed-wing aircraft; if they were flying too low in
way that they could be seen or heard then there'd be no engagement with that. So, we would try
to keep them out of the way so we can draw up the enemy and then we’d bring them in and so I
don't know why, you know they would keep putting in the IEDs I mean it was like, it would
happen- it was like two weeks straight where it was happening on a regular basis at this same
location. And we, I mean we kept watching that location because it was where they kept putting
them.
(2:07.34)
Interviewer: Now how long did you spend in Afghanistan?
Seven months.
Interviewer: Okay and over the course of that time did anything change? Or were things
pretty much the same the whole time?
No, well we- we did a massive expansion, so we like quadrupled the size of the area that we
were covering. I mean most of that area was all desert, we were expanding to this road that was
far to the ???? from Iran is where we had gotten, they’d have their identification on them from
where they're from. And I think Iran was one of the big places that we were getting people. We
were finding, so the people that we hit emplacing IEDs, a lot of times that's where they were
from. And so, I don't think a lot of it was local people that were- were doing anything for the
most part. I think it was just outsiders coming in and causing disruptions or that kind of thing.
�(2:08.33)
Interviewer: Alright now this was you last war and deployment, right?
Yeah.
Interviewer: Okay. Now had you at a certain point decided that it was your time to get out
of the Marine Corps?
Yeah, I decided, well so when I got back, I was pretty sure I was getting out. And I had extend
for a, a month because when you get back from a deployment you have to have at least three
months before you get out and I only had two month so I had to extend for a month so I can get
out. And I had looked into trying out for the for the- the HUMINT team, the human intelligence
team or counter-intel, so I had looked in that and I started the- the process through that. But at
that point it was, their deployment cycles, I had gotten onto a pretty frequent deployment cycle
by that time. Their deployment cycles were- were pretty much constant. They were always gone
somewhere, you know a lot of cases I talked to guys and they- they said they'd get back from a
deployment and then two weeks later they'd be back on a plane going to another, for another
deployment somewhere. Mind you some of the deployments were short deployments, it was you
know. But I had looked into that and but eventually you know, by that time I was also married
and had at least one kid, so… yeah I figured it was and I had I mean, I had done a lot by then
and- and I had you know, I figured after eight years if I do another enlistment I might as well do
20. And I really was actually kind of fed up with, you know, you got- you weigh the- the good
times and the bad times. And I had a lot of great times but there was a lot of times where I was
just like this thing, this blow. You know just the- the military bureaucracy kind of system that
had going on and it seemed to me you know, I was- I was a sergeant and that I think is the best
place to be. If I pick up staff, I'd be doing more of a desk kind of job at that time, and it, it
�seemed that a lot of the- the guys that did stay in that's all they really had, you know. We had a
lot of people, I got… it's funny, when I was in Iraq it was like anyone who was educated is
probably left already by that time. You know the same thing I think I was thinking with the
military was like anyone who's smart enough to do something outside of the military has gotten
out and is doing that. Anyone left in is, you know, is- they- they're not getting out because they
can't get out. They wouldn't be able to do anything else; just it was a lot of that. A lot of people
stuck in their ways and…
(2:11.20)
Interviewer: Was there any encouragement to go and become an officer?
No- not really, you know I actually, so when I was on the- the 11th MEU I had signed up for- I
had put an application in for the MECEP- MECEP program which is the military to officer, the
enlisted to officer program I put an application in for that. That did not go through, I mean they
only have so many slots for that and so that was kind of my venture at doing that, but no one
really was like, “oh you should go officer.” I mean at that point I was; you know I was out the
door and most people kind of knew, I mean, and I had- I had told my officers. you know I said,
“you know when we get back from this deployment I got three months.” It's like I'm not doing
anything when I get back, it's like I worked my butt off for eight years and I, you know and I'm
not gonna quit at the very end, but at the same time it's like, you guys don't, you know, you can
handle, you- everyone is, you guys should be able to handle this now. You know I got things to
worry about before I get out, so. And they were fine with that and they said, you know, “you do
whatever you need to do.” So that was great.
(2:12.34)
�Interviewer: Okay, now what does the military sort of now do in terms of helping to
transition people? You’re leaving the military, to go back to civilian life, whether its
coming back from deployment or getting out entirely, do they provide anything for you?
Yeah, so they had a weeklong, I think it was-it was either three days or a weeklong, either way
They, you’re supposed to do that you can do it up to a year before you get out but you're, so
you're supposed to be given an opportunity to go between a year and during your last year up to
thirty days. I mean you can do it from any time, but they say you ideally you want to do at least
60 days before you get out. I think I did mine like, I don't know a month before I got out and that
was with that deployment, I had just got back from a deployment and I kind of set it up that way.
So, I can make, I'm- you know I wanted to make sure I got it done. And they go over a lot of
things and they try to specialize it for what you're kind of interested in. If you're looking for a
job, they're gonna focus more on your resume and interview skills, and then probably try and get
you in touch with, you know people that can help find you a job. If you're trying to go back to
school, then they can have people to help navigate the GI bill and you set up for that. If you're
trying to open your own business they got people to help with that kind of thing, but yeah I think
it was, and they- they say oh you know you could show up in your civilian clothes, you don'tthey try to make it relaxed and it's all ran by civilians and stuff like that, you know. I think I went
in my uniform the entire time. I think, I- except for the day they do interviews they said don't
wear your uniform so it's, I didn't wear my uniform because they told me not to. But I mean…
Interviewer: Did they do anything in terms of helping or offer to help people who may have
PTSD issues or other things like that? Or just general stuff, but adjusting to life, civilian
life and how you have to behave now or anything like that?
(2:14.46)
�Not, I don't- I don’t remember any, a whole lot of that, you know. A lot of it was just on like
your- your benefits and stuff, well big harping on putting in your- your if you have needed to
make a VA claim. Putting that, getting like situated and stuff like that but not a lot with you
know mental health and stuff like that. Pretty much it's, you know a lot of the, anything medical
related was kind of more associated with your VA claim and they're saying you know if you
don't have things documented make sure you go get them documented now or make sure you can
identify that stuff and put them in, make sure they're in your record so you can do your claim. So
you can get compensated for any injuries you have whether they're physical or mental health
issues but I don't think there was a whole lot of, you know classes or anything on like adjusting
or you know this is how you talk to your employer, you know you can't knife hand people kind of
thing.
(2:15.49)
Interviewer: Alright, so now when do you actually get out?
So, I got- I got so I had leaves saved up, so I got out sometime in- sometime in March I got out. I
actually got, went, used tuition assistance and went and got my Class A license through a local
school and they, so I took leave and did that so I was still getting paid and they're paying for the
school at the same time and then I got out and I took the rest of my leave and it so, did terminal
leave and then I actually stayed in San Diego until, because my wife was in the Navy so we
stayed there until she got out which was another I don't know almost two years.
Interviewer: Class A license?
All commercial driver's license, I can drive the big semi-trucks.
Interviewer: Alright, so is that what you wound up doing while you were there or?
�No, well I got out, when I got out I pretty much immediately got an offer or someone was telling
me, told me about- so the- the school I went through to get my license they had a placement and
they had got word that the VA hospital in San Diego was looking for drivers that are veterans,
and so I got a job at, in there… as a- a vehicle, a motor vehicle operator for the VA hospital
there. A lot of driving buses and stuff like that. So not semi tracks but buses and so I could utilize
my- my Class A license.
(2:17.19)
Interviewer: Okay, and then once your wife got out, then what did you wind up doing?
We ended up moving back to Michigan and then I started working for the Rapid, driving the bus
here and I started taking classes. I had actually, so while I was working for the VA hospitals, I
was actually going to a local community college and got my EMT certification. Mostly because I
was preparing for the move and I wanted to have options for jobs and stuff and because I had
gotten an extensive- extensive, I got quite a bit of training in first aid and trauma. I figured EMT
I could probably handle something like that but when I moved, I ended up getting a job driving
for the bus, so I didn't need my EMT certification.
(2:18.07)
Interviewer: Alright and so now what have you basically decided to do with yourself? Go to
college?
Yeah- yeah, I started taking part-time classes when I got to Grand Rapids at Grand Valley and
then I switched to full-time and then I changed my major to philosophy and that's what I've been
doing. Actually, gonna be going to grad school for philosophy, my PhD and…
Interviewer: You’ve also have been actively involved with the student veteran’s
organization, what motivated you to do that?
�Well so even when I was at, so I was at the VA hospital working as a driver I was also
volunteering at the DAV. Helping coordinate transportation for veterans to get to their medical
appointments and so, and then when I got to Grand Rapids, I was actually actively seeking out
volunteer opportunities with veterans and I worked with Buddy to Buddy Program which is a
peer mentoring program. And so I have tried to maintain, be active in the veterans community,
you know mostly because I- I get veterans I you know, have that common experience but also
because I know there's a lot of issues that veterans have and I've been fortunate; I don't have any
mental health issues or anything like that. So, it's something I can- I can do, I can try to be that
voice in some way or try to help out where I can so.
Interviewer: What kinds of issues or problems do you see be fairly common among
returning veterans of your own generation or even younger?
(2:19.43)
A, one of the big, I mean mental health issues I think is prevalent and I think it's also, also has to
do with society in general just being more aware of mental health issues; that we can identify
these things. But transitioning in general I think is one of the hardest things I think veterans are
dealing with is how to go from the structured military life and you know, then going to this
group of people that just don't identify with that. You know, a lot of people just seem out of
place, you know with mental health issues you also get, a lot of times you get drinking and that
kind of thing and that again may lead to some sort of spirals where people's life just kind of goes
haywire.
Interviewer: You’ve managed at least yourself.
Yeah.
�Interviewer: Kind of how to go along, how to deal with that. And now going off pursuing
graduate school, philosophy, I mean do you want to become a university professor? Or do
you not really know what you would do with it?
(2:20.52)
That's the yeah, I mean that's- that's the idea at least in- in the Marine Corps I got to teach and I
got to lead and I feel I can, I enjoyed doing that, I mean I think that was one of the best parts of
you know, having a group of Marines that don't know something and then teach them how to do
that thing. I think that was, that was probably one of the best experiences I had, and I enjoyed it
and so I think teaching philosophy in the same way; teaching something to someone that doesn't
know would be a great experience. But also just the research aspect of looking into kind of some
of the bigger questions, you know I'm mostly interested in political philosophy myself right now
but I also have like some of these issues related to the conflict in combat that- that weigh on me
as far as you know why some people are affected by combat and other people are not or, or
trauma. And you know when you know, kind of when is it right to go to war when is it you know
when can I kill people when can I not kill people, or when should I, when shouldn't I? That kind
of thing, I mean I think those are questions a lot of veterans grapple with and you know a society
is, we I think we're gotten to this point where people get back from war and we've- we've taken
this about-face from the Vietnam era where you know, they weren't given their just respect for
what they did and now people are getting back and it's like everything you did was great and
you're infallible and you- you can't, you know you didn't do anything wrong. And I don't think a
lot of veterans feel that way like, you know you can't just, you know say “I did nothing wrong
and that's the truth.” I mean maybe what I did was wrong you know, I don't, but we're not having
that kind of conversation.
�(2:22.48)
Interviewer: Now to sort of thank you for your service, which might have been a good thing
to say to some of the Vietnam guys, but a lot of younger ones are not always sure what to
do with that.
Yeah.
Interviewer: But you’ve sort of moved on now, to the big picture and really thinking about
that on a level that maybe you hadn’t so much when you were on your first deployment.
You found out these larger questions, you’re engaging. I want to kind of close this, but just
asking; what do you think you wound up taking out of the Marine Corps experience? What
did that do for you or how did that affect you?
(2:23.17)
I mean the biggest thing for me was like there's a lot of things I can do and even when you think
you can't do things, like you cannot imagine the- the- the physical, the mental strain that you can
you can go through. You know personally I mean I think one of the reasons I joined the military
in the first place, the Marine Corps, was because I wanted to test myself and I think I did just
that. I mean when I'm struggling with something mentally or physically nowadays I kind of look
back and like, it's like, I've done this and so much more already. I mean there's- there's a lot of,
there's very little I- I don't think that I can't do. I'm you know, I can do more than I think I can,
and I think that's, I mean that's, I think about what it's given me, you know.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
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1914-
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
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RHC-27_OudbierM2130V
Title
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Oudbier, Matthew (Interview transcript and video), 2017
Date
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2017-06-15
Description
An account of the resource
Matthew Oudbier was born in Bremerton, Washington and grew up in a Marine Corps family. He entered the Delayed Entry Program in 2004 and went to Twentynine Palms, California, for its field radio operators course. Oudbier was then assigned to 1st Stinger Battery or 1st LAD in Futenma on Okinawa, Japan, before being deployed to Ramadi, Iraq, in 2007 where he was his company's radio operator and participated in heavy training. After reenlistment, Oudbier became first ANGLICO, returned to Iraq in 2008, and joined a support/logistics team. He also reenlisted for tours in the Gulf of Aden in 2009 and Sangin, Afghanistan in 2011 where he was assigned to the Georgian Army. After leaving the service, Oudbier got his Class A license and worked at the VA hospital in San Diego before moving back to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Oudbier, Matthew
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Format
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video/mp4
application/pdf
Type
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Moving Image
Text
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Veterans History Project collection, RHC-27
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Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401.
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Language
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eng
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1cb72cf92e54854a1f616403ff9b2dd9.mp4
a0f2eeb38469c8a4dda61c0ae6b50c64
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e13ea8082a486e1eb34fa8979552ee6d.pdf
ceb907f610dcb61de1ac9273a713b1fe
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veteran’s History Project
Iraq War
Ron Oakes
Interview Length: (02:10:09:00)
Joining the Guard / the 1996 Summer Olympics (00:00:23:00)
Oakes returned from Vietnam in April 1969 (00:00:23:00)
o He went back to Grand Rapids Junior College and began looking for a job;
although he did find a job work at a GM plant, it only lasted two months
(00:00:34:00)
Oakes found that he was not an inside worker; the day-to-day grind of
working inside a factory after being in Vietnam did not appeal to him
(00:00:48:00)
o Oakes went back to working for Herpolsheimers, a department store in downtown
Grand Rapids, Michigan and going to school (00:01:01:00)
Oakes had worked for Herpolsheimers before serving in Vietnam
(00:01:09:00)
o He also went back to dating and meeting people; his wife had been a blind-date
the day before Oakes had shipped out to Vietnam in October 1967 (00:01:27:00)
He looked her up when he came back because they had corresponded
while he was in Vietnam and eighteen months later, they married
(00:01:47:00)
o Eventually, by using his GI bill, Oakes went to United Electronics Institute for
ninety-nine weeks and earned a degree in electronics (00:02:13:00)
After getting his degree, Oakes was hired by Montgomery Ward and his
first job was down on the South Side of Chicago, where he worked for the
better part of five years (00:02:28:00)
Following Chicago, Oakes transferred to Grand Ledge, Michigan, worked
there for another three or four years, then transferred to Davenport, Iowa
(00:02:38:00)
The company went through some downsizing and in 1985, Oakes lost his
job, so he and his family moved back to Grand Rapids (00:02:51:00)
o Oakes tried several different jobs and eventually got into computers working for
his brother, who he worked for five years before a position opened up at Grand
Rapids Public Schools doing computer repair; he took the job and worked with
the school system for seventeen years before retirement (00:02:59:00)
During his first thirteen years of marriage, Oakes and his family moved ten times;
however, when they moved back to Michigan, they settled, bought a house and after
about a year, Oakes decided he needed a little extra income when he retired, so he
considered joining the Michigan National Guard (00:03:34:00)
o In December 1985, he joined the Michigan National Guard in Grand Rapids,
specifically the 46th Infantry Brigade Headquarters as a truck driver for the
Brigade commander (00:03:56:00)
�
o Because he had already been in the service, when they sent him to MEPs in
Lansing, Michigan, it was a walk-through; they put him at the front of every line
and he went though the process quickly (00:04:09:00)
MEPS = the medical evaluation prior to join the Guard (00:04:30:00)
o Oakes had the choice of either Army or Air National Guard, although the Air
National Guard was primarily prior-service Air Force personnel (00:05:01:00)
o The difference between the Guard and the Reserves is that in the Guard, they
mobilized the entire unit, whereas in the Reserves, they could take individuals to
back-fill someone who went on leave (00:05:09:00)
If they were needed, then the Guard mobilized the entire unit
(00:05:39:00)
The first few years in the Guard consisted of weekends drills and two weeks at Camp
Grayling, Michigan (00:06:01:00)
o After joining in 1985, Oakes went through a cold-weather school in 1989 and in
1991, during the Gulf War; Oakes unit was put on alert to be mobilized
(00:06:07:00)
However, when the President shut the operation down after one hundred
hours, all the mobilizations and alerts reversed (00:06:21:00)
Had they needed to go, the unit would have gone to Fort McCoy,
Wisconsin, where they would have spent six weeks getting additional
training before shipping out (00:06:31:00)
In 1996, Oakes and his unit provided security for the 1996 Summer Olympics, a
experience a lot of the people in the unit enjoyed (00:06:53:00)
o Oakes’ unit’s headquarters company did not go, but most of their companies did,
so Oakes served as backfill with them (00:07:04:00)
o It was a fun experience; Oakes enjoyed meeting people from other countries and
seeing how the Olympics ran from the inside (00:07:19:00)
o Oakes’ unit provided security for a lot of venues, including marksmanship and
badminton, and their last few days were spent guarding the Marriott in downtown
Atlanta, which was the headquarters of the Olympic Committee (00:07:27:00)
They inspected vehicles for bombs and contraband; they found two
concealed weapons while they were there and there was one person who
was unfamiliar with the packing garage layout and came out the wrong
way (00:08:01:00)
o They used a lot of different facilities to house the Guard units, including an old
Delta hanger at the airport, as well as public schools on the outskirts of the city;
Oakes’ unit stayed at Peachtree Elementary in the city of Peachtree (00:08:40:00)
In the school, they took all the desks out of most of the classrooms and put
about sixteen cots and a hanging rack in the room, converting the
classroom into a squad bay (00:09:05:00)
They used the kitchen and gym floor for eating around the clock because
there were always people leaving (00:09:25:00)
The soldiers’ days usually began at three in the morning and ended around
six in the evening; after getting up, cleaning, eating and getting dressed,
the soldiers got on a bus that took them to their venue (00:09:34:00)
�
The soldiers arrived at the venue an hour before the competition
started so they could receive different security briefs before they
got to their position; when they were leaving, the soldiers had to
brief the people coming to replace them (00:09:46:00)
It was typically fourteen hour days, plus an hour and a half bus ride
from the barracks to the venue (00:10:06:00)
The city contracted with the local schools and used their buses to
move the soldiers; naturally, traffic in the city was heavy
(00:10:28:00)
o All the soldiers had to wear name-badges, large placards with their name and
picture on them (00:10:38:00)
If the soldiers took the subway on a day off, the badge got them free
transportation on the Atlanta subway system (00:10:49:00)
o The soldiers did try and get in to see the diving competition; there were tickets
reserved for the security forces but they were seven to eight hundred dollars,
discounted, so not a lot of the soldiers bought any (00:11:04:00)
o The soldiers did walk around, including going through the park where the bomb
went off about two hours before the explosion (00:11:24:00)
They woke the soldiers up that night and did a headcount to make sure
everyone was accounted for; after the headcount, Oakes called home and
his whole family was up watching the Games, so they knew about the
explosion before he did (00:11:30:00)
Oakes let his family know he was fine; he was in the park but he
got out before the explosion (00:11:49:00)
The troops’ concern was they were going to have to stay a little longer
because they were going to beef up security; however, the next morning,
the unit was due to rotate back to Michigan and the next day, the unit went
down to the airport and back to Michigan (00:11:54:00)
Oakes was thirty-five years old when he joined the Guard in 1985 (00:12:38:00)
o There was a range in the ages of the soldiers in the unit; there were a few Vietnam
veterans, including Oakes (00:12:46:00)
o A person’s entry into the Guard depended on when they could retire and Oakes
made it in by seven months; they took a person’s age and added twenty to it and
that number had to be less than fifty-five (00:12:54:00)
The mandatory retirement age in the Guard is sixty and when Oakes
turned sixty, at the end of the month, he was retired (00:13:06:00)
o Oakes entered the Guard as an E-4, a specialist; he got out of the Marine Corps as
an E-4 Corporal and in the Guard, he went from an E-4 to and E-8 (Master
Sergeant or First Sergeant) before he retired (00:13:21:00)
There were people in the unit who were just out of high school and the people with
higher ranks were generally people who had been around longer because it took a long
time to reach those ranks (00:13:53:00)
o A lot of people who joined were also the veterans because at that time, Vietnam
had only been over for about twenty years (00:14:06:00)
�
o On the other hand, there are a lot of soldiers in the Guard who have never been in
combat or deployed, through no fault of their own; because of the field they had
chosen, such as logistics, there is not combat requirement (00:14:15:00)
There are presently even one-star generals in the Michigan National Guard
who have never mobilized because their job has never called for it, despite
them being excellent leaders (00:14:35:00)
The Michigan National Guard currently has some really good leadership and had Oakes
not been forced to retire, he would still be in the Guard; presently, he does contract work
with the state logistics department (00:14:51:00)
The standard commitment for anyone in the Guard is one weekend a month, both
Saturday and Sunday with the possibility of Friday depending on the circumstances, and
fifteen days of annual training at Camp Grayling (00:16:14:00)
o Because of the on-going conflicts, the Army has changed the process to the point
that some units have annual training three or four times a year, cutting down on
the amount of time they need to spend at another base, allowing a unit to deploy
to Iraq or Afghanistan in half the time (00:17:04:00)
o Any problems are solved before the unit deploys to its advanced base
(00:17:29:00)
Post-9/11 Operations / Iraq Deployment (00:18:05:00)
When the attacks on 9/11 happened, things “really started popping” (00:18:05:00)
o Not much happened in Oakes’ unit specifically, apart from being command and
control for the entire brigade; however, a lot of their infantry units were called up
as well as some of their support units, such as: engineering units, transportation
units and maintenance units (00:18:09:00)
At that time, the brigade also had some armored units and they were called
up along with the infantry battalions, many of whom ended up in combat
zones overseas (00:18:23:00)
o Every day, the soldiers in the unit were waiting for the phone call saying that the
orders had come down and to stand-by for mobilization (00:18:39:00)
o In the Guard, different components of a brigade can be called up at different times
and after 9/11, the transportation units were called up first, just a matter of days
after the attacks (00:19:22:00)
The brigade’s support units went first because the Army needed
transportation and maintenance before the infantry arrived (00:19:50:00)
The last two units in the brigade were the last two units that the Army
needed; a lot of the units in the Guard were support units that the Army
did not need during peace-time on a base because there were civilian
contractors already doing the jobs (00:20:04:00)
o Once a unit was called up, after a certain amount of time, the brigade was no
longer in command of them; they could still communicate with the unit but the
unit now belonged to the U.S. Army (00:21:09:00)
o In the beginning, the units were typically going for thirteen months with the
knowledge that it could increase to eighteen months depending on the
requirements (00:21:44:00)
�
If it was going to be a long, drawn-out war akin to World War II, the
commitment could be open-ended (00:21:55:00)
Oakes’ orders when he want to Iraq in 2005 said he was activated for up to
seven hundred and sixty-five days, well over two years; the Army could
have kept him and the other soldiers in his unit for that long but a normal
mobilization was for twelve months (00:21:57:00)
A few years ago, Oakes’ old brigade deactivated and its units moved to other brigades
throughout the state; different Guard units are constantly moving from different
commands (00:22:51:00)
o A unit would deploy, come home for two or three years at the most, then deploy
again; just about every Guard unit in Michigan has served time in Iraq at least
once and some as many as three times (00:23:06:00)
o Presently, most of the Guard units preparing to deploy are deploying to
Afghanistan instead of Iraq (00:23:22:00)
o On occasion, the Guard does move a single soldier from unit to unit based on his
or her commitment (00:23:42:00)
One time, there was a transportation unit in Kansas that could only field
one platoon out of three, so Guard units in Michigan and Massachusetts
each sent a platoon; when the unit deployed overseas, the unit had three
platoons from three different states (00:23:53:00)
Guard units in different states all training on the same equipment, so it was
not difficult to insert the out-of-state platoons (00:24:22:00)
Following 9/11, the number of people attempting to join the Guard increased
(00:24:42:00)
o Even now, there is still higher levels of enlistment; a few years ago the Guard had
to shut down enlistments sixty days early because they had completed their yearly
quotas (00:25:01:00)
o Enlistments had stayed up because a lot of kids coming out of high school join
because of the educational benefits; a lot of colleges end up giving discounts to
military personnel apart from the regular GI bill (00:25:46:00)
When Oakes attended college, his GI bill paid for part and the college had
a program that paid for the rest; Oakes joked with his wife that he did not
pay more than two thousand dollars for his education, although on the flipside, it took him eleven years of a single course a semester to obtain his
degree (00:26:09:00)
Eventually, Oakes was called to active duty to assist in shuffling units around throughout
the state (00:26:48:00)
o However, because he needed additional training, Oakes went to a base in Helena,
Montana and trained at an Army Reserve course in the end of July / beginning of
August for two two-week classes (00:27:04:00)
o He came back to Michigan on a Wednesday, went back to working at the National
Guard Armory, and as he was leaving on Friday, a soldier ran out and told him he
had been mobilized, although Oakes did not believe him (00:27:43:00)
Oakes went back into the armory and read the e-mail, which told him and
another soldier to stand-by (00:28:04:00)
�
Oakes started driving back and forth to Detroit because it was September and the unit’s
activation date was Oct. 8th and its movement date was Oct. 11th to Fort McCoy,
Wisconsin (00:28:13:00)
o Realizing he did not have much time before he deployed, Oakes spent three days
at home organizing his personal affairs and four days in Detroit with the Guard
unit; Oakes knew what his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was within the
new unit but he needed time to get to know the other soldiers (00:28:33:00)
o The new unit was around sixty members strong and Oakes and two others ended
up leaving on Oct. 8th as an advanced team to Fort McCoy, while the rest of the
unit came over on the 11th (00:29:04:00)
Going away at the airport was better than when Oakes left for Vietnam; he
had around fourteen family members at the airport when he flew from
Grand Rapids to Chicago (00:29:18:00)
Oakes flew from Grand Rapids to Chicago, meet the other two advanced team members
from Detroit, and all three flew to an airport near Fort McCoy (00:29:30:00)
o While the unit was at the base, they received additional soldiers and equipment,
packed their equipment and received extended training, which included “liveconvoy training”, when the soldiers used live ammunition against the targets
(00:29:46:00)
o The unit was at the base for Thanksgiving, although Oakes’ family ended up
visiting the weekend before Thanksgiving (00:30:15:00)
On Dec. 1st, the unit’s advanced team of twenty soldiers, which Oakes was part of, took
off from Wisconsin on a Miami Air commercial airline that the government had
contracted (00:30:30:00)
o The flight had to land early because the battalion commander had a heart attack,
so the plane landed in Buffalo, New York; the commander and a sergeant stayed
behind and both eventually got transportation from Fort Drum and arrived in
Kuwait about three days after the rest of the soldiers (00:30:55:00)
Because he was the First Sergeant, Oakes ended up carrying the
commander’s 9mm pistol over to Kuwait (00:31:41:00)
o The flight also stopped in Iceland for refueling around one or two o’clock in the
morning and in Budapest, Hungary (00:31:53:00)
Normally, the plane is allowed to taxi to the ramp for the terminal and the
soldiers allowed to deplane, walk around the terminal, and buy souvenirs,
etc. but for some reason, in Hungary, that was not the case (00:32:08:00)
They left the plane on the tarmac and had a cleaning crew come out to
clean the plane, as well as restock it with water and food, before the plane
took off again (00:32:20:00)
o The route of the flight took the soldiers over Iraq and they flew over Baghdad in
the dark before landing at the Kuwait International Airport (00:32:33:00)
At the airport, the soldiers boarded buses that took them to Camp Virginia, which was a
staging area for all soldiers going into Iraq; even foreign soldiers from NATO traveled
through the camp before going into Iraq (00:32:47:00)
o The soldiers could tell the NATO soldiers because of their uniforms and like the
Americans, they had their nation’s flag on their sleeve (00:33:03:00)
�
o The advanced team stayed at Camp Virginia for two weeks before heading into
Iraq proper (00:33:12:00)
While at the camp, the soldiers went through live-fire training again,
although this time they spent the night in the desert (00:33:20:00)
The first night the soldiers spent in the field, there was a rather
powerful thunderstorm and they were all worried because they
were sleeping on cots under ponchos next to the trucks made out of
metal (00:33:36:00)
Before the storm happened, the soldiers saw light darting around in
the sky and at first, they thought the lights were long-distance
aircraft but several years later, Oakes deduced that they were
small, unmanned observation drones used for security along the
Iraqi border (00:34:06:00)
They made it through the training and on Dec. 15th, “went over the berm”
and into Iraq (00:35:16:00)
There were four soldiers, Oakes included, in the unit called “the crusty four”, who were
the four oldest members of the unit; everyone else was much younger than them
(00:35:35:00)
o Three of the four had been Vietnam veterans and they all managed to take
everything that was happening in stride (00:35:43:00)
o Once the soldiers finally got to their base and got settled, it became just like any
other day-to-day living routine; they got up in the morning, ate breakfast, worked
for most of the morning, ate lunch, worked during the afternoon, ate dinner, and if
they were off-duty, went back to their quarters and either watched TV, exercised,
etc. (00:35:59:00)
o The four older soldiers hung together and did their physical training together,
mostly a lot of walks (00:36:23:00)
The name of the base where the unit was stationed was “Q-West” and the base was on an
old Iraqi jet fighter base (00:36:31:00)
o After the 1991 Gulf War, the base fell under the imposed no-fly-zone and
although it had been the most modern base the Iraqis had, no aircraft could fly
from it (00:36:41:00)
During the 1991 Gulf War, the Americans had cratered the runway so
nothing would fly and those craters still existed when Oakes first arrived
there and caused problems later on (00:36:56:00)
o When the soldiers arrived at the base, it was late in the day and they expected it to
be a functional base; instead, they were told to keep their weapons handy because
the perimeter was full of holes and although there were guard towers, they were
manned by the Iraqi National Guard (00:37:07:00)
The perimeter was fourteen and a half miles long and encompassed the
entire base (00:37:32:00)
o The base had a ten thousand foot, heavy-duty runway, thirty-three clamshell
hangars with doors two feet thick to withstand bomb blasts, and various support
buildings, including a computer building and a personnel center (00:37:36:00)
�
The soldiers later discovered several bomb-manufacturing buildings on the
base and there was also an Iraqi ammo dump outside the base itself that
took up two or three square miles (00:37:59:00)
o The base was pretty much self-sufficient, although nothing worked at that time;
when everything did work, the base had its own sewage treatment plant as well as
underground power and communication lines (00:38:15:00)
For the power and communication lines, the Iraqis had buried between
eight and sixteen six-inch PVC pipes and ran the wires through them, with
the only way to access them through manhole covers (00:38:52:00)
The soldiers could drive along the perimeter road and every fifty meters
was a manhole and inside every manhole was a conduit running in one
direction and a conduit running in the opposite direction (00:39:10:00)
When the base was shut down in 1991, there was nobody there, so Turkish
Kurds came over the border and stripped everything, including the copper
from the wires in the manholes (00:39:23:00)
They even tipped over power transformers about the size of a VW
Bug, took the copper from inside, and left the shell (00:38:49:00)
Anything that was too big to carry they left and stripped out of it
what they could (00:40:02:00)
The Iraqis also left a handful of MiG-21 fighter jets and soldiers from the
101st Airborne, which had occupied the base before Oakes’ unit, had drug
the planes, parked them in front of various buildings they had renovated
and used them as war trophies (00:40:17:00)
o The base had an underground power plant buried under twenty-four feet of sand,
although the fuel tanks were aboveground (00:40:48:00)
The Americans took the fuel tanks out in 1991, effectively shutting off
power to the base (00:40:56:00)
o None of the bunkers were damaged and outside of the bomb damage to the
runway, only two buildings on the base suffered damage (00:41:24:00)
One of the buildings was two stories tall, had an elevator in it, and was
used as a VIP building; the building had taken a cruise missile strike
because on one side, the roof had fallen on the second floor, causing the
second floor to collapse onto the first (00:41:32:00)
The other building was what Oakes assumes was the communication
center and it too took a precision-guided strike on it; the soldiers could tell
because there was pieces of rebar but the concrete had been blown off
(00:41:55:00)
o By the time Oakes’ unit arrived, all the buildings on the base had been gutted by
one group or another (00:42:10:00)
When the unit first arrived on the base, Oakes’ main duty was, because he was the First
Sergeant, maintaining personnel and taking care of day-to-day issues; however, there was
really not a lot of work at the beginning because everyone was trying to get settled
(00:42:38:00)
o The unit had a TOA (Transfer of Authority) with the unit who had occupied the
base in which the units exchange flag and the older unit board airplanes and goes
home (00:42:51:00)
�
The previous unit had started renovating one building but stopped because
they ran out of building supplies, so Oakes unit worked to get the supplies
and they built new desks and cubicles (00:43:07:00)
o In terms of living quarters, some of the soldiers had to double-up because there
were initially not enough personal quarters to go around; the individual quarters
were built in Turkey then trucked down to the base (00:43:33:00)
o It took the soldiers a few weeks to get everything organized to the point that they
were able to work properly (00:43:49:00)
Convoys eventually started steadily arrived at the base, coming down from Turkey and
up from Baghdad (00:43:53:00)
o They were rebuilding the American Embassy in Baghdad and some of the
supplies were coming out of Turkey (00:44:00:00)
One day, Oakes went for a drive and on one of the side roads was a
convoy with massive spools of wire, all bound for Baghdad and the
Embassy (00:44:05:00)
o Most of the convoys coming out of Turkey were fuel (00:44:26:00)
They were civilian convoys of tanker trucks and although they were all the
same model truck, each truck was painted a different color and the convoy
looked like a circus coming down the road (00:44:33:00)
The soldier designated these “white convoys” because they were civilian
and were guarded by NATO soldiers (00:44:57:00)
o There were convoys at all of hours of the day, both day and night, and the convoy
arrivals were irregular so that the insurgents could not pick out a set time when a
convoy would be on the base (00:45:06:00)
o There were also line convoys that came from the south and brought the soldiers
supplies, such as food (00:45:20:00)
o Once the fuel arrived from Turkey, it went into a four million gallon fuel farm on
the base, which consisted of large fuel bladders buried under the sand
(00:45:28:00)
A tanker would pull up to the bladder and pump its fuel through a filter;
the people in Turkey had a tendency to fill the tankers with both water and
fuel figuring they could get more money (00:45:42:00)
At that time, the black market for fuel was very high because the civilian
Iraqi population needed fuel; even though the country had a large number
of oil wells, all of the refineries had been knocked out (00:46:02:00)
o The soldiers had to watch the convoys carefully because the drivers would have
hidden compartments and they would try to smuggle in weapons, booze, or drugs
(00:46:26:00)
All the trucks drove in front of a side-scanning x-ray the soldiers had set
up and they were able to see everything within the trucks, even the
smuggled items (00:46:52:00)
The soldiers checked all the trucks for bombs, as well as the IDs of
everyone in the truck and if they found contraband, they simply told the
driver to leave, which often scared them enough because the drivers were
Turks and there was animosity between them and the Iraqis (00:47:07:00)
�
It only happened a couple of times, but that did not deter others
from trying to smuggle goods in (00:47:35:00)
Later on, more booze was confiscated than anything, including entire
cases of Jack Daniels whisky, because all of Iraq was a dry country
(00:47:42:00)
In the mess hall, the soldiers generally drank pop, Gatorade, and
non-alcoholic beer (00:47:52:00)
Oakes’ unit was attached to the 917th Support Group, which was then attached to a
Division, which in turn was attached to the Theater and finally the Southern Command in
Kuwait and Miami (00:48:29:00)
o A normal battalion ran between three and four companies but Oakes’ battalion
eventually reached eleven (00:49:05:00)
o About four weeks into the operation, the battalion commander re-organized the
command structure (00:49:12:00)
Oakes’ unit was three people short when they left Michigan, so the
commander ended up bringing twelve soldiers from the different
companies to “beef-up” Oakes’ unit (00:49:20:00)
Over time, the commander moved the experienced soldiers around and put
them into positions that maximized their particular skill sets (00:49:52:00)
Around the end of February, Oakes became the property-book NCO for all eleven
companies in the battalion, which meant he had to get all their information transferred
from the States to his system (00:49:57:00)
o The system was an Internet system out of Birmingham, Alabama and over time,
Oakes had to get everyone into the system; however, not all the units used the
same software and as the other units converted, Oakes transferred the information
into the existing system (00:50:12:00)
o Oakes ended up getting all the units except the unit working in the ammo dump
because they were not going to convert their software until after the unit had
returned home (00:50:35:00)
At some point, the unit converted early and when all the units were
preparing to leave, the unit came to Oakes asking for help (00:50:51:00)
At the time, serialization accountability about sensitive materials
was high priority and some of the unit’s serial numbers did not
match with what was in their books (00:51:01:00)
However, Oakes could not help them because he did not have their
paperwork (00:51:16:00)
As time progressed, the soldiers slowly improved the base and made things better for
themselves (00:51:24:00)
o The Airborne forces had already built a repair center and started using some of the
bunkers; the base served as the rear-area for all the helicopters stationed in Mosul
(00:51:35:00)
Over time, more and more units arrived on the base; when Oakes and the advanced time
first arrived, they were told that there was around eight hundred people on the base; by
the time their unit left, there were around five thousand soldiers per meal (00:52:06:00)
o The perimeter security changed over time as well; the Iraqi National Guard
eventually became the Iraqi Army (00:52:31:00)
�
Iraqi forces manned the guard posts during the day and at night, American
forces guarded the perimeter (00:52:42:00)
o A single man, nicknamed “the Mayor”, had the task of strictly running the base
and he acted as a liaison between the base and the various civilian support units
(00:52:51:00)
The mayor already dictated which units would receive which buildings
and if a unit wanted another building, they had to talk with him as he
assigning buildings (00:53:19:00)
Although there were only two damaged buildings on the base, all
the other buildings had been gutted; even the underground power
plant had been wrecked (00:53:31:00)
After each unit received a building assignment, they moved their living
quarters near it and built dirt berms and as part of this, each unit received
its own generator (00:53:49:00)
The generators were maintained by a civilian company, KBR, and
once a day, they would turn each machine off and check to make
sure it was running properly (00:54:01:00)
The generators were huge because they had to supply power for
around one hundred living quarters apiece (00:54:07:00)
o The soldiers eventually improved the front gate security (00:54:34:00)
At first, it was just a straight drive through the gate and the soldiers
modified it to create lanes divided by walls of sand so that if a truck was a
suicide bomber and it went off, the explosion would not affect the trucks
on either side (00:54:37:00)
They also angled traffic barriers so that a vehicle had to go around each
barrier (00:54:59:00)
The soldiers did not have any incidents with insurgents apart from a couple of rockets;
one rocket exploded in the sand in the middle of the base and the other was a dud and it
landed in the sand as well (00:55:17:00)
o In the beginning, each unit was assigned a guard tower at night; however, because
there were not enough units to man each tower individually, each unit had to man
two or three towers (00:55:42:00)
Part of the Sergeant Major and Oakes’ job was to take hot food out to the
soldiers in the guard towers and check on them (00:55:55:00)
One night, the two men went out to a tower where there were two young
females standing guard; both the Sergeant Major and Oakes were Vietnam
veterans, so they were cautious whereas the two females were sitting in
the guard tower, smoking by flashlight (00:56:03:00)
However, neither had been trained properly in the manning a guard
post because they were both clerks, so the Sergeant Major and
Oakes showed them what they were doing wrong and explained
that if they wanted to smoke, do it in the corner with the flashlight
pointed down (00:56:35:00)
They never wanted to fully expose themselves in the guard tower
because if someone came through the wire, the guards could easily
be seen (00:57:06:00)
�
On the way back to the compound, the radio rang out “shots fired”
and both men realized that it was close of where they were
currently driving (00:57:26:00)
(00:58:33:00) - (01:00:15:00) Technical Difficulties
In the beginning, there was an Iraqi training battalion on the base, so there
were already Iraqi soldiers on the base (01:00:32:00)
The night that the Sergeant Major and Oakes had delivered food to the two
female clerks in the guard tower, Oakes thought he heard gunfire when he
was walking down from the tower (01:03:39:00)
There was an Iraqi village a few miles away from the base and
Oakes initially assumed the gunfire was someone in the village
firing into the base (01:03:47:00)
All of the sudden, news came across the radio that there was a
wounded soldiers at the fuel dump, about one hundred yards from
where the Sergeant Major ad Oakes were driving (01:04:09:00)
They turned around and went back to the guard tower to make sure
the two females were aware of the situation and to look out the
back of the tower, not the front (01:04:31:00)
The two sergeants stayed at the guard tower with the two clerks for
a while, watching as vehicles moved around looking for whoever
fired the shots (01:04:48:00)
They never did find the person who fired the shots although the soldiers
knew it was an AK-47 based on the sound it made (01:05:39:00)
The next morning, the soldiers found an empty C-Ration container
and several empty AK-47 shells on top of a bunker (01:05:46:00)
They could not track anyone in the desert if they wanted to unless
the had a dog, which the base did not have (01:06:03:00)
As best anyone could figure, a soldier in the Iraqi training battalion
did not like the Americans being there and had decided to take
some potshots then sneak out through the wire (01:06:12:00)
o The base’s rear gate was not that far from where the
shooting occurred and was manned twenty-four hours a day
by Iraqi soldiers, so the shooter could have easily slipped
out of the base (01:06:22:00)
o Several years later, Oakes learned that the same bunkers the men were
investigating for souvenirs had trapdoors in them and the base was lined with
underground tunnels that none of the soldiers knew about (01:06:50:00)
A soldier Oakes had trained with was going around taking pictures on the
inside of a bunker when he noticed a wooden chair; a couple of days later,
the soldier went back and the chair had moved (01:07:09:00)
The soldiers put someone up on one of the other bunkers with night vision
to watch the bunker and sure enough, after two or three days, there were
people coming out of the bunker (01:07:34:00)
�
As it turned out, one the cooks at the mess hall was supplying the people
hiding in the bunker with food (01:07:45:00)
The cooks working the mess hall were neither Iraqi nor Americans,
they were foreigners (01:09:08:00)
On Dec. 30th, a Special Forces C-130 landed on the base’s airstrip; although the airstrip
was not yet operational, planes could land on parts of it (01:09:28:00)
o The plane had come straight from Baghdad and just landed on the airstrip
(01:09:43:00)
o Normally, a pilot was supposed to circle the runway and observe it through his or
her night vision goggles to check the condition of the runway and to make sure
there were not obstacles on the runway (01:09:49:00)
Special Forces did not act that way; they just came in and landed without
waiting (01:09:58:00)
o However, there was hole in the runway about one hundred yards from where the
plane touched down; the engineers had cleared away debris but there was still a
hole three feet deep, the width of the runway and one hundred and fifty feet long
(01:10:04:00)
o The plane landed and although the pilot tried to brake, the front wheel went into
the hole, hit the three-foot bank, and sheered off the front wheel as well as part of
the fuselage before continuing for another one hundred feet (01:10:26:00)
Part of a wing came off and caught fire but there was only a single small
Iraqi fire truck on the base; other men were hauling handheld fire
extinguishers to put the fire out (01:10:41:00)
o There was between seven and nine people on board the plane and in the back was
a “sterile” HUMVEE without identification (01:10:55:00)
The C-130 was also “sterile”; the numbers had been subdued to the point
that anyone could not tell who operated the plane (01:11:04:00)
o Naturally, the plane was totaled and out of the people who were on board, a
chaplain lost both his legs and died before he got to hospital in Baghdad while the
others were taken up to Mosul for injuries (01:11:13:00)
o The next day, the higher-ranking personnel were able to look at the wreckage and
as it turned out, a firefighting unit who had come from Mosul to watch against
flare-ups was from the Michigan National Guard out of Grayling (01:11:31:00)
o The wreckage sat on the runway for a couple of weeks although no one could land
on the runway anyway because it still had not been repaired (01:12:18:00)
When they finally decided what to do with the wreckage, they first
destroyed what remained of nose and the front end, where all the sensitive
equipment was, and then dug a large hole, pushed the remaining wreckage
into it, and buried it all (01:12:26:00)
Operations in Iraq (01:13:13:00)
Once Oakes became the PVO NCO, he began flying up regularly to Mosul for meetings
with the Theater property books; his job involved keeping track of all the equipment
coming in and out off of the base (01:13:13:00)
There was a constant stream of trucks going south from the base to
another jet fighter base at Balad (01:13:28:00)
�
When the trucks left Oakes’ base, they were unarmored and some
independent contractors had begun armoring trucks a the base in
Balad; when the armored trucks returned to the base, Oakes had to
re-identify them (01:13:32:00)
o FOB (Forward Operating Base) Diamondback was basically the Mosul Municipal
Airport, which American soldiers had turned into a military base (01:14:14:00)
There were not many units assigned to the base itself, apart from a medivac squadron and a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital)
(01:14:28:00)
The helicopters were always coming and going, bringing people in
and out of the hospital (01:14:39:00)
After a while, Oakes also noticed that remote-controlled drones also
operated out of the base (01:14:45:00)
One evening, Oakes and some other soldiers are sitting around and
a man was guiding a drone on a tether out to the runway; on the
runway, the man unhooked the tether, walked away, and the next
thing the soldiers knew, the drone was moving (01:14:52:00)
Most of Oakes’ trips around were done by helicopter, although he did travel with a
couple of convoys (01:16:02:00)
o During the first convoy, the soldiers took some equipment down to the military
junkyard in Balad (01:16:06:00)
Oakes and two other men rode in a truck together; one man manned the
gun turret, one acted as the truck commander and the other drove
(01:16:17:00)
Oakes’ smaller convoy ended up linking up with a much larger convoy
heading south carrying vehicles for rebuild, empty containers, and a
couple of damaged vehicles (01:16:28:00)
The trip took around six hours and on the way down, the convoy passed
another convoy of HETs (Heavy Equipment Transport) carrying tanks and
artillery pieces headed north (01:16:48:00)
While the men were in Balad, they turned in all their old canvas, including
their tents, because they could sleep in the bunkers (01:17:06:00)
However, all the canvas stayed in-country and was given to the
Iraqi Army because the Americans would not risk bringing
anything back due to the bug infestations (01:17:19:00)
Even the soldiers’ uniforms were checked very closely when they
left the country and returned home (01:17:33:00)
The men also turned in some inoperative refrigerators and computers left
by the pervious soldiers who occupied the base (01:17:44:00)
The junkyard in Balad was massive, everything from broken computers up
to tanks that had been hit by land mines, as well as wreckage other
damaged and destroyed vehicles (01:17:51:00)
o Oakes also went on a couple of convoys to Mosul because they needed lumber for
building (01:18:13:00)
o Going out on convoys broke up the repetition of the day-to-day routine, which
would occasionally wear on Oakes (01:18:23:00)
�
He would wake up in the morning, eat his breakfast and then sit in front of
the computer, do paperwork, wait for an e-mail, repair something, or send
e-mails back home (01:18:29:00)
Oakes was thankful that they had computers on the base because unlike Vietnam, he and
the other soldiers were able to communicate easily with home (01:18:38:00)
o He used the computers on Sundays to call his wife at home; Oakes was eight
hours ahead of Michigan, so he waited until around four in the afternoon before
calling (01:18:43:00)
Occasionally, Oakes called his daughter at her work as well as his other
daughter and son periodically just to talk with them (01:19:05:00)
o One of the soldiers had set up a web-cam to talk with people at home but the
others did not condone that because they had a very limited bandwidth in Iraq and
it had to be routed through the Netherlands (01:19:33:00)
The soldiers could tell when there was a lot of people using the Internet
because the system bogged down (01:19:57:00)
o If someone was wounded or killed on the base, the commanders immediately
turned the Internet off because they did not want the information leaking out
before the next-of-kin were notified (01:20:05:00)
There was not just the eleven companies in Oakes’ battalion on the base and they had to
be sensitive to those units as well (01:20:24:00)
o One of the units was an infantry unit and every night, they would go out on
patrols of half American / half Iraqi soldiers looking for insurgents and every
morning, they would come back with somebody (01:20:05:00)
Oakes was in Iraq before the much-publicized “surge” began (01:20:54:00)
o He was in the country when the Iraqis had their first vote and has pictures of all
the ballots traveling through the base to be counted; all the villages in the area
brought their ballots to the base, where they were loaded on a helicopter then
flown to Baghdad for counting (01:20:57:00)
In some places, traveling in a convoy was very dangerous (01:21:31:00)
o The route down to Balad took the soldiers past the city of Tikrit; they had to build
a wall between the city and the road running around it because the inhabitants did
not like the Americans (01:21:32:00)
The convoy did not stop or slow down there because Iraqis would throw
hand grenades over the wall, although the grenades would not do much
damage to the vehicles (01:22:01:00)
o The highways were dual-lane expressways designed to have trees on both sides
and in the middle; however, since the war was over, the locals had cut down some
of the trees for firewood (01:22:28:00)
On the way back from the trip to Balad, the convoy received word that
another convoy in front of them had been hit with an IED (Improvised
Explosive Device), although the convoy was on the other side of the
highway (01:22:50:00)
Oakes’ convoy had come down that side the day before, which meant the
IED was either planted in between or had been planted much earlier;
sometimes, an insurgent would plant an IED and let it sit for a couple of
days (01:23:03:00)
�
o After awhile, the soldiers began looking for signs of something being out of place,
like a pile of dirt and/or rocks, an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road, etc.
(01:23:20:00)
If they saw something suspicious, the lead gun truck would call back to
the convoy so the convoy would either move cautiously or stop all
together while the gun truck investigated (01:23:40:00)
There might be something else a mile down the road and they would do it
all over again (01:23:57:00)
o However, the insurgents began to adapt to the tactics; they realized that a convoy
would swing to the side to avoid an abandoned vehicle, so the insurgents would
place the IED across the road from the vehicle (01:24:05:00)
The insurgents knew what was happening and were watching the soldiers
all the time (01:24:16:00)
o Along the convoy routes, the soldiers could see where the power lines had been
destroyed (01:24:33:00)
The Iraqi infrastructure was very similar to the American infrastructure,
including power lines on the steel towers (01:24:37:00)
On occasion, there were black patches on the ground and Oakes initially assumed they
were where a vehicle had crashed or burned; however, as the patches got closer to the
road, he saw that it was oil seeping up through the ground and pooling (01:25:02:00)
o They were digging water wells on the base and had to dig five or six before they
found water; they kept finding oil (01:25:26:00)
The majority of the base’s water came through a pipeline from the Tigris
River and went through purification (01:25:41:00)
However, the problem with the pipeline was that it was old and every
village it passed through tapped into it so that by the time water got to the
base, there was barely anything left (01:25:48:00)
One time, the pipe cracked and water was spraying up in the desert
like a fountain (01:26:02:00)
The convoys that Oakes went out on were during the daytime, although the base had
convoys going in and out scattered throughout both day and night (01:26:56:00)
o Each vehicle in a convoy had a GPS locator in it, so the people back on the base
knew where the convoy was at all times (01:27:06:00)
o If a convoy got hit, they would hit a panic button, turning their icon on a
television screen back at the base red and the base would get the reaction force to
the convoy as fast as they could (01:27:12:00)
There were smaller bases all along the MSR (Main Supply Route), each
had its own reaction force and they would send the reaction force from the
nearest base to help a convoy (01:27:27:00)
o It threw the insurgents off a little bit not knowing when the base would send out
convoys but generally, at night they could not see the vehicles in the convoy
(01:27:57:00)
The Americans could see any insurgents because they had night vision
goggles, which the insurgents did not (01:28:08:00)
�
o During the day, the soldiers might see someone walking around but could do
nothing about it, whereas if they saw someone walking around at night, that
person might be a free-fire target and the Iraqis knew this (01:28:15:00)
o There was so much supplies and fuel on the base that the soldiers had to run
convoys all the time (01:28:31:00)
The soldiers could also only put so much traffic on the MSR; they did not
want it wall to wall with trucks because then it is akin to “shooting ducks
in a barrel” for the insurgents (01:28:41:00)
o The base also built up supplies for various operations (01:28:53:00)
On one occasion, the Army moved into an area near the Iranian border;
one day, there is nothing there and the next morning, there is a fullyfunctioning combat base (01:28:57:00)
All the supplies for the base had been built up at Oakes’ base,
which was sending convoys every five minutes (01:29:04:00)
Once the convoys reached the desert, they drove side by side,
causing some of the Freightliner trucks, designed only to run on
hardtop roads, to get stuck in the sand (01:29:13:00)
Oakes’ base supplied almost all the coalition forces stationed north of
Baghdad and they moved fuel to Balad, which supplied all the forces
within Baghdad itself (01:29:36:00)
The IEDs employed by the insurgents could do major damage depending on what they hit
(01:30:10:00)
o The devices that exploded around Oakes’ convoys tended to put holes in the
vehicles or destroyed engine compartments (01:30:15:00)
o At the time, most of the devices were ordinance left by the Iraqi Army but as
Oakes now understands it, the insurgents are employing more fuel and fertilizer
bombs (01:30:23:00)
When the Iraqi Army disbanded, they left ordinance everywhere; every
week, the soldiers destroyed all the ordinance they had captured for that
week in an explosion, although sometimes, not everyone received word
that the explosion would be happening (01:30:36:00)
In Vietnam, if someone heard an explosion, they hit the ground; in Iraq, if
someone heard an explosion, they turned and looked at it (01:31:11:00)
o In the beginning of the fighting, a lot of the IEDs were 155 mm artillery shells
and the insurgents had a knack for putting them behind guardrails on the highway,
which added shrapnel to the mix (01:31:21:00)
When Oakes went on his first convoy, someone had gone through and cut
down all the guardrails; the post were still there but the metal was gone,
even on some of the bridges (01:31:32:00)
o There were holes just outside the main gate where early on, someone had snuck in
and planted an IED (01:32:10:00)
o In two of the guard towers later on, the units had LRADs, which were high
quality night vision devices normally mounted on tanks (01:32:21:00)
The “mayor” of the base had been a tanker in Baghdad and brought the
two devices to the base for security (01:32:37:00)
�
Where the LRADs were located, in a two-story guard tower and on top of
a repelling training tower, the soldiers could see the road leading into the
base and if anyone was out there (01:33:02:00)
More than once, someone alerted someone else that there were
three people on the road, two carrying weapons and one carrying a
shovel, and they were about a mile away from the base; the base
would send out the infantry (01:33:05:00)
The insurgents also launched mortar strikes into Mosul itself (01:33:36:00)
o When Oakes’ unit first arrived in Iraq, they sent a four-man team to the FOB next
to the Mosul airport and another team to a different FOB (01:33:40:00)
o The team at the FOB in Mosul had not been there for more than tens days when a
suicide bomber attacked the mess hall (01:33:54:00)
The bomber had worked in the mess hall but was let go; the next day, he
went to the mess hall wearing a bomb suit, sat down to talk with someone,
and pulled the detonator, wiping out an entire group of people
(01:34:08:00)
Luckily, although there were some American casualties, none were from
Oakes’ unit; they had already eaten and left (01:34:20:00)
The bomber had used a lot of ball bearings and the soldiers could tell
exactly where he was sitting because the ground is peeled back and
everything around it has holes in it (01:34:33:00)
Even as late as 2005 when Oakes unit first arrived, most of the bases where still being
built; Oakes’ unit and similar units were taking the bases over from the active-duty forces
that had occupied them since the war began (01:35:05:00)
Out of the entire time they were there, Oakes’ battalion only lost six soldiers, three to
IEDs and three to traffic accidents (01:35:26:00)
o During one the traffic accidents, a tanker truck went off the side of the road, and
rolled; the door of the truck had been pulled opened and the driver flung partially
out and when the truck rolled, the door closed and killed the driver (01:35:33:00)
o In the other traffic accident, two soldiers in a HUMVEE went to avoid an
overpass over railroad tracks being repaired by going down the hill, over the
tracks, and back up; however, it was dusty and they ended up rolling, killing the
gunner and the driver (01:35:54:00)
o The IED deaths were cause mainly from shrapnel that took out the truck
(01:36:55:00)
o There were other times that IEDs exploded but no one was killed, although the
vehicles tended to be destroyed (01:37:01:00)
Oakes has pictures of a tractor trailer that was full of holes from shrapnel
and even when they got it back to the base, it was still leaking diesel fuel
(01:37:08:00)
The base was removed enough from any settlements, with the nearest village being three
miles away, that they did not receive a lot of incoming enemy gunfire (01:37:37:00)
o When they watched the villages through the LRADs, Oakes commented to
another Sergeant that it looked like a game on Atari because all the buildings were
green blocks (01:38:03:00)
�
o Another time, Oakes was in the guard tower and a soldier told him to look
through the LRAD, which was pointed at a village five miles away from the base;
someone in the village had started a bonfire and seven Iraqi men armed with AK47s were standing around it for warmth (01:38:25:00)
The soldier told Oakes to keep watching a nearby bush and he saw a
rabbit, which a dog near the fire chased away (01:38:57:00)
The soldier wanted to know what to do about the Iraqis carrying weapons
but there was nothing the soldiers could so (01:39:19:00)
All the Iraqis carried weapons, including those who worked on the
base; they had to check the weapon into a vault at the front gate
and when left, the Iraqis got their weapon out (01:39:27:00)
Every Iraqi drove a white vehicle, both cars and pick-up trucks, although taxi cabs were
white with an orange roof (01:39:40:00)
In the middle of August, Oakes looked at a thermometer outside their building and it read
130° in the shade (01:40:01:00)
o The facilities that had living quarters in them were air-conditioned, as well as
working space; there first things the soldiers did when the arrived was to put
window air conditioners in the buildings they were using (01:40:16:00)
o The soldiers did not care about the cosmetics of an installation; if it worked, then
it worked (01:40:25:00)
The morale in Oakes’ unit was good, although some of the units they supplied did have
different problems (01:40:41:00)
o Oakes believes part of the unit’s high morale came from the food that the soldiers
received in the mess hall, which was great (01:41:14:00)
Every Sunday was surf’n’turf; the soldiers spent a lot of taxpayers money
eating lobster and t-bone steak on Sunday (01:41:16:00)
The soldiers still kept MREs in the vehicles for convoy duty as well as
some snack food from home but the mess hall in general tended to serve
really good food (01:41:32:00)
The soldiers drank bottled water everywhere, never the local water
(01:41:44:00)
In early April, Oakes got an infection near his throat (01:41:58:00)
o When he went to see the doctor, she said she was not going to touch the infection
because it was near his throat; instead, she had her assistant wake the medi-vac
helicopter crew to fly Oakes to Mosul (01:42:21:00)
o While the helicopter crew was waking up, Oakes went back to his area, got his
overnight bag, got on the helicopter and flew up to the hospital in Mosul; after
dropping Oakes off, the helicopter crew made it a worthwhile trip and picked up
some supplies they needed back at the base (01:42:37:00)
o Oakes had anticipated that he was only going to be in Mosul overnight but it took
the doctors three times to lance the boil on his neck (01:42:54:00)
When he finally got back to his base, he had to have the area checked
every day for two weeks (01:43:23:00)
They made him were a large bandage over the wound, even when he was
promoted from E-7 to E-8 but luckily, the doctors got everything out
before he left for leave (01:43:47:00)
�
On May 6th, Oakes left for leave to meet his family in Ireland (01:44:01:00)
o From his base, Oakes went to Balad, took a C-130 down to Kuwait, were he went
through the process of turning all his equipment in for storage, flew from Kuwait
to Frankfurt, Germany, spent the night there, then finally flew to England and on
to Shannon, Ireland (01:44:06:00)
o Oakes’ family ended up landing in Ireland forty-five minutes before he did
(01:44:50:00)
Oakes stayed in Ireland for two weeks; his kids stayed for the first week
before returning to the United States, while Oakes and his wife spent the
second week (01:45:16:00)
o On the way back, the route reversed but when he got back to Balad and tried to
arrange from transport back to his base, no one knew the base Oakes was talking
about (01:45:24:00)
He ended up getting a flight on a Sherpa aircraft, a small aircraft used to
transport freight around (01:45:42:00)
The Sherpa pilots flew along the knap of the earth, about one
hundred feet of the ground; when they came to a power line, they
simply flew up and over (01:46:26:00)
Oakes had flown on a Sherpa aircraft going down to Balad when
he started his leave and the pilot warned the passengers that if they
heard a snap-pop, it was just a flare; there was a short somewhere
on the plane and it was causing the plane to release anti-missile
flares (01:46:34:00)
o Sure enough, the passengers heard a pop and looking out
the window, saw flares all over the place (01:46:50:00)
o Oakes finally did get back to base, although it took him a couple of extra days
because of the complications with arranging a flight (01:47:03:00)
o Oakes had been promoted from E-7 to and E-8 just before he left to go on his
leave to Ireland (01:47:17:00)
When he returned, the soldiers were still building different parts of the base, cleaning out
and renovating buildings, etc. (01:47:22:00)
o They eventually destroyed the damaged VIP building and buried it and they
knocked down only the part that was damaged (01:47:34:00)
o On some of the buildings, they simply dropped canvas down to act as the wall,
which did nothing during dust storms (01:48:01:00)
The base would get dust storms that made visibility near zero and because
the sand was so fine, it caused a lot of maintenance and respiratory
problems (01:48:07:00)
When it rained, all the sand turned to muck (01:48:35:00)
Luckily, the soldiers arrived in the winter season in November and December, which
meant it was cool (01:48:42:00)
o They actually received snow in Mosul the first weekend they were there; the team
located in Mosul sent back pictures of them having snowball fights (01:48:48:00)
o A couple of mornings, the soldiers would wake up and find ice covering the
various mud puddles around the base (01:48:57:00)
�
o It would get up to 70° during the day but at night, the temperature might go as
low as 20°; thankfully, all the living quarters already had heat/cool units installed
(01:49:11:00)
The living quarters were converted conex containers; they put a floor down, linoleum on
top of that and paneling up the walls (01:49:32:00)
o All the electrical outlets were 120 volts and the soldiers had to buy transformers
for some of the equipment that was 110 volts so they could work (01:49:44:00)
o The generators all put out 120 volts and most were covered with a canopy to keep
the hot summer sun off of them (01:49:56:00)
Oakes also noticed that all the buildings had a parking area covered with a
canopy to keep the sun off the vehicles (01:50:04:00)
Oakes did not meet too many Iraqis apart from those who worked on the base and ran
little shops near where he worked but in general, they were glad that the Americans were
there (01:50:36:00)
o Oakes had dinner with an Iraqi general who had spent seven years in prison
because he had been considered unfriendly with Saddam’s regime; the general
was in charge of the Iraqi training battalion and on time, the battalion invited
Oakes’ entire unit up to eat with them at their mess hall (01:50:50:00)
o Oakes does not recall running into anyone who was upset with the Americans
being in the country because the soldiers were helping them and the Iraqi
economy (01:51:16:00)
o They had been a country without leadership for an extended period, which led to a
lot of black market activities, such as stealing water, gasoline, etc. (01:51:25:00)
o The economic structures along the highway were similar to those in the United
States, meaning the soldiers could travel down a highway and see a strip mall;
however, the strip mall might not be up to the same standards as those in the
United States (01:51:36:00)
None of the stores in the mall would have run on electricity because there
were no power lines running to the building (01:51:55:00)
The fuel stations consisted of nothing more than the hoses and a meter
device with a hill behind the station, on top of which was a storage tank
(01:51:58:00)
A road led up above the storage tank so that a only gravity was
needed to get the fuel from the tanker truck into the tank and to get
from the storage tank to the vehicles (01:52:11:00)
o All of the homes had high walls around them because of the Muslim belief that
the women are not to be looked at by anyone but the husband (01:52:28:00)
o They had houses, apartment buildings, etc. (01:52:56:00)
Their building material was different because they had to building in the
desert and was built to withstand both the high heat of the summer and the
wetness of the rainy season (01:52:59:00)
Believe it or not, the desert turned green during the rainy season
(01:53:09:00)
o Gypsy farmers would go through the desert and harvest
wheat they had planted in an area before (01:53:17:00)
�
o Closer to the Tigris or Euphrates, there were farms along
the both rivers with irrigation ditches; the Iraqis elevated
the plants and the let the water run alongside the mound
(01:53:35:00)
They did not want to spray water because the water
would immediately evaporate (01:50:04:00)
o Even cities such as Balad, watering was done with
irrigation ditches (01:53:52:00)
o The only time Oakes saw water being sprayed was at the
one car wash he saw (01:54:09:00)
o On one convoy returned from Balad, the soldiers passed three kids dressed in
Western-style clothing waiting for the school bus, which surprised Oakes
(01:54:20:00)
o A lot of the shops on base were run by people from Turkey (01:54:49:00)
The shop keepers sold a lot of pirated DVDs; the soldiers might get three
DVDs for a dollar (01:54:55:00)
They could tell a DVD was pirated because they would be
watching it and all of the sudden, someone would stand up and
leave the movie theater (01:55:02:00)
Other shops would sell sandwiches and pop always in sealed bottles and
cans; the soldiers never drank anything out of a fountain (01:55:12:00)
The government spent some money trying to make some things similar to the United
States (01:55:28:00)
o In Mosul, there was one little square that a restaurant that sold chicken, one that
sold hamburgers, another that sold fish and a final one that sold pizza
(01:55:36:00)
o Even in the mess hall, a major ice cream company came in and supplied ice cream
to the base (01:55:56:00)
o The soldiers did not pay for any of the food; there was tons of food in the mess
hall and the soldiers could eat all they wanted (01:56:14:00)
The soldiers eventually built a center for the convoys where everyone going on a convoy
could congregate and receive a security briefing as a group (01:56:37:00)
o They showed where the last attacks, gunfire, IEDs, etc. had occurred in the past
twenty-four hours or if there was a major battle occurring, an alternate route the
convoy would take (01:56:54:00)
o There were also refrigerators and freezers of ice, as well as cases of various food
and bottled water the soldiers could take with them on the convoy (01:57:08:00)
The soldiers could only take so much because the vehicles tended to be
full of equipment; between ammunition and communications gear, there
was not a lot of space to move around (01:57:23:00)
Return Home (01:57:36:00)
The soldiers arrived on the base on Dec. 15th and left on Nov. 10th (01:57:36:00)
o When the soldiers left the base, they went back to Camp Victory in Kuwait to
wait for transport (01:57:58:00)
�o Eventually, the soldiers were picked up and transported on buses to the Kuwaiti
International Airport; once they arrived at the airport during daylight, the soldiers
sat in the buses in a parking lot for several hours (01:58:05:00)
They did not put the soldiers on a plane during daylight; the 747 airliners
were parked on the tarmac but nobody was in them (01:58:19:00)
o The soldiers eventually loaded up with five hundred people to a plane; one plane
was going west and landing in Dallas and the other plane was going east and
landing in Atlanta (01:58:34:00)
Oakes’ plane ended up making a special trip and went to Fort McCoy,
unload the around one hundred soldiers from his unit, then continued on to
Fort Lewis, Washington to unload the rest of the soldiers (01:58:51:00)
o From Kuwait, the plane stopped in Shannon, Ireland for refueling and while in
Shannon, they opened the bar for the soldiers and everyone went there
(01:59:13:00)
It took about an hour to refuel the plane, after which everyone got back
aboard and they did a headcount to make sure everyone was there; once
they were sure, they closed the door and continued the trip (01:59:31:00)
o The plane stopped next at JFK in New York City at four in the morning and
again, the soldiers open a bar (01:59:39:00)
o Finally, the plane arrives at Volk Field, a Wisconsin Air National Guard base near
Fort McCoy (02:00:01:00)
It was getting cooler outside the further west they went and by the time the
plane landing in Wisconsin, it was snowing; however, all the soldiers’
gear was packed and all they were wearing was the desert fatigues, which
did not offer a lot of warmth (02:00:09:00)
They eventually walked to a hangar through the snow and turned in their
weapons; there were soldiers there from Michigan and they took the
weapons, boxed them up, and shipped them back to Michigan so the other
soldiers did not have to carry them any more (02:00:34:00)
o Once the soldiers get to Fort McCoy, they are placed in barracks and the next day,
they go through medical inspection and then waited for transport (02:01:06:00)
o Two days later, the soldier get on buses around midnight on the 18th and as the
buses left, most of the soldiers fell asleep (02:01:33:00)
Around daylight, they reached the Michigan state line and stopped at a
McDonalds to get breakfast; some soldiers went to a gas station next door
to get some food and the workers told them to take as much as they
wanted, it was on the house (02:02:11:00)
When the buses got back on the road, a state trooper had his lights going
and he saluted the soldiers as they passed (02:03:53:00)
o When they got back, Oakes wife had rented a stretch limo HUMVEE that Oakes
did not know about (02:03:26:00)
o The reception the soldiers received was a lot better than the reception Oakes
received when he returned from Vietnam (02:04:04:00)
The same four who hung out together in Iraq were all Vietnam veterans
and three were on the bus; one stayed at Fort McCoy because his wife had
a new job working in Kansas as a librarian (02:04:13:00)
�
o A few months after returning home, the unit had a ceremony and handed out
flags, trophies and plaques; a month after the ceremony, Oakes transferred out of
the unit (02:04:38:00)
o The Guard had a new job lined up for Oakes, so he went through more training
for a month and then began working as an Equal Opportunity Advisor, which
meant he made sure soldiers did things appropriately (02:04:54:00)
Oakes left active duty for a year but was called back in Apr. 2007 and was active duty for
twenty more months, until Dec. 2009 (02:05:26:00)
o He left the Guard and went back to his civilian job and retired from that job in
July; Oakes retired from the Guard on March 31st 2009 when he turned sixty years
old (02:05:43:00)
After Iraq, Oakes initially went back to the 1225th in Detroit for a month then transferred
to Jackson, Michigan as an equal opportunity advisor (EOA) (02:06:04:00)
o He needed training to be an advisor, so Oakes spent thirty days at Patrick Air
Force Base in Florida; EOA training is some of the most difficult in the military
because the soldiers were dealing with people emotions and feelings
(02:06:20:00)
o After coming home for a month, the unit in Jackson transferred to Grand Rapids,
Michigan and the commander wanted Oakes to come with him, so Oakes did so
(02:06:38:00)
o However, Oakes had not been home a month when he transferred out of the job
and into the logistics section for the state of Michigan (02:07:01:00)
o In Apr. 2007, Oakes was re-activated to do the property book duties for the 177th
MP Brigade that had been mobilized (02:07:18:00)
o The 177th came home a year later but Oakes stayed with the unit because their
property book officer for whatever reason could not perform the job; Oakes
stayed with the unit until Dec. 2008 before going back to his civilian job working
for a local school system in January (02:07:30:00)
When the school year ended in July, Oakes retired from the school system
(02:08:01:00)
o When Oakes reached the age of sixty in Mar. 2009, the Guard forcibly made him
retire (02:08:08:00)
While Oakes was in Iraq, he would have liked to have seen more people, including going
to their homes and becoming friendlier with them (02:08:22:00)
o The hardest part was not being able to get to know any Iraqis and what their
lifestyle was like; very few of the soldiers were able to do this (02:08:32:00)
o On a couple of occasions, they sent out teams to distribute soccer balls, supplies,
etc. but Oakes’ job kept him from being able to do that (02:08:42:00)
o He also would have simply liked to get out more; in the beginning, it was a little
more hazardous to go out but in the last two or three months, it was probably safer
(02:08:59:00)
The biggest response Oakes receives when people find out he had served in Iraq is they
thank him for his service, although Oakes does not advertise that fact (02:09:38:00)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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OakesR2
Title
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Oakes, Ronald (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2010
Creator
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Oakes, Ronald
Description
An account of the resource
After returning from Vietnam in 1969, Ron Oakes married, earned a degree in electronics and traveled around the Midwest working. Eventually, he and his family moved back to Michigan, where Oakes joined the National Guard. As part of the Guard, Oakes helped provide security for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia and deployed to Iraq in 2005 for eleven months. While in Iraq, Oakes performed a variety of jobs, including being a property book manager for his entire brigade stationed at FOB "Q-West", a former Iraqi Air Force base between Balad and Mosul. After the eleven-month deployment, Oakes returned to the United States with the rest of his unit and continued serving in the Guard until March 2009, when he retired at the age of sixty.
Contributor
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Smither, James (Interviewer)
WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.)
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. National Guard
Language
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eng
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2010-06-15
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
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application/pdf
video/mp4
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6ab263495ca4f6426d643bea777500a0.mp4
7dafe8965a10cb00a57d49fb34569ed8
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b60966b87e7935ac43ea765ad8ba7738.pdf
c7d9790e3f828246fabc23b8fcfc06ab
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Iraq
Christopher Notestine
Total Time (00:52:44)
Introduction (00:00:09)
Christopher was born in Charlevoix County, Michigan on July 26th, 1980 (00:00:21)
He has a younger brother and grew up with both parents and comments it was a “white picket
fence” type of family (00:00:55)
◦ Christopher had no major motivation to join the Army as he just drove by the recruiting
office one day and thought that's where he wanted his life to go (00:01:21)
◦ He worked as a roofer before he started basic training at the age of 19 (00:02:06)
◦ Christopher did his basic training at Ft. Benning in Georgia and trained as 11 Bravo
(Infantry) (00:03:15)
▪ After AIT and basic training, he showed a knack for weapons and did a few more weeks
of additional training in Dragon and Javelin weapons systems (00:05:26)
▪ Christopher spent a few weeks at home and then headed out to Ft. Lewis in Washington
(00:06:35)
▪ He was part of the 2nd Battalion 23rd Infantry that worked with Stryker vehicles
(00:07:04)
▪ His unit was originally decommissioned; eventually they became recommissioned and
became the 23rd Infantry Stryker Combat Team (00:09:16)
His units did hard training as they wanted to get the units up and running- they
trained in Yakima, Washington at high altitudes; this was all prior to the September
11th, 2001 attacks (00:11:09)
They went to JRTC Ft. Polk, Louisiana for about a month and then to NTC in Ft.
Irwin, California (00:11:40)
The attacks of September 11th occurred right before he left for Louisiana and
California while he was in Washington (00:11:57)
◦ Christopher was told he was going to train before heading overseas- he didn't
have a clue where he would be heading at the time though- about eight months
later Christopher and his unit were in Iraq (00:13:54)
◦ At the time he remembers he and his unit being gung-ho about getting revenge
for what had happened- even though he comments now that he didn't know what
was going on then and just wanted to go do something because Americans were
killed (00:14:28)
▪ In preparation to go to Iraq, there was physical and mental testing done- he
said they just went and jumped on a plane and left as they didn't have any
plans and then just went to war (00:15:36)
Deployment in Iraq (00:15:58)
Christopher and his unit landed in Kuwait and went to a base just south of the border of Iraq
and waited there for about a week for their vehicles to get there (00:16:02)
It was October of 2003 and very hot- weather in triple digit degrees (00:16:28)
�◦ After the vehicles showed up he mentions the Army figured out their vehicles weren't RPG
proof so they had to rework the vehicles which took a couple days (00:17:36)
◦ He describes the process of moving north towards Iraq as they witnessed chaos and mayhem
and didn't really have any guidelines on how to deal with it all- they didn't stop because of
IED's (00:18:24)
▪ One of the first bases Christopher went to was Anaconda- “it was horrible” he comments
while he laughs about it (00:20:43)
▪ The living situation was pretty bad at the camp so they slept in their trucks for about a
month (00:21:24)
One of the Stryker units' duties was to be the first group there after a base had been
mortared- he says that the mortars were hit and they'd be out the gate before anyone
called them out there (00:23:09)
nine out of ten times they wouldn't be able to catch who was mortaring them but if
they did catch them, they would (00:24:11)
◦ Christopher mentions there was all types of ethnicities and genders represented
in his unit- he says he thinks every unit in the Army is like that (00:26:08)
◦ He jokes that tires were their best technology in detecting IED's (00:27:39)
▪ A lot of the raids he was involved with dealt with insurgents who were
weapons dealers- a lot of the time there wasn't anything there (00:29:14)
▪ The nature of the fighting stayed the same as he mentions Saddam Hussein's
forces used mortars and the insurgents or other people that didn't want the
United States there used IED's- all the action was jumbled together
(00:32:19)
▪ After they spent about nine-ten months in Mosul, Iraq, they showed the next
group of soldiers what they did and advised them on what to do; they handed
over their Strykers and were shipped out Diamondback Airfield across the
Tigris River (00:33:16)
On the way to Diamondback, one of their C130 planes got hit and had to
do an emergency landing between their and Kuwait (00:34:31)
Back to the United States (00:35:10)
The homecoming process was very long as Christopher just wanted to see his family but had to
go through and be 100% accountable to the Army and their check-ins (00:35:30)
Christopher and his unit got about a month's time worth of leave (00:37:52)
◦ He got married a few months before he deployed and had the wedding ceremony when he
returned from Iraq (00:38:59)
▪ Christopher was injured in Iraq by an IED and couldn't do infantry anymore; he didn't
feel his service was complete- he joined the National Guard and came to the 1434th
Engineer unit out of Grayling, Michigan and has been there since 2005 (00:40:25)
▪ Christopher gets the impression that the Iraqi's don't really care to change their ways and
it angers him that the United States is still there and not much has happened although he
acknowledges he's sure not everyone is like that (00:41:34)
Back to Iraq (00:42:36)
Christopher and his unit were doing construction missions on his 2nd deployment to Iraq; they
would go out to certain bases and build police stations or army style barracks for the local
police (00:43:05)
�
He was deployed for eight months with few additional months of training (00:44:06)
◦ His unit went through specialized combat training but Christopher didn't have to because he
was previously in the Army; they trained at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin for about a month or so
(00:44:35)
◦ If his unit needed anything he was the go-to guy for fixing things (00:46:51)
◦ The timeframe for his deployment was 2009-2010 (00:47:37)
Back to the United States (00:48:16)
The homecoming the 2nd time around was in Grayling, Michigan and was a lot different: there
was not much checking in with the National Guard and they saw their families and friends
immediately (00:48:37)
He mentions he didn't do a darn thing for about three weeks after he got home from Iraq
(00:49:44)
◦ He went back to work for the National Guard; he had to go to Wisconsin to do inventory
(00:50:32)
◦ Christopher and his unit went to El Salvador; they built four or five school houses for kids
but they spent several million dollars- he says it would have been cheaper to contract it out
(00:51:42)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
NotestineC1576V
Title
A name given to the resource
Notestine, Christopher (Interview outline and video), 2014
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Notestine, Christopher
Description
An account of the resource
Christopher Notestine was born in Charlevoix County, Michigan, in 1980. He joined the Army at the age of 19 and did his basic training at Ft. Benning in Georgia. He became part of the 2nd Battalion 23rd Infantry which used Strykers. Christopher and his unit went to Iraq in October of 2003 and mostly stayed in Mosul, Iraq. He was injured by an IED in Iraq and could no longer serve as part of the infantry so he enlisted with the National Guard in the 1434th Engineer Battalion based out of Grayling, Michigan. He went back to Iraq in 2009-2010 as part of a construction unit. He continued to work for the National Guard after he got home from Iraq in 2010.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dashner, Matthew (Interviewer)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
United States. National Guard
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-03-08
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
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application/pdf
video/mp4
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/64cc7151ae3a3318bb1dfdc6eca8bc3c.m4v
2061b7b0928ebda60a833a8cd767b651
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e2eaddbbdc1705305a7abf9b424a07b4.pdf
68019f43dd3af15b9003b9737c73ec8f
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans' History Project
Jacob Mol
War in Iraq and War in Afghanistan
1 hour 32 minutes 9 seconds
(00:00:39) Early Life
-Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on December 15, 1986
-Lived on the West Side of Grand Rapids
-Had four brothers and a half sister
-Moved north to Cedar Springs, Michigan
-Graduated from Cedar Springs High School
-Father worked as an electrician all over the United States
-Jacob traveled with him
-Mother stayed at home, but also did dental assistant jobs
-Worked various jobs after high school
-Decided to forgo college because of the cost
(00:02:28) Enlisting in the Marines
-Decided to enlist in the Marines in May 2006
-Sworn in on September 11, 2006
-Part of a delayed entry program because he wanted to work on aircraft
-Had been in the Young Marines when he was younger
-Taught how to march and be in formation, values, and leadership skills
(00:04:08) Basic Training
-Sent to San Diego for basic training in February 2007
-It was cold at night and hot during the day
-Boarded buses and taken to the base
-Drill instructors got on the bus and started screaming at the recruits
-Got off the bus and stood at attention waiting for further orders
-Gathered gear, had their heads shaved, and moved quickly
-Waiting to get sorted into their training unit
-Arrived at 10 PM
-Woke up the next day at 7 AM
-Kind of expected the craziness of the first few days
-Knew that if he followed orders he would be fine
-Part of Platoon 2134 of Fox Company
-Had one senior drill instructor and three other drill instructors
-Three of the drill instructors were veterans and one of the drill instructors was new
-Didn't know much about any of them
-Phase One of basic training lasted a month
-Starting physical training
-Taught Marine Corps history
-Received First Aid training and learned the basics of rifles
-Phase Two of basic training was at Camp Pendleton, California
-Received Field Training while at Camp Pendleton
-Did two weeks of rifle training
-One week of classroom work
-Some men had never handled a rifle before in their entire life
�-After a week of class they spent a week on the rifle range
-Completed rifle training with qualifications
-Did outdoor training at Camp Pendleton
-Did “the Crucible”
-Three or four days of night navigation training
-Obstacle courses
-Completed by running up the hill called “Reaper” and getting dog tags
-Trained with the M16A2 rifle
-Had iron sights
-Accurate up to 500 yards
-For night navigation training they were given a flashlight, compass, and a map
-Worked with a team of five men and tried to avoid getting “captured”
-His fire team did not get “captured”
-Phase Three focused on physical training and uniform protocol
-Taught how to take care of their uniforms
-Did swimming qualification
-Martial arts qualification
-Trained with a lot of men from California, Texas, Ohio, and Michigan
-There were a lot of Hispanic recruits
-Befriended a lot of the men he trained with
-There were no women training with them at San Diego
-Only women he ever saw there were the Navy corpsmen doing medical work
-Basic training lasted about three months, give or take a week
-Assigned Marine Occupational Specialty 6213: fixed-wing aircraft mechanic
(00:15:23) Marine Combat Training
-Went home for two weeks of leave
-Spent one week with his family
-Spent another week working with recruiter
-Getting new recruits ready for basic training and trying to get people to join
-Sent to Camp Pendleton for Marine Combat Training
-Abbreviated version of the School of Infantry that Marine riflemen went through
-Advanced rifle training
-Learning how to move forward while firing at targets set at varying distances
-Trained with different weapons
-M240 grenade launcher, .50 caliber machine gun, other larger weapons, and hand grenades
-Received more land navigation training
-One day of Day Navigation
-Had to move from one point to the next while staying concealed
-One night of Night Navigation
-More difficult because they had to move through the mountains
-Pretty much everyone passed Marine Combat Training
-Men only got held back due to medical reasons
(00:20:10) Engine Training
-Sent to Pensacola, Florida for “A School”
-Taught how to work on aircraft engines
-Three months of classes
-Similar to a college course
-Taught by civilian and Navy instructors
-Learned about jet engines, helicopter engines, and turboprop engines
�-The higher your class ranking, the more choice you had about what aircraft you would work on
-He was #2 in his class
-He selected EA-6B Prowler work
-The Prowler was a fixed-wing jet aircraft derived from the A-6 Intruder
-Used extensively in the Vietnam War
-Used for electronic warfare
-Jam radar, conceal aircraft, and pick up enemy communications
-Core of most of the aircraft was 20 to 50 years old
-Fun to work on
(00:24:53) Prowler Training
-Sent to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington to learn how to work on the Prowler
-Part of a Marine Corps and Navy joint training squadron
-Learned about the fuel system, engine, oil system, and landing system of the aircraft
-Taught how to do flight inspections
-Trained there from October through November 2007
-Able to go home for Thanksgiving 2007
(00:26:47) Downtime during Training
-Allowed to go off the base when he was at Pensacola
-No vehicles allowed
-When he was at NAS Whidbey Island he was allowed to have a car
-His cousin let him borrow his car, so he could go into Seattle
(00:27:47) Stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
-Assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina
-Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 3 (VMAQ-3)
-VMAQ-3 was getting ready to deploy in 20 days, so he was swapped into VMAQ-2
-Learning how they worked in a VMAQ
-VMAQ-2 was basically the same as VMAQ-3 just with a different command
-Squadrons were on a six month rotation at the time
-The squadrons worked together at Cherry Point
-He was with VMAQ-2 for a few months
-Transferred to VMAQ-4 for a month
-Transferred back to VMAQ-3 when they got back from their deployment
-Because he moved between squadrons so much, he received some training multiple times
-For example, he had to go through gas chamber training multiple times
-This involves putting on a gas mask and other gear to protect from WMDs
-You then go into a room that is sealed and filled with tear gas
-Once the room is full, you remove your gas mask and inhale the gas
-The objective is to give you an idea of what a gas attack would be like
(00:32:22) Deployment to Iraq & Arrival in Iraq
-Deployed to Iraq in August 2009 with VMAQ-3
-Orders for Al Asad Air Base in Iraq
-Didn't know what to expect going into Iraq
-They were on the south side of the air base
-Lived in huts made out of shipping containers
-Had doors, windows, and air conditioning
-Had a gym, chapel, and a general store on the base
-Before deploying they went to a base in Nevada for pre-deployment training
-Spent a month there getting used to a desert climate
-Got used to working 12 hour shifts
�-He always worked at night
-Didn't receive any cultural training
-Wouldn't have much contact with the Iraqis anyway
-Left the United States on C-130s and flew to Germany
-Spent a day in Germany
-Took a commercial airliner to Kuwait and boarded C-130s again to fly into Iraq
-First thing he noticed about Iraq was how hot, dry, windy, and sandy it was
-Daytime temperatures averaged at 120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit
-Didn't deploy as a whole squadron
-Prowlers and a forward unit went over two weeks earlier than the rest of the squadron
-Ironically, Jacob's group got there earlier because one of the Prowlers got delayed
-When they arrived, VMAQ-1 was still there
(00:38:17) Stationed at Al Asad Air Base
-Had concrete bunkers that the aircraft could be stored inside
-Huge blast doors on the outside and dual tunnels that led out onto the runway
-VMAQ-1 had a similar bunker about an eighth of a mile down the runway
-Nice to have an enclosed space to work in
-Out of the sun and safe from small arms fire or mortars
-Never attacked when he was in Iraq
-They were about 100 kilometers west of Baghdad
-Basically in the middle of nowhere
-Built around an oasis
-Knew almost nothing about the Iraq War or Al Asad Air Base's history before arriving
-Heard stories about Saddam's treatment of the Iraqi people
-Knew Al Asad had been some kind of leisure and sports compound during Saddam's regime
-Note: Originally named Qadisiyah Airbase and built during the 1980s
-Worked from 5 PM to 7 AM, plus or minus a half hour
-Had evening meal as breakfast then briefed on what needed to be done during the shift
-Usually sent out aircraft on night missions
-Did an inspection of the Prowlers then got them ready to fly
-Sent out two aircraft at a time
-If there was nothing else to do then they could just sit around for the remaining six hours
-Had internet and computers to pass the time
-Able to get their work done at a relaxed pace, most of the time
(00:44:56) End of Deployment in Iraq
-Deployment ended in February 2010
-Last Marine air unit in Iraq
-They were relieved by the Navy
-Worked with the Navy personnel when they came to help shut down the air base
-Had to gather up any left over Marine gear
-Had been in Iraq for seven or eight months
(00:46:30) Technical Problems in Iraq
-Had to do oil changes on the aircraft almost every time they came back from a mission
-Very repetitive task
-If they didn't have to do an oil change then they still had to do an oil inspection
-Basically making sure there wasn't too much dust and sand in the oil
-Air frames of the aircraft always broke because they were so old
-Washed the Prowlers every couple days to keep them dust free
-Also made sure they stayed dry so no dust or sand could stick to the plane
�(00:49:20) Morale in Iraq & Contact with Home
-Morale was affected due to the length of the shifts
-Noticed that halfway through the deployment tensions flared
-Near the end of the deployment everyone started to calm down again
-Worked out at the gym to deal with frustration
-Slept a lot to pass the time
-Wore headphones when he slept and listened to classical music to drown out the aircraft noise
-Able to Skype his family once a week
-Chance to let them know that he was okay and how life was in Iraq
(00:52:19) Returning to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
-Left Iraq in February 2010 and got 20 days of leave
-Returned to Michigan and went to the Upper Peninsula with his family to go snowmobiling
-Returned to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
-Took the Prowlers apart for in depth inspections and to clean their components
-Some of the aircraft needed their engines swapped out
-More in depth maintenance after returning to the States than deploying to Iraq
(00:54:23) Deployment to Afghanistan
-There was a rumor they would be deployed to Japan for a shorter, three month deployment
-A month later their orders were changed to Afghanistan
-Did pre-deployment training in Yuma, Arizona
-Different because he had a higher rank and there were new men in the unit
-VMAQ-3 received another Prowler and about 30 new Marines to maintain said Prowler
-Passed through Germany, again, en route to Afghanistan
-Flew from Germany to Kyrgyzstan
-Got to spend the day there
-Interesting place
-A lot of vendors selling old Soviet gear
-He bought $200 worth of Soviet stuff and sent it back home
-Boarded a commercial airliner and flew to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan
(00:58:20) Stationed at Bagram Air Base
-He was stationed at Bagram for his entire deployment in Afghanistan
-Bagram was huge compared to Al Asad
-His unit was quartered next to the emergency evacuation helicopters, C-130s, and the hospital
-More of a sense that he was in a war zone
-Every two or three days militants shot rockets or mortars at Bagram, usually at 2 AM or 9 PM
-Came out of batteries in the city or in the hills near the base
-Most of the time the rockets hit nothing, but when they found their mark they caused damage
-When they took mortar/rocket fire they went into bunkers scattered around the base
-Concrete enclosures capable of taking a direct hit
-In retaliation, attack helicopters went out to search and destroy the enemy batteries
-Missions took about an hour, which meant they had to sit in the bunkers for an hour
-Worked day and night shifts at Bagram
-Noon to midnight for half of his deployment then midnight to noon for the other half
-Never worried about small arms fire
(01:02:09) Living Conditions at Bagram
-Sleeping arrangements were worse at Bagram than in Iraq
-Slept in wooden shacks with screen windows
-City of Bagram was a quarter mile away, but they were not allowed to go into the city
-Bagram was primarily used as an R&R base for soldiers in Afghanistan
�-Had cheerleaders and comedians tour the base to entertain the troops
-He didn't go to those shows because he felt the combat troops needed them more
-Had a bazaar on base that acted as a sort of local shopping center
-Remembers they had furs for sale that were illegal to buy in the United States
-There were Afghan food vendors and a Pizza Hut
-The chow hall (dining hall) at Bagram was better than the one at Al Asad
-Wider variety of choices
(01:06:16) Security in Afghanistan
-Never went off base
-There was a school on the base for Afghan children, so he was able to visit that
-Remembers the children were friendly and wanted candy
-During the last two months he was placed on security detail because he hurt his back
-Gave him a chance to see the security measures put in place on their end of the base
-Had a guard shack with a rotating security camera
-Marine(s) patrolled the area near the guard shack with Air Force guards in towers
-Had T-walls (steel-reinforced concrete walls topped with razor wire)
-Also had old Soviet landmines scattered around the perimeter of the base
(01:09:10) End of Deployment in Afghanistan Pt. 1 & Getting Wounded
-On the last day in Afghanistan he got wounded
-He had everything packed up except for his rifle
-Shells started landing near the building he was in, so he ran outside toward a bunker
-Once inside someone pointed out to him that his arm was bleeding
-He had taken a small piece of shrapnel in his arm
-Closest encounter he had with combat
(01:11:29) Progress of War in Afghanistan
-Friend told him they had taken more mortars following the execution of Osama bin Laden on 5/2/2011
-Learned that VMAQ-3 had sent out aircraft to support the raid
-The bombardment in which he got wounded led to a delay in leaving Afghanistan
-Needed to repair the holes in the runway
-Knew something big happened whenever there was a lot of activity at the hospital
-Saw men missing arms and legs
-Able to watch the news, but he usually knew more about what happened than the news talked about
(01:15:36) End of Deployment in Afghanistan Pt. 2 & End of Enlistment Pt. 1
-Came home in May 2011
-Enlistment was for five years, so that was coming to an end as well
-Placed in an old C-130 hangar at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
-Did not lose any aircraft on either deployment
-Only one aircraft got hit by enemy fire in Afghanistan and it was a fairly easy repair
-When he got back to the States in May he had nine months left in his enlistment
-Could have gone on another deployment, but the rotation schedule changed
-Prowlers were being replaced by the EA-18G Growler (variation of the F/A-18F Super Hornet)
-He felt the Prowlers were better for electronic warfare because they were simpler aircraft
-EA-18Gs had problems with jamming their own electronics
-Decided at the beginning of his enlistment not to make a career out of the Marines
-Wanted to serve his country, serve his family, and qualify for the GI Bill
(01:22:00) September 11, 2001
-He was 15 years old when the September 11th Attacks happened
-Remembers being at school, it was 9 AM, and he was in health class
-Teacher got a call and turned on the news
�-Watched in real time as the jet hit the second World Trade Center Tower
-Feels that it had a little influence on his decision to enlist
-Wanted to do his part to defend his country and his loved ones
(01:23:52) End of Enlistment Pt. 2
-Not much encouragement for him to reenlist
-Military was downsizing at the time
-Iraq War was coming to an end
-War in Afghanistan was slowing down
-Discharged in February 2012
(01:24:42) Life after Service
-Moved back to Michigan and moved in with one of his brothers
-Tried to get a job working on aircraft, but nobody was hiring at the time
-Got hired at the plastics factory that his brother worked at
-Worked there for two months
-Hired by Loomis Armored (a cash handling company)
-Applied to Grand Valley State University in mid/late 2013
-Majored in electrical engineering
-Feels the Marines prepared him for hands-on work, taught him discipline, and multitasking
-Also made him a little too picky when it came to irrelevant details
-Wasn't too hard for him to readjust to civilian life
-Didn't want to be around too many people for a while
-Took a year to return to his “old self”
-Even after a year school came as a bit of a shock
-Noticed a definite gap between the civilian students and the veteran students
-Hard time relating to the younger students
(01:31:24) Reflections on Service
-Feels that his time in the Marines made him more responsible
-Changed him for the better
-Appreciates everything that he got out of his time in the Marines
-Enjoyed the work he did in the Marines and the people he worked with
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27_MolJ1778V
Title
A name given to the resource
Mol, Jacob (Interview outline and video), 2015
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-18
Description
An account of the resource
Jacob Mol was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on December 15, 1986. In May 2006 he decided to enlist in the Marines and was sworn in on September 11, 2006. He began basic training in San Diego in February 2007 then received Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton, California. He was designated as a fixed-wing aircraft mechanic and trained on aircraft engines in Pensacola, Florida. He graduated second in his class and volunteered to work on EA-6B Prowlers. He received training with those aircraft at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington then joined Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 3 (VMAQ-3) at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. He deployed to Iraq in August 2009 and was stationed at Al Asad Air Base until February 2010 then deployed to Afghanistan in fall or winter 2010 and was stationed at Bagram Air Base until May 2011. He completed his enlistment at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and was discharged in February 2012.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mol, Jacob
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Format
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video/x-m4v
application/pdf
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/46327f45f3596b2e0c6661c41a1f91c8.m4v
ea0ca424b230f2262fa4d4edf5b14697
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/48ceb2f64815317b8eb8338a967d62bd.pdf
fb38100ea081b69256d3556ff26f348d
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans’ History Project
John Matt
Iraq War & War in Afghanistan
1 hour 24 minutes 42 seconds
(00:00:12) Early Life
-Born in Marquette, Michigan on October 1, 1984
-Grew up in Marquette
-His father worked for the city of Marquette
-In charge of city maintenance
-His mother worked in various secretarial positions in the hospital
-He had two brothers
-Attended Marquette High School
-Graduated from there in 2003
(00:01:05) Enlisting in the Marines
-After high school he did a lot of job hopping
-He was working as part of a security detail at a casino
-A friend, who had just completed Marine boot camp, came and visited him
-Encouraged John to go and talk to a recruiter
-He wanted consistency in his life
-Enlisted in the Marines in November 2005
-Prior to going to boot camp there was a preparatory period
-Getting physically prepared for boot camp with the help of a recruiter
(00:03:00) Marine Corps Boot Camp
-Took a van from Marquette to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to go to the MEPS
-Military Entrance Processing Station
-Various physical tests to see if you’re qualified to go into the military
-Took a plane from Milwaukee to San Diego, California
-There were drill instructors waiting at the airport
-Spent three hours standing at attention on the curb waiting for the busses
-In the meantime the drill instructors yelled at the new recruits
-First week of training was called “Hell Week”
-Get your head shaved, no sleep for thirty six hours after arriving, lots of waiting
-Basically getting indoctrinated into military life
-On the Friday of “Hell Week,” called “Black Friday” get assigned to training company
-Boot camp lasted thirteen weeks
-First month the focus is integration at San Diego
-Drills, learning about ceremonies, military protocol, and the history of the Marines
-Second month is at Camp Pendleton, California
-Qualifying with the M16 assault rifle
-Land navigation training
-Going out into the field and sleeping in a tent for a week
-Third month is back at San Diego and there is further training with drills and ceremonies
-Boot camp ends with “Parent Day” which is the graduation from boot camp
�-Parents from the area can see their sons and daughters graduate
-First time that you’re truly recognized as a Marine
-His father was a disciplinarian, so getting yelled at was not shocking, or foreign
-Learned that teamwork was key to survival
-Knew that in the future, if one man made a mistake, it could be fatal
-There were always those few who didn’t care, or didn’t cooperate
(00:09:08) School of Infantry
-His specialization was as an infantryman
-After boot camp went home for ten days of leave
-Returned to California and went to the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton
-Two months of infantry training
-Working with a variety of weapons
-M240 machine guns, Mark 19 grenade launchers, .50 caliber weapons
-Getting the skills needed to be considered an infantryman
-Went on marches in the mountains
-Every Marine has to receive at least some kind of infantry training
-Even Marines in administrative positions receive a month of infantry training
(00:10:58) Assignment to the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marines
-In April (or May) of 2006 he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marines
-It took some adjusting to go into the unit that had fought in Fallujah, Iraq
-Had to prove himself before being fully accepted
-For the next year they focused on training to get ready to go to Iraq
-Spent three weeks of every month training in the field
-Receiving urban combat training
-He began to work with people who were from the Middle East
-Learning about the culture, customs, and the language
-Trained with them as stand-ins during urban training
-The goal was to not be culturally shocked when he got to Iraq
-The other part of it was showing that the Iraqis were humans too
-Feels that the media only focuses on the negative aspects of the people
(00:16:52) Deployment to Iraq
-The initial plan was to go with the 31st MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) to Thailand
-Train with the Thai military and other military forces in the area
-Before leaving saw his sergeant major in the “smoke pit” smoking cigarettes
-Learned that this meant they were probably going to Iraq, and not with the 31st MEU
-The second day that they were on the ship they were called to the flight deck
-Told that there was a change of plans and they were going to Iraq
-On the voyage over began target practice
-Challenging because of the motion of the ship
-They had a month and a half to prepare before arriving in Iraq
-Left the United States in summer 2007
-Most likely mid-May because he remembers celebrating the 4th of July in Iraq
(00:19:30) Arrival in Iraq
-When they arrived there was no clear route into Iraq
-Had to go with a four man team of combat engineers to clear the route of IEDs
-From there their mission was to find an abandoned building and get established in it
�-The ship arrived in Kuwait
-They had to wash dust and dirt off their equipment, vehicles, and clothing
-Kuwaiti culture demands that no foreign soil be on their soil
-Stayed in Kuwait for a week
-While in Kuwait given more cultural awareness courses
-Went to a place called TQ in Iraq (Al-Taqaddum Air Base west of Baghdad)
-Collected their ammunition and got assigned to a vehicle there
-Spent five days at TQ
-After TQ went to their area of operations in Iraq
-Operating near COP (Combat Outpost) Golden
-They paid some of the local elders to move out of their houses and live with family
-This allowed them to set up in the houses and have immediate access to the area
-They would go out on patrols and meet with the locals
-Operating in a largely uninhabited part of Al Anbar Province (western Iraq, bordering Syria)
-South of the city of Al Karmah
-They could see rockets being fired at night
-On the outskirts of an area where major fighting was occurring
(00:24:00) Interacting with Iraqis Pt. 1
-In their interactions with the Iraqis they would try to figure out what the people needed
-First step was to contact the village elder and talk to him first
-From there give him water, educational supplies, and any other supplies
-He would go and hand out the supplies to the families
-It showed that the U.S. was the supplier, not the savior
-Whenever they went out to meet with the Iraqis, medics came along
-Able to provide medical assistance the villagers wouldn’t have gotten otherwise
-The Iraqis reacted positively to the American presence, but they were wary of helping
-They wanted to help, but were afraid of what the Insurgents might do to them
-Some Iraqis helped regardless of what the Insurgents threatened
(00:27:40) Daily Routine in Iraq
-His days were organized in a 4x4x4 pattern
-Four hours of patrolling a square kilometer area
-Watch the roads and study the daily habits of the people
-Talk to the locals and gather any possible intelligence
-Figure out who needed to be talked to
-Either because they could help, or were a threat
-Four hours of guard duty at the house
-Go up on the roof and watch the neighbors to check for consistency
-Four hours of sleep
-The 4x4x4 pattern would be done twice a day
(00:30:16) Interactions with Iraqis Pt. 2
-One Iraqi man wanted to help, but wanted to be “arrested” to do it
-He didn’t want to look like he was willingly helping the Americans
-Told them to stage a fake raid on his house at night
-The situation seemed sketchy, so they went to talk with him during the day
-The man had left and his son was the only one at the house
-His son had three cell phones which was a sign of being involved with the Insurgents
�-The man never did come back to his house
(00:31:52) Enemy Contact in Iraq
-The worst contact they had with the enemy in Iraq was soon after they arrived
-Combat engineers were helping to build up their fortifications
-A vehicle-borne sniper came by and shot at them
-One of the combat engineers was hit through both lungs
-He walked over to see how the engineer was
-The man was already pretty much lifeless
-Drove home the selflessness of all military personnel
-A noncombatant gave his life for the combatants
-The combat engineer wound up dying en route to a larger medical facility
-The contact drove home the severity, and reality, of the deployment
-After that they didn’t take too many more casualties
-All wounded, no fatalities
(00:36:06) Living Conditions in Iraq
-At times they could go to their battalion’s base
-Living conditions still weren’t good there
-No air conditioning, and the base was made up of tents
-In the field they would live off MREs (meals ready to eat)
-Sometimes only ate one MRE a day
-Taking a real shower was nonexistent
-Learned how to use body wash and a bottle of water to get somewhat clean
-The average temperature every day was around 130oF
-Grew to appreciate the most basic things when he came home
-They would pay villagers $30 for a block of ice just to help deal with the heat
(00:38:38) Coming Home from Iraq
-The deployment to Iraq was nine months
-Did not receive any R&R while in Iraq
-Came home around Christmas/New Year’s Eve of 2008
-Boarded a ship in Kuwait and sailed home
-It was a chance to unwind and decompress before coming home
-Aboard ship they received reintegration classes
-Learning how to cope with being around family again
-At the time didn’t want to get lectured, but knew that it was necessary
-Learned about the signs of PTSD and how to deal with it
-Upon coming home, some men wanted to go back to Iraq because it was easier than civilian life
-In Iraq everything was provided, no bills to pay, just had to stay alive
(00:41:00) Leaving the Marines
-At first he wanted to stay in the Marines
-He had his wife and children to consider though
-If he stayed in there was a chance he would wind up going to Afghanistan
-Left the Marines and went to college and got a part time job
-Didn’t have insurance and had to rely on state aid
-Felt that that wasn’t good enough and wanted to pursue other options
(00:43:18) Enlisting in the National Guard
-Enlisted in the National Guard and was able to stay in college and keep working
�-Assigned to the 1431st Engineer Company in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
-Volunteered to go help the 1433rd Engineers in the Lower Peninsula
-Wound up getting deployed to Afghanistan
-Joined the National Guard in March 2010
-Only five months after getting out of the Marines
(00:44:20) 31st MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit)
-After Iraq, but before the National Guard, went with the 31st MEU on a training mission
-Learning how to be a “boat company”
-Operating like a special operations unit off of a ship
-Went to Okinawa, Japan for a month
-Went to an island in the Philippines and trained with the Filipino Marines
-Had some encounters with the Filipino civilians
-Little kids would trade random items for ballpoint pens
-Learned a lot about jungle warfare from the Filipinos by going on patrols with them
-Went to Seoul, South Korea and trained with the Republic of Korea Marines
-Visited the city of Seoul
-Saw the Korean War memorials and got to see what the war was like for them
-Went to the Korean Demilitarized Zone
-Saw the Bridge of No Return
-If you start to cross it you have to cross to the other side
-Otherwise you will be shot
-Asked his officer if he could try to run it, but was not allowed
-Went back to Japan for another month and then flew home
(00:48:19) Training with the National Guard
-Went to Fort Crowder, Missouri for demolitions training
-Spent one weekend a month training with the National Guard
-The role that he trained for was to be a combat engineer
-Clearing roads of IEDs and other explosives
-They had a vehicle that could safely detect where explosives were
-They also had equipment for BIP: blow in place
-Destroy an explosive without the help of a bomb disposal team
-Also learned how to efficiently cut down trees by using explosives
(00:51:25) Deployment to Afghanistan
-He was deployed to Afghanistan in the summer of 2012
-Went to Kingsford Armory in the Upper Peninsula and took a bus to Grayling, Michigan
-Remembers being escorted to the Mackinac Bridge by the Freedom Riders
-Motorcycle group that will escort deploying soldiers and welcome them home
-Along the way people would come out and show their support as they passed through towns
-It was a morale boost to see local support
-Flew to Afghanistan
-Remembers that it was a long plane ride
-A lot of them took sleep medication to help the time pass
-Remembers getting fed a lot
-Stopped in Germany to refuel and to get a chance to stretch in the airport
(00:55:07) Arriving in Afghanistan
-Landed at Kandahar Air Field in southern Afghanistan
�-There was a major base there
-Received cultural integration classes at Kandahar
-Stayed at Kandahar for a couple weeks waiting for an assignment
-Got a chance to Skype with family back home
-It was totally different than what was available in Iraq in 2007
-Had access to a TGI Friday, soccer games, internet, ping pong, video games
-Meant to be a taste of the United States in Afghanistan
(00:56:50) Afghan Society
-Afghanistan was mostly nomadic, agricultural, and primitive compared to Iraq
-The cities were slightly more modern than the rural areas
-They had access to some modern amenities like a barber shop
(00:58:10) Assignment in Afghanistan
-He and his unit were assigned to Forward Operating Base Pasab near Kandahar
-Their mission was route clearance
-Securing roads and clearing them of IEDs and other explosives
-Making it safe for the infantry to go out on patrols during the day
-Felt hugely responsible for the safety of the infantrymen
-They would get up before dawn to go make sure the roads were clear
-The other part of route clearance was to make it safe for the locals to travel
(01:00:20) Enemy Contact in Afghanistan
-There were more IEDs in Afghanistan than in Iraq
-His unit had the highest discovery and detonation rate of IEDs
-By the time they arrived the terrorists were running out of money and starting to retreat
-The first couple months they were there they always had firefights during route clearance
-Eventually the firefights stopped and it became easier to do their job
-They lost one man very quickly
-He stepped on an IED and it detonated right beneath him
-It was the same as in Iraq, it made the situation very real again
-He knew how to deal with it after having experienced it in Iraq
-Went and talked to the new soldiers and made sure they were alright
-Still completed the mission for that day for the sake of closure
(01:03:42) Interacting with the Afghans and Coalition Forces
-The Afghan people had a larger sense of entitlement than the Iraqis had
-They would more readily ask for stuff from American soldiers
-Help from soldiers was expected
-If you didn’t have anything to give them they would turn against you
-Little kids would throw rocks at them
-During the deployment he saw a loss of public support happening in Afghanistan
-The Afghan National Army (ANA) became a threat at times
-Members of it wound up being double agents for the various terrorist groups in the area
-At the end of his deployment he started seeing people returning to the region
-Indicated that Afghanistan was normalizing and support was returning
-The ANA had a lot to learn still even at the end of his deployment (2013)
-They were not used to American military tactics
-Just wanted to charge into a situation guns blazing
-The didn’t understand protocol or Rules of Engagement
�-There were communication problems
-Didn’t know if interpreters were trustworthy
-Most of the time had to rely on body language to communicate
-At Kandahar Air Field you could meet the other Coalition soldiers
-Never carried out operations with them though
-Always made sure to guide the ANA soldiers and give them advice
-During house searches they had the ANA do the searches and act independently
-This allowed for the ANA to see that they were being given respect
(01:11:08) Living Conditions in Afghanistan
-Living in a forward operating base was much better than the living conditions in Iraq
-At the FOB he had access to a modern gym
-On the FOB they were able to eat real meals and not just MREs
-They had “Taco Tuesdays,” and steak and lobster on Thursdays
-Remembers they had a butter sculpture of the Last Supper
-Showed that the Afghans were starting to respect American culture too
-Served as a morale boost
(01:13:58) End of Deployment to Afghanistan
-Even by the spring of 2013 there was still a lot of work to be done in Afghanistan
-Around Easter 2013 they were preparing to return to the United States
-By the time they left Afghanistan the firefights had stopped and IEDs had gone down
-There was only one road that consistently had IEDs on it
-In their area, enemy morale had been broken and they were retreating
-Went to Kandahar Airfield for a few weeks
-Looked for ways to kill time
-Did end of deployment work
-Physical and psychological health evaluations
(01:16:42) Coming Home
-From Kandahar flew to Fort Bliss, Texas
-Processed out there
-Mostly allowed to just unwind and not have any military responsibilities
-Just had to report at 7 PM each night so they knew you were alive and well
-Went to the on base shopping mall, saw movies, and swapped war stories
-Took more reintegration courses at Fort Bliss
-After Iraq understood that they were necessary for readjusting
-From Texas flew back to Michigan and landed at Sawyer International Airport
-Formerly K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base
-Left Sawyer International on a bus and after only driving a few miles the bus broke down
-Still had to go to Kingsford Armory for the formal homecoming ceremony
-He was walking distance from his house though
-In the meantime the soldiers got off the bus and started making snow angels
-Got a new bus and went to Kingsford for the homecoming ceremony
-Got to be reunited with his wife and children
-Remembers that it was a much bigger homecoming than when he was in the Marines
-Reaffirmed his National Guard service, truly felt that he was fighting for his community
(01:21:15) Present Service
-Still does the one weekend a month, two weeks a year with the National Guard
�-He is currently involved with helping to train soldiers at Fort Custer, Michigan in urban combat
-How to properly breach and clear houses
-Incorporates both his infantry and combat engineer experience
(01:22:35) Reflections on Service
-Learned that there was nothing that he couldn’t handle
-He loved, and still loves, the spirit of teamwork in the military
-Helped him to learn that it’s okay to have a support network and to ask for help
-He still loves the sacrificial aspect of the military
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27_MattJ1670V
Title
A name given to the resource
Matt, John (Interview outline and video), 2014
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-09-27
Description
An account of the resource
John Matt in 1984 in Marquette, Michigan. He grew up in Marquette and attended high school there and graduated in 2003. In November 2005 he enlisted in the Marines and attended boot camp at San Diego/Camp Pendleton and the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton specializing as an infantryman. In the spring of 2006 he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marines. In mid-May 2007 he and his unit left for an international training mission in Thailand, on the second day of sailing they were rerouted and deployed to Iraq. They arrived in Iraq in late June/early July 2007 and were stationed in a village south of the city of Al-Karmah near Combat Outpost Golden in the Al-Anbar Province. During his time in Iraq he went on patrols and took part in the humanitarian mission to improve the lives of the Iraqis. Around Christmas/New Year's Eve of 2008 he and his unit returned home. In 2008 and 2009 he went with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea to carry out training missions with the allied forces in those countries. After leaving the Marines in late 2009 he enlisted in the National Guard in March 2010 and was assigned to the 1431st Combat Engineers Company in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan based out of Kingsford Armory where he could be near his wife and children. He volunteered to help the 1433rd Combat Engineers based in the Lower Peninsula and wound up getting deployed to Afghanistan in the summer of 2012. His unit operated out of Forward Operating Base Pasab helping to clear the road of improvised explosive devices and other explosive materials.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Matt, John
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jones, Adam (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
United States. National Guard
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Moving Image
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Format
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video/x-m4v
application/pdf
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/05c6067547228cd12240f16cc52cdf63.mp4
98892ad0a07fc538da6015098b0538b0
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d66ee7e4161921240873a1a2d5c2bb0.pdf
291163b57ba72c89251fc39f7acc9b85
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Vietnam & Afghanistan & Iraq
Baltazar Martinez
Total Time – (02:11:52)
Introduction / Basic Training – (00:00:11)
Baltazar Martinez was born in Plainview, Texas on August 8th, 1952; he lived there for about
eight years until his family moved to Bovina, Texas (00:01:03)
His father was a farmer and his mother stayed at home to work on the fields (00:01:42)
◦ Baltazar was one of the last people drafted by the draft board in 1972 (00:03:16)
◦ He is the oldest in his family and has a younger brother and and two younger sisters
(00:06:00)
◦ Baltazar was planning on going to college to play football and used that as motivation to
keep up his grades (00:07:33)
◦ A couple colleges offered him football scholarships but he ended up receiving a draft notice
and his mother took it especially hard (00:08:54)
▪ Baltazar headed to Amarillo, Texas for a physical and other check ups and eventually
wound up in the Army (00:12:00)
▪ He went to Ft. Ord in California for basic training (00:13:28)
Baltazar was brought up in a very structured family and thanks his parents for that as
it helped him get used to the way of the Army (00:14:34)
Baltazar got sent off to become a 19 Delta (Cavalry Scout) (00:17:25)
A lot of the basic skills of the Army came natural for him; his father taught him how
to shoot a rifle- everything Baltazar did in Basic Training is what he wanted to do
(00:19:53)
Four to five weeks after he arrived at Basic Training, he was congratulated by the 1st
sergeant on being of the last people to be drafted (00:22:01)
Baltazar didn't know what a 19 Delta was when it was announced that's where he
was going to be; he finally learned that he was going to be at reconnaissance school
(00:23:37)
All of his drill instructors had combat experience and his 1st sergeant had served in
Korea (00:25:27)
◦ Baltazar left Ft. Ord for Ft. Carson in Colorado to be a cavalry scout (00:26:57)
▪ He learned how to set up ambushes, explosives, booby-traps, among other
things; he already knew how to work with a map and compass (00:29:13)
▪ The training at Ft. Carson took eight weeks; from there, Baltazar got orders
to go to Vietnam (00:32:01)
▪ After Advanced Infantry Training (AIT), he earned leave to go home for
about a week; he then reported to Travis Air Force Base (AFB) and flew
from there (00:32:48)
Vietnam (00:32:29)
He jokes that his time in Vietnam was so short that he just showed up, saw the land, and was
turned around to be sent back home at the end of 1972 (00:33:00)
They flew from Anchorage, Alaska to Japan and then Japan to Saigon; he was only there for a
�couple of days (00:33:54)
Back to the United States (00:33:57)
He was then assigned to the 1st of the 10th Cavalry at Carson (00:34:20)
◦ Baltazar mentions that the military is constantly training people and that's part of the
everyday routine- a lot of weapons training (00:36:29)
◦ He liked the training because he was never bored- he was constantly doing something
(00:37:19)
◦ Baltazar describes a situation when he was on a vehicle one time that was on fire and his
sergeant told him to keep driving; eventually the situation was diffused but quite nerveracking (00:40:29)
◦ He spent about two years with the 1st of the 10th Cavalry before he got his orders that sent
him to Korea (00:41:43)
Korea (00:43:30)
Baltazar was with the 1st of the 72nd Armor and was attached to combat support (00:43:41)
He was still a Cavalry Scout but was attached to his assigned unit; he spent 13 months there
(00:44:43)
◦ After Baltazar became the rank of E5, he was told that he needed to go to NCO school and
was sent there because of his character (00:46:33)
◦ He was getting ready for an inspection when North Koreans entered into the “No Mans
Land”; gunfire was exchanged but nothing major happened (00:49:27)
◦ Baltazar says he learned to always be prepared because you never know what's going to
happen- you must have flexibility (00:49:40)
▪ With about three weeks left in his 13 month tour, Baltazar explained a story about a US
chopper getting some bullet holes from North Koreans near the exhaust (00:53:55)
His parents let him make his own decisions once Baltazar turned 18 but said they
would always give him advice for whatever he chose to do (00:55:18)
Baltazar then enlisted for another three years with the Army (00:56:09)
He and his unit provided gifts for a local orphanage while in Korea (00:58:09)
◦ Other than providing for the orphanage, Baltazar didn't really have much other
communication with the local population but remembered a few words he
learned while he was there (00:59:44)
◦ Baltazar mentions another story about a time when locals got on to a restricted
area in their mortar range and how one of his NCO's chased them off (01:03:15)
◦ The weather in Korea was brutally cold but not a lot of snow (01:04:28)
◦ Sometimes the locals seemed to know more than the soldiers about alerts and
things like that as one certain local would set up shop for the soldiers because
she had heard about an alert before they did (01:07:43)
◦ When an alert would happen, his unit would resort to fighting positions and
again, it was a secret to the US but not to the local population (01:09:07)
▪ Baltazar put Ft. Hood, Ft. Carson, and Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas as his
number one destination- he laughs because he got sent to Ft. Knox, Kentucky
(01:09:39)
Back to the United States (01:10:58)
Baltazar was sent to Ft. Knox, Kentucky after 13 months in Korea; he was assigned to the 1st
�
Training Brigade Unit (01:11:05)
He was still an E5 and was an Advanced Individual Training Instructor- about a year later he
was E6 (01:11:32)
◦ Baltazar was selected by a committee to go to drill sergeant school at Ft. Knox for about
five weeks (01:15:30)
◦ He received a score of 49 out of 50 and the person that graded him told him the only
mistake he made was that he wasn't perfect- Baltazar was humbled by that (01:17:57)
◦ Overall the quality of individuals of recruits were intelligent; he remembers a young man
that had a masters and was gung-ho as could be (01:21:22)
▪ The young man that Baltazar mentioned wanted to become a Chaplain and he wanted to
know why the man didn't just go through OCS and the man replied that if he didn't go
through the training, how would he know what the other soldiers are going though
(01:22:15)
▪ Baltazar did the training stint for three years which would have been around 1981 as his
enlistment was coming up (01:23:15)
The Marine Corps Years (01:24:47)
After nine years and three three-year enlistments, Baltazar decided he wanted to join the Marine
Corps (01:24:47)
His Command Sergeant Major told him he was going to make E7 soon and asked him why he
wanted to give that up and Baltazar replied that something was telling him to join the Marines
(01:28:04)
◦ He was told that he'd be brought down to Lance Corporal, an E3 position, as well as go
through boot camp and that was fine with Baltazar (01:29:42)
◦ Baltazar was brought in as the Marines were suspicious of his situation: they asked him if he
was related or knew any people in congress- they couldn't believe he wanted to come into
the Marine Corps as an E6 (01:32:08)
◦ He actually came back as a Staff NCO as an E6 in the Marine Corps at Ft. Knox (01:33:05)
▪ Some of his previous majors from the Army were sitting at the NCO bar as he walked in
(01:35:13)
▪ He was at Ft. Knox from around 1981 til 1983; he was then assigned to an inspective
duty over in Alameda, California (01:36:39)
▪ Baltazar finished a three year enlistment with the Marines and then went on Reserve
Status for three years (01:37:36)
He was thinking about himself and starting a family and that's a big reason why he
chose to not be on active duty (01:38:53)
Baltazar and his family lived in California from 1983/84 til almost 2000 (01:41:35)
Him and his family ended up moving to Marshall, Michigan in 2000 (01:43:28)
National Guard Duty (01:45:50)
In 2007, Baltazar joined the National Guard after his daughter entered college (01:45:50)
After the E6 and E5 slots were filled, he decided that he didn't need the rank in order to lead as
part of the National Guard (01:50:23)
◦ In 2010, Baltazar was deployed to Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan for six months (01:52:50)
◦ The deployment was an individual deployment because of Baltazar's expertise in weaponry
and prior combat experience (01:53:38)
▪ Kuwait was his main base and first flew out to Afghanistan; he was accountable for all
�▪
the heavy machinery (01:54:33)
He went back and forth from Kuwait to Afghanistan twice and would be gone from ten
days to 14 days at a time (01:57:19)
Baltazar was accounting for equipment in Iraq as the United States started to
withdraw troops as this made his job quite critical (02:00:00)
◦ He mentions that while he was in Iraq it seemed like the Insurgents were just
waiting for the US troops to get out (02:04:26)
Back to the United States (02:06:00)
Baltazar returned from Iraq in 2011 and wanted to return in 2012 but his aged barred him from
his deployment (02:07:27)
Baltazar came home to a loving family in 1972 when he got back from Vietnam and came back
from Iraq to a loving family in 2011 and that's what he believes keeps him grounded and sane
(02:10:05)
He feels like he can still perform for the military and be able to provide experience for young
men and women; to pass the torch on to the younger generation is one of his goals (02:11:17)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MartinezB1571V
Title
A name given to the resource
Martinez, Baltazar (Interview outline and video), 2014
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Martinez, Baltazar
Description
An account of the resource
Baltazar Martinez was born in Plainview, Texas, in 1952. He was one of the last people to be drafted into the Army in 1972. He trained as an armored cavalryman and was deployed to Vietnam toward the end of the year, but stayed only a few days before being sent home. He re-enlisted twice, and served in Korea and in different bases in the US until 1981. He subsequently served in the Marine Corps for three years, and then later joined the Army National Guard, and deployed to Kuwait, and Iraq in 2010. He currently serves with the 507th Engineer Battalion, but did not deploy with them to Afghanistan in 2011 due to his age.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
McGregor, Michael (Interviewer)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
United States. Marine Corps
United States. National Guard
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-03-08
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/151840e44d1671f9daffd1027c331e90.mp4
2b76a3366b318f529aea169e9eaa4af8
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/85b3396f660c913336e6471368847c95.pdf
904f1e6e053ab74550a1dc12af1e2d52
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veteran’s History Project
Iraq War
Justin Marshall
Interview Length: (00:26:11:00)
Life before the Army (00:00:09:00)
Before joining the military, Marshall was in his last semester of college (00:00:15:00)
o He figured this would be the best time for him to join because he did not have any
other commitments, such as a wife or kids. (00:00:25:00)
Marshall has a history of military personnel in his own family. (00:00:37:00)
o His father and both his grandfathers were in the army. The grandfathers served in
WWII: One in Southeast Asia and one in Europe. (00:00:39:00)
Marshall grew up in New Jersey. (00:00:49:00)
o While he was in middle school, his family moved to Vermont. (00:00:52:00)
o The family moved to Michigan sometime later, where Marshall finished high
school and attended Kettering University. (00:00:55:00)
When he confronted his parents about joining the military, Marshall’s father was very
excited while his mother was not. (00:01:07:00)
Marshall joined because he wanted to do something for his country and he was out of
shape. (00:01:40:00)
o Additionally, in regards to controversy over the war in Iraq, he never wanted to
make “uninformed statements” about why or why not Americans should be
fighting in this war. (00:02:22:00).
o “I joined to know a little bit more about myself” (00:02:41:00)
o “I wanted to be humbled.” (00:04:10:00)
Early Military Experience (00:04:15:00)
In January of 2004, Marshall enlisted in the United States Army. (00:04:20:00)
On July 27th, 2004, Marshall went to basic training. (00:04:30:00)
o This was a 9- week long program. (00:04:33:00)
Basic training is “just like you see in the movies”. (00:04:42:00)
o Marshall believes that the purpose of this program is “training you as a basic
soldier”, just as the title suggests. (00:05:00:00)
After basic training, Marshall went to Officer Candidate School which lasted for 14
weeks. (00:05:11:00)
o At OCS, “they teach you more about being a leader”. (00:05:20:00)
o At OCS your communication is limited as it was in basic training. He was able to
make 5-10 minute phone calls and use e-mail a few times a week. (00:06:02:00)
After OCS, Marshall went to Airborne School which lasted for 3 weeks. This was located
in Georgia. (00:06:35:00)
After Airborne School, Marshall attended an Infantry Officer Basics Course.
(00:06:52:00)
o This taught infantry tactics and extended leadership training. (00:07:01:00)
After IOBC, Marshall attended Mechanized Vehicles Course. (00:07:10:00)
o Here, he learned how to work certain military utility vehicles. He needed this
knowledge to become a platoon leader. (00:07:25:00)
�
The final course in which Marshall was enrolled was “Ranger School”, which lasted over
60 days. (00:07:40:00)
o The program consisted of 3 “phases” which were each about 21 days long. Each
featured a different kind of terrain that students would have to work in.
(00:07:48:00)
o He felt a particular pressure to complete this course because his father had been
an army ranger. (00:08:31:00)
He completed Ranger School in January of 2006. (00:09:10:00)
First Deployment (00:09:11:00)
Marshall joined his unit- First Battalion 6th infantry- in March of 2006. (00:09:12:00)
When Marshall joined the unit, they had already been deployed to Iraq and were waiting
in Kuwait for further instruction. (00:09:54:00)
o After a month in Baumholder Germany, Marshall joined the unit in Kuwait after a
1- week “train-up”. (00:09:58:00)
Marshall became a platoon leader on May 1st, 2006 as soon as he arrived in Kuwait with
his unit. (00:10:09:00)
o After remaining in Kuwait for 1 month, the unit was called to Iraq. (00:11:05:00)
The unit arrived in the city of Ramadi, Iraq. (00:11:12:00)
o Ramadi was a “hot spot” at the time of Marshall’s units’ arrival. Al Qaeda had
been recruiting people in the Southwest region of the city. (00:11:52:00)
Marshall remained in Ramadi for 6 months. (00:12:03:00)
o “I had bullets shot at me”. (00:12:10:00)
o Marshall’s unit also encountered roadside bombs. (00:12:15:00)
o Nobody in his platoon was killed, but one man was shot. Thanks to a “very well
trained medic”, the man’s life was saved. (00:12:20:00)
o However, two men were killed: one that was in Marshall’s company and another
that had previously been in his company and transferred to another. (00:12:42:00)
Second Deployment (00:13:00:00)
After Ramadi, Marshall’s unit was transferred to Baumholder, Germany. (00:13:02:00)
o They did another “train- up” for Iraq while there. (00:13:10:00)
After another short period in Germany, Marshall and the others were transferred to Sadr
City, Iraq. (00:13:17:00)
o “Sadr City was the urban slum in Baghdad”. (00:13:25:00)
o This city was only made to fit about 1 million people; however there was about 3
million there when Marshall arrived. (00:13:47:00)
o The Mahdi Army had been shooting rockets inside the “green zone”, or
“International Zone of Baghdad”. Marshall’s unit was put in charge of
constructing a blockade wall for the Green Zone. As a result, the opposition
issued a cease fire and rockets were no longer being launched at the protected
region. (00:14:03:00)
o After the construction of the wall, Marshall’s unit devoted effort to rebuilding the
slums of Sadr City. (00:14:34:00)
Other Military Experiences (00:15:20:00)
During his first deployment, Marshall and the other men that accompanied him did not
have a great amount of provisions.
�
o They had to build their own shelter from an abandoned house in Ramadi because
the outpost had not yet been constructed when they arrived. (00:15:22:00)
o The men used abandoned sleeping pads that Iraqi soldiers had left behind, which
were infested with fleas. (00:16:40:00)
o Marshall and the others used outhouses and wooden shower stalls. (00:17:05:00)
“During the second deployment, living conditions were good”. (00:17:48:00)
o The men were able to sleep in bunk beds. (00:17:51:00)
o After a month of being there, “trailer stalls” were delivered. These units included
bathrooms and showers. (00:17:58:00)
o Supplies came in fast enough to permit the men to eat hot meals every day, but
“every third meal was the same”. (00:18:55:00)
In terms of the civilians, “I’m not really sure how they felt about us”. (00:19:56:00)
o Marshall believes that the threatening appearance of the United States army
caused locals to be non-receptive. (00:19:58:00)
o He doesn’t think the military presence did much good due to the tension between
the army and the Iraqi people. (00:20:10:00)
o The hostile disposition of those in the United States army because “the enemy”
often hid amongst the civilians, disguised as such. Therefore, Marshall and the
others had to keep their guard up even when it came to common folk.
(00:20:35:00)
During the second deployment, “the civilians were not receptive” because the military
presence in the Shia community caused conflict amongst the civilians. (00:20:50:00)
o Once the U.S. soldiers began to help rebuild Sadr City, the tension diminished as
many people were being freed of extortion by the Mahdi Army, community
structures were being built, and public services were improved. (00:21:14:00)
One of Marshall’s favorite Army memories was playing whiffle ball on Thanksgiving.
(00:23:00:00)
Marshall handled many different weapons and always carried an M4 Carbine Rifle.
(00:23:30:00)
o He was also trained on M16 rifles, M240 Bravos, MK 19 Grenade Launchers
M249 Squad Automatic Weapons (SAW), and the weapons on the Bradley
Fighting Vehicle. (00:23:37:00)
Marshall earned the Bronze Star Medal for planning an assault. He administered the
helicopter route for the soldiers involved. (00:24:22:00)
Because he was an officer, Marshall was expected to use communication facilities less
than other lower ranked soldiers. Therefore he did not talk to his family and friends back
home very often. (00:25:30:00)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MarshallJ1219V
Title
A name given to the resource
Marshall, Justin (Interview outline and video), 2010
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Marshall, Justin
Description
An account of the resource
Justin Marshall was born in in New Jersey and later moved to Michigan with his family where he finished high school. Marshall decided to enlist in the United States Army in during his last semester of college at Kettering University. In 2004, he was sent to basic training, after which he took a number of extra courses including Officer Candidate School, Airborne School, a mechanized vehicle course, and Ranger School. In March of 2006, Marshall joined the First Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, as a platoon leader, and later became a captain and company commander. On the first of his two deployments, he was sent to Ramadi, Iraq, which was a "Hot Spot" for Al-Qaeda recruitment. His second deployment was to the Sadr City area of Baghdad, Iraq, where Marshall and his comrades helped rebuild the struggling community and eliminate extortion by the Mahdi Army.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Wisdom, Victoria (Interviewer)
Murphy, Sydney (Interviewer)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2010-11-13
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
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application/pdf
video/mp4
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/28b1253af5b40e0b27dccb1de5fb9a1c.m4v
0c643db7e2974fbda9019d16b2cf352c
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d7b9bdcf93f5eaed72d536b6920365a.pdf
eca6290744b281e5bdae9616bdfc0760
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans' History Project
Tim Lamphere
Cold War, Gulf War, & Iraq War
27 minutes 35 seconds
(00:00:08) Early Life
-Born on February 14, 1967
-Attended Ionia High School in Ionia, Michigan
-Lived in a small town named Muir in Ionia County
(00:01:02) Enlisting in the Army
-Enlisted in the Army after he graduated from high school
-Chose the Army because he knew he could get specialized training in the Army
(00:01:32) Training Pt. 1
-Basic training came as a culture shock after growing up in a rural, Michigan town
-Different people and different treatment than he was used to
(00:02:00) Iraq War
-He was still in the Army when the Iraq War began in March 2003
-First time in Iraq he served at Camp Anaconda (Balad Air Base)
-Logistical supply hub
-30,000 to 40,000 American troops
-Base of operations for missions in the area
-On another deployment he was stationed at Al-Mahmoudiyah
-Rural town south of Baghdad
-Last tour in Iraq was at Camp Liberty
-Approximately 40,000 troops stationed there
(00:03:14) Duty in the Army
-Started as an infantryman
-Attended and completed Ranger School
-Spent three years with a Ranger battalion out of Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia
-Transferred to the 82nd Airborne Division as a Ranger
-Served with them for 11 years
(00:04:04) Panama & the Gulf War
-Fought in Operation Just Cause in Panama
-Invasion of Panama in late 1989 to depose Manuel Noriega
-Fought in the Gulf War (August 1990-February 1991)
(00:04:17) Combat Experiences Pt. 1
-One of his most memorable combat experiences was getting wounded in Iraq
-Most shocking combat experience happened in Ramadi, Iraq
-Went through a doorway and an enemy soldier fired at him
-His rifle jammed and he charged the combatant, tackling and suppressing him
-Initially afraid, but once you go into combat you have to react without fear
-A lot of realistic training and good leaders prepared him for combat
(00:06:19) Process to Become a Ranger
-Start out with Army basic training
-Complete Advanced Individual Training as an infantryman
-Signed up for and completed Airborne (paratrooper) School
-Upon completion of Airborne School he was interviewed by Ranger recruiters
�-Did the Ranger Induction Program
-Three week program
-Proving your mental and physical skills
-Courses, scenarios, and field exercises
-All forms of training were difficult at times
-Being deprived of things you're used to having
-Even in basic training you're not on your own schedule
-Adapted after a first few weeks
(00:08:30) Reflections on Service Pt. 1
-Army provided him with structure he may not have had without it
-Allowed him to become more mature and have focus
(00:08:58) Length of Deployments
-Operation Just Cause (Panama) lasted 30 days for him
-Gulf War lasted seven and a half months with 30 days of actual combat
-First tour in Iraq lasted one year
-Second tour in Iraq lasted seven months
-Supposed to be a year, but he got wounded
-Third tour in Iraq lasted 11 months
(00:09:49) Conditions in Iraq
-Gulf War prepared him for his tours in Iraq
-Introduced him to Arabic culture and the Middle Eastern environment
-Heat was unpleasant, but adaptable
-Had to constantly stay hydrated to replenish water lost from sweat
(00:10:53) Contact with Family
-Periodically communicated with his family while on deployments
-Always in a leadership position which limited his time available to communicate with home
-Army provided soldiers with good means to communicate with family
-Contacted home once a week, or at least a few times a month
-Sometimes it was better not to tell family everything
-Would worry them too much if they knew as much as he could tell them
(00:11:40) Friendships in the Army
-Being a leader meant he couldn't make friends as much as lower ranking soldiers
-Had a responsibility to be impartial and functional as a leader
(00:12:19) Downtime
-Most soldiers spent their downtime playing sports
-Football and soccer were popular choices for the men
-Had to play soccer on hard, rocky fields
-Usually kicked rocks more than the actual soccer ball
-Able to celebrate holidays if they weren't on a mission
-Remembers making sure they celebrated one holiday on one tour
-Did it to boost the morale of younger soldiers on their first deployment
-If they weren't on a mission they still didn't have downtime
-Spent the days doing training and recovery
-Preparing equipment for future missions
-Cleaning and maintaining weapons, vehicles, and equipment
-If you weren't busy with training and recovery you got extra sleep
-Extremely difficult to find time to sleep
-Had to spend most of his time preparing for missions
-Usually got four hours of sleep each night
�(00:15:50) Combat Experiences Pt. 2
-Combat operations varied depending on circumstances
-A routine patrol or an escort mission could turn into a combat situation
-If a convoy got attacked they would have to engage the enemy
-Usually lasted 30 minutes to an hour
-If they encountered Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that took more time
-Had to call in Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technicians to deal with the IED
-The more time they spent in an area the more likely they would get attacked
-Remembers being awake for three days on one mission
-Most combat situations were close quarters combat
-Had only one experience with hand-hand combat
-Enemy was usually 50 to 100 yards away
(00:18:20) Reflections on Service Pt. 2
-Army helped develop his core values as a person
-Courage, honor, duty, loyalty, respect and integrity
-Molded his approach to situations
(00:19:00) Casualties in Iraq
-Took casualties at the start of the Iraq War
-Had fellow soldiers die in his arms
-Survived the total destruction of vehicles where he was the sole survivor
-Struggled a little with civilian life after experiencing combat and death
-Long deployments, combat, and death made him emotionally numb
(00:20:25) Coming Home Pt. 1
-Always happy to see his family when he came home
-Slept a lot when he came home
-Spent the months between deployments trying to enjoy himself
(00:20:51) Reflections on Service Pt. 3
-If he served again he would pursue a higher rank
-Had promotion opportunities and he didn't pursue them
-Enjoyed working with smaller units as a result of having a lower rank
-More focus on the soldiers under your command
(00:21:39) End of Service Pt. 1
-Retired from the Army after 26 years
-Periodically reaches out to friends he made in the Army
-Not as much as he thought he would have
-Life as a civilian has improved
-Amazed by how easy it is to get a job if you have experience in the Army
(00:23:00) Coming Home Pt. 2
-Had a good experience being welcomed home by the community
-It takes a while to decompress after seeing combat
-Each day is better than the last
-After a few months he felt more like a civilian again
(00:23:55) Veterans' Organizations
-Does a little work with the American Legion
-Helping veterans get compensation and medical care through the American Legion
(00:24:11) End of Service Pt. 2
-Body was getting too old for service
-Wanted to retire of his own accord rather than be forcibly retired for health reasons
�(00:24:36) Awards & Commendations
-Received two Bronze Stars with Valor ('V') devices
-Means being awarded a Bronze Star for valor as opposed to merit in a combat zone
-Received a Purple Heart for getting wounded in Iraq
-Received various Army commendations
-One Bronze Star was awarded for his actions in Ramadi
-Sometimes feels guilty for receiving a Bronze Star
-Just doing his job
-Took over in the absence of his commander and directed flight guard over Ramadi
(00:25:55) Opinion of Government
-Feels that Congressional policy doesn't always reflect reality
-Policy limits what soldiers can/cannot do in combat
-Unrealistic because enemy doesn't abide by the Rules of Engagement
(00:26:50) Reflections on Service Pt. 4
-Would do it again
-Wanted to be a soldier since he was a child
-Service in the Army worked out like he thought it would
-Army treated him well
-Paid for his college and allowed him to have an early retirement
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
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1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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LamphereT1844V
Title
A name given to the resource
Lamphere, Timothy Patrick (Interview outline and video), 2014
Description
An account of the resource
Tim Lamphere was born on February 14, 1967 and grew up in Muir, Michigan. He enlisted in the Army after graduating from the high school (c. 1985). He went through basic training, advanced infantry training, Airborne School, and Ranger School. He served in Panama during Operation Just Cause, in Iraq during the Gulf War, and did three tours in Iraq during the Iraq War. On his first tour he served at Camp Anaconda, on his second tour he served at Al-Mahmoudiyah and was wounded, and his third tour was at Camp Liberty. For 11 years he served as a Ranger attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. After 26 years he retired from the Army (c. 2011).
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lamphere, Timothy Patrick
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Canine, Vicente (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-11-07
Format
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application/pdf
video/mp4