The Great Unknown: A Magical Place…

I was barely legal when I made a commitment to serve a nation I really didn't know much about. Of course, we read about it in books, and yes, I had family there - but I still didn't really know it. I left home in 2004 and made my way to the great unknown called the USA. I left American Samoa, an island located in the Pacific Ocean, about 2500+ miles south to southwest of Hawaii. The closest US mainland city was Los Angeles, CA which was 4790 miles away. American Samoa had been my home for the first 17 years of my life, and I left it all behind.

Fast forward a year later: I'm sitting next to another fellow Soldier who got injured a few months ago but she's heading back into the fight. She's a Military Police woman, and, by the looks of things, a pretty pissed off one. Sitting across from me are three goofballs for Officers whom I had the privilege of training with before heading out to the magical place known as Iraq.

As the C-130 started making its turns in preparation for landing, in my head, I couldn't help but think about how uncomfortable the plane was. I wished that they would just put us in first class. I had never been to Iraq before, let alone a war zone. But I knew that regardless of what happened, I had awesome training and thank goodness for those war movies I'd been watching for years. I am definitely ready for this, I thought.

Now, as the C-130 was making its final approach, it’s rolling and dropping at the speed of OMG (and for you Air Force pilots who find it funny to turn off the air and turn up the heat while circling violently in the air to make my breakfast say hello to my butt…y’all aren’t funny). My fears of dying in a plane crash aren’t that farfetched anymore. As the plane taxied, I thanked God for allowing me to live through the flight.

The five of us waited at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) for what seemed like forever. But being new to an area makes 10 minutes feel like an hour, especially with the heat - and man, was it hot. The Military Police woman whom I sat across from was staying back at the airport for a ride that would take her to another part of Camp Victory. She would be replacing another female MP who died on the line the week before (a happy ending for the MP I flew with, though: I saw her on the return flight home). The deceased Soldier was a very kind and awesome person whom I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting, but I would like to think that she was missed. For me? Well, I was here to replace a SGT who went AWOL and then had the guts to waltz back into brigade a week before I was tapped to deploy.

Those three Captains all got assigned to different units but were all under our brigade. One was CID, the other took over a Company whose Commander was re-deployed back for a family emergency, and the other guy was tapped to become a MI Officer. I ended up with the HHC, 42nd MP Brigade (Scorpions) - and this is where the story really begins.

Part II coming soon...