One Soldier's Perspective, Part 1

I said last week that a childhood friend of mine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan agreed to write about his experiences and have me post them here. He is using a pseudonym, but the rest of his bio is accurate.

His story will not be limited to his experiences and time spent in combat, but will instead be a broader narrative about the wars, public opinion, what it's like to be in the military and not be in combat when others are, and some thoughts on the War on Terror. We hope to make this a weekly occurrence. Today we present part 1.

R.J. Strapper
US Air Force Academy, Class of 1997
317th Airlift Group, 40th Airlift Squadron, Air Mobility Command. We flew the mighty C-130H.

I don’t find myself having much of a perspective on the War on Terror. I fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq and while I was there I thought they were “just” wars. Take the meaning of “just” any way you’d like. My life changed forever on September 11, 2001.

I had just come back from Ft Bragg, North Carolina, late the prior evening. I went straight to bed and was awakened by an errant phone call at 7 a.m. As was the usual, I could not go back to sleep and decided to switch on CNN and try to fall back to sleep. It was at this time I noticed the burning World Trade Center. I remember thinking to myself that it was funny, someone had finally hit that building. The air traffic in the New York City area is some of the busiest and aircraft are always flying close to the buildings. I was up brushing my teeth when the second aircraft hit. Five minutes later I received my first phone call from the squadron. Pack your bags, we don’t know where or for how long. I know this sounds theatrical, I promise it is real.

Turns out we were designated into Alpha and Bravo alert status. Each alert posture has different criteria which is not important to the story. We did this for more than 48 hours and all we could watch was the news. My parents called, fear in their voices. They made the three hour drive to my station. They decided it was important to be with me. I was more than happy to have them with me as I was concerned where the future would take me. I asked them to rent some movies on their way. If you recall, there wasn’t anything on television or radio that was not “9-11” coverage. I had seen enough for a day and wanted to put my mind somewhere else. We did just that and had a nice evening. The next morning they left back to San Antonio and I faced an uncertain future.

My squadron would spend the rest of September and October preparing.