Adam Davidson - A Semester in the Sandbox: A Marine Reservists Iraq War Journal

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2573-7

2016 Adam Davidson. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover photograph: The author beside a pair of artillery shell components of a large IED found along Route Mobile. The device was composed of 28 artillery shells (authors photograph)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

To the memories of Sergeant Jesse Strong,
Corporal Christopher Weaver, Corporal Jonathan Bowling,
Corporal Bradley Arms, and Lance Corporal Karl Linn

First and foremost, I want to thank the Marines of the 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, Charlie Company, specifically 2nd platoon. From the Captain and Staff Sergeantswho guided us and looked after our well being through the deploymentto each individual Marine. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brotherSemper Fi.

I also want to thank Eric Danner, without whom I would not have completed this book. Both for his insights, contributions, and editsas well as his guidance and support while I wrestled with the idea of publishing my private journal. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for supporting me and keeping me in your thoughts and prayers while I was deployed, as well as for your continued supportI couldnt have done it without you.

29 PalmsMarine Corps base located in the Mojave Desert, CA

4th CEB4th Combat Engineer Battalion

1/231st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment

.50 cal.Heavy machine gun, often mounted on a Humvee

AFBAir Force Base

ASPAmmunition Supply Point

AOArea of Operations

ATAdvanced Training, two weeks of summer training for Reservists

BOLO ListBe on the lookout list

COCommanding Officer

EODExplosive Ordnance Disposal

FLASH reportA radio message of extreme urgency

FOBForward Operating Base

GruntInfantryman

HajjisU.S. military slang for Iraqis

HardbackHumveeAn enclosed Humvee with a turret

High-back HumveeAn open-backed Humvee, similar to a pickup truck

HETHuman Exploitation Team

IEDImprovised Explosive Device

IMInstant Messenger

JBCCJoint Border Crossing Center

JSOCJoint Special Operations Command

KVFOB or Camp Korean Villagea U.S. base in Iraq

LARLight Armored Reconnaissance

LAVLight Armored Vehicle, used by LAR

M16Standard issue U.S. military rifle

M203Grenade launcher, mounted on a rifle

M240GMedium machine gun, generally carried by a two-man team

MK19Grenade launcher, usually mounted on a Humvee

Med-evacMedical evacuation

MOUTMilitary Operations in Urban Terrain

MSRMain Supply Route

MujU.S. military slang for enemy fighters, short for Mujahedeen

MWRMorale, Welfare, and Recreation Center

NVGNight Vision Goggles

OPObservation Post

PTPhysical Training

PTSDPost Traumatic Stress Disorder

PXPost Exchange, an on-base retail store

RPGRocket Propelled Grenade

RPKSoviet-era machine gun

SAPI PlatesSmall Arms Protective Inserts, plates inserted into a flak jacket

SapperAnother name for a combat engineer

SASOSecurity and Stability Operations

SAWSquad Automatic Weapon, a light machine gun

SemtexPlastic explosives, similar to C4

SMAWShoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon

SPOT reportA radio message to provide a status report

SSgtStaff Sergeant

UXOUnexploded Ordnance

VBIEDVehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, a car bomb

VCPVehicle Check Point

I came across my Iraq War journal while going through boxes in my parents garage. At some point during my many moves after college, I had lost track of it, and after frantically searching for a number of years, had finally given up hope of finding it. It was the most exasperating feeling; I couldnt believe I had misplaced something so important to me. I had brought home few items from Iraq: an Iraqi Army helmet, a few dozen photos, a black insurgent hood found after an ambush. But my journal mattered more than all these others. I dont usually keep a journal, but during those months in Iraq it served as my closest confidanta means to decompress, as well as a way to document everything I had been through. Upon returning to my squads tent at base camp following a mission, I would lie on my bunk and scribble down everything that had happened in as much detail as possible. I didnt want to forget a single emotion or event.

As luck would have it, my journal wasnt lost. It spent five years stuffed in a shoebox underneath some pictures and letters. I dont know how it ended up there, but as I sat in the garage and flipped through the pages, I was transported back in time as I remembered people and events I had forgotten. Reading the journal is as close as I can get to reliving some of those experiences.

I was deployed to Iraq for seven months, from late 2004 to early 2005. Immediately after returning home, the time I spent there seemed to be the only thing that occupied my mind. Even after returning for my final year of college in the fall, nearly six months after my last combat mission, I found myself struggling to focus in class as my thoughts would drift back to the war. I would reminisce and even feel nostalgic about the good times, while struggling to keep myself from letting the darker memories weigh too heavily. I found this particularly difficult in the first few months following my deployment. Reservists, unlike their active duty brethren, completely detach from the military when they jump back into civilian life after a deployment. While the military has gone through great effort to provide a suitable period of decompression following a deployment, there is no getting around the fact that the transition is jarring. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by people who had no concept of what I had been doing just a short time ago. Initially it was an incredibly isolating and lonely feeling, particularly on a college campus that could not have felt further from Iraq. But eventually, the memories began to fade from my daily thoughts. Not that I could ever completely forget, but like all memories, they began to be slowly overshadowed by day-to-day concerns, until I would rarely catch myself thinking about Iraq at all. Now, more than ten years later, it seems a distant memory. So as I flipped through my rediscovered journal, it was almost as if someone else was talking to me. Most of the memories were still there but, surprisingly, many had faded, blurred, or morphed.