Interviewing a Marine about Iraq

On a recent business trip to NYC I had the oppourtunity to meet a Marine, whom I will call James S. [I do know his full name, but since he is not a public figure I do not wish to make him so now] James was born in Wisconsin and was raised in Arkansas. He played high school football and went to college for a time, before deciding to volunteer for the Marines. This descision was before the current 'war on terror'[I will place a link to my thoughts on that when I return from the trip] and prior to the attacks on 9/11/2001. Today James is 25, working as an entertainment bartender (think Tom Cruise in the movie Cocktails). In his last year of service in 2003, at the age of 22, James was part of the U.S. forces that fought the initial 'shock & awe' battles to take Iraq from Saddam Hussein. The following is part of my conversation with James, provided here with his permission.

Vass: How long did you serve in Iraq?

James: I was part of the forces that was there during the first 6 months, the shock and awe battles. That time.

Vass: There has been alot of talk, for some time, about how prepared we were and are today in Iraq. Based on your experiences how do you feel the Marines/troops were prepared- from a squad level and up?

James: I think that the first wave was set. I mean there were alot of changes to the plans, that happens. And I can't say what's going on now, I don't know. But while I was there things were planned, I mean from the squad level to division.

Vass: What about the insurgents?

James: I don't think they planned for that. But we didn't expect that so much when I was there. I don't know about now, but I do know for a fact that the first insurgents were more like mercs [mercenaries]. When we were fighting Saddam's guard we fought these guys too. And when you'd gather stuff from them for intel... their papers, not passports...

Vass: Those type of ID papers right, from out there

James: Yeah, well they would be from other places. Syria and such. Definitiely Syria though. Now??

Vass: So I would have to ask, how did the people feel? I mean mom & dad Iraq, when you were fighting then?

James: I have a couple of memories that stand out. Stuff I'll never forget. One thing was April 9th, I'll never forget that day, we were stagging for the night in a town outside of Saddam City. Preparing to go in like the next day. And we stationed in the town dump. It was the most secure area you know

Vass: I can understand that. Easiest place to secure.

James: right. And there is this house that's near the dump. I'm out on the perimeter and this old man comes out. He's got to be old, looks like 75, and his eyes. Old tired eyes. So this old man ran out to the HUMVEE, and he's talking in arabic, can't understand a word he is saying, but he's moving his hands and communicatingwith us. He called out to his wife and kid, has her offer us food and tea. We didn't drink it. You know, anything could have been in it. But he introduces them to us.

Vass: That's a big thing. I mean they don't introduce wives in that culture.

James: She was covered. Head to toe, in a wrap they wear, but it was something else. They took pictures and it was like we were a gift from god. It was just something you had to be there to see.

Vass: So would you say, to you on your level, like squad level, that the Iraqi's were happy? That we were doing something important there?

James: You know... I lost friends out there

Vass: I'm truely sorry for that

James: But they died for a reason. It was worth it. I mean when you see a guy cut (gestures with his hand) a guy cut across his chest, with a sword and had his hand cut off because he failed to pay his taxes to Saddam. Yeah we made it better.

Vass: And the people were behind you then.

James: There were some villages, 4 or 5 houses, and they're made of adobe. And the men would come out many of the wives would be introduced. I mean the wives and the girls. In this one village, Saddam had this family's water covered up. Because he wanted the water, so he had it dug in. And this is in the desert. So we had water in the HUMVEE and we gave it to them. It was like 20 gallons of water. And this guy went in and gave us all this food. I don't know if it was all they had but they made us take it. They were so happy. Alot of villages were like that.

James: I remember we were over by the Soccer stadium. The kids played that alot over there.

Vass: It's a major sport everywhere but the U>S>

James: yeah so this one time we were playing the kids there in a soccer match. They were real good.

Vass: I'm not surprised. They beat you huh?

James: Well we won one game, we had some guys in the unit that played soccer in college.

Vass: That helped.

James: Oh yeah. The last game though, we played like 4 games, the last one we had a big crowd watching. Had to be like 500 people had come to watch. And that was dangerous. I mean we had a couple of guys locked & loaded with the rifles, and a few had pistol, still

Vass: It could have been ugly. But nothing happened? No incident?

James: No problems at all. It was just a nice game. And fun. That game the coach for the Iraqi olympic team was there, he spoke some broken english. And he was telling us how glad he was that Saddam was gone.

Vass: Well that leads me to ask this. Alot of people here say we shouldn't be there. That we should leave. What did you guys think about it. I mean since we never found WMD's [weapons of mass destruction] was there scuttlebutt?

James: Everyone wanted to be there. No one was over there cause they didn't want to be. And some of the guys died, but it was not in vain. And anyone who has had that much toture done deserves to be helped. Anyone who says different is an ass. Just as guilty as the ones doing it. It wouldn't be humane. There's too much concern about just ourselves. How many people go 'well that's none of my business'.

Vass: I understand that, and I agree with you. In my opinion right or wrong when the first of our boys landed everything else was moot. I just want 3 things: to end this as quickly as possible, to make sure we lose as few of our guys as possible, and make it stable enough that we don't need to go back. That's it.

James: I can agree with that.

Vass: Since you've been back has it been hard to reintegrate? For my father there were problems with idiots calling him 'babykiller' and such. Have you had any problems like that?

James: No, no one has said anything like that to me. I have great friends and family so they've made it easier for me. I won't go to a movie therater and I need to face the door in a bar or resturant. There's some stuff, but nothing big. And even if I didn't have a great family and friends I'd still be ok. I did the right thing out there and I'm ok with that.

Vass: Ok Let me ask you possibly the biggest question. You volunteered, before the war and 9/11. You went in when there was nothing going on. Why did you do that? What was your motivation?

James: I was in Arkansas and had a job, and I just felt I wanted to do something greater than myself. And I wanted to serve my country. Basically I just wanted to serve my country.

Vass: ok, this may be the biggest question. It is the last. How do you feel about being in Iraq? About what you did there?

James: I could die tomorrow and be content with it.


The above meeting was spontaneous and as such I may have made errors in my notes or its transcription. If there are any errors, they are mine. I do not believe there are any errors though.

What do you think?