By Sgt. James Hunter
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division
BAGHDAD – When Sgt. Victor Faggiano, a 23-year old native of Manchester, N.H., was growing up he always knew the military was the choice from him in life.
"I pretty much always wanted to join the Army since I was playing with little green Army men, and I never saw myself doing anything different," said Faggiano.
He remembers watching films like "To Hell and Back," and "Hamburger Hill," and knowing he wanted to be an infantryman fighting off enemy forces.
Faggiano, an assistant team leader with Company C "Chaos," 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, grew up wrestling for his school, living what he explains was the average American life.
He lived on the outskirts of Manchester with his mother, father and brother Mario.
His family has lived there for generations, since his great grandparents moved there.
Faggiano, whose family is a mix of French-Canadian and Italian, initially joined the Army in July 2003, almost immediately after graduating high school.
Following basic training, javelin school and airborne school, Faggiano was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vicenza, Italy, where he served in a long range surveillance unit.
While assigned to the airborne unit, he often trained in Germany observing targets and conducting surveillance and long-range reconnaissance.
In March 2005, Faggiano deployed with the 173rd to the Helman province of Afghanistan where he traveled in five-man teams, carrying heavy rucksacks into the mountains to observe enemy forces.
"It was physically very hard," he said.
He often stayed at small combat outposts with a machine-gun nest and a small team.
More than half-way through his deployment, his unit was re-assigned to the Kandahar province to augment a few platoons from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.
He went from a radio-telephone operator roaming through the mountains of Afghanistan with his five-man team, to an assistant gunner on an M240-B machine gun team as they cleared villages, and conducted various combat operations against the Taliban throughout the Kandahar province.
Afghanistan was a different world for the young Soldier. Afghanistan was very strict with Islamic law.
They often found themselves in open areas within small villages fighting off the Taliban.
"In Afghanistan you always knew where to go to find the enemy," Faggiano said. "You knew you were going to get in a fight there."
Faggiano enjoyed his experiences in Afghanistan, however, upon re-deploying to Italy he decided it was time to leave the military and take on another life.
"I was a pretty young dude, 21 years old," Faggiano said. "I didn't really think of my future being in the Army. I got deployed, served and did the whole infantry thing and thought that's it I guess."
However, with no plan after the military, Faggiano went to the University of New Hampshire, but following a semester of schooling, found himself not enjoying it.
"(College) didn't really do it for me as I thought it would," he said. "It wasn't exciting."
He then tried working for a landscaping company for some time, but "that was a dead-end job," he said. "All the guys who had been there for a while had never really moved up."
Then he found himself talking with many of his friends from the 173rd who were gearing up to head back into Afghanistan.
"I kind of felt I was missing out," Faggiano said. "In college everyone seemed so detached from what was really going on in the world and I still had friends doing this. I kind of felt guilty."
So, Faggiano found himself back at the recruiting station reenlisting in the military.
Faggiano knew he wanted to stay an infantryman, and chose Fort Campbell, Ky., as his duty station.
"I ended up picking Fort Campbell because I heard a lot of good things about the unit," Faggiano said. "I knew the 101st was deploying real soon, and I wanted to get back in it as quickly as possible."
Faggiano joined Chaos Company soon after, and just as he wanted, was thrown into it quickly as he was appointed as an assistant team leader.
"It was real tough going from sitting on my couch at home to having a five-man team of Soldiers who are ready to be molded into infantryman who are getting ready to deploy to Baghdad, Iraq, one of the most dangerous places in the world," Faggiano said. "It was hard at first, but I feel real comfortable with it now."
In October 2007, Faggiano deployed to northwest Baghdad, where his company controls the Jouadine, Ramaniyah and Katieb areas of northern Ghazaliyah.
Currently they are interacting with the local populace, searching for enemy caches, gathering information to the whereabouts of enemy forces, and continuing to help build the local economy through micro-grants and projects within the community.
"We are doing a lot to maintain security in our zone and are trying to assist the Iraqi security forces and help them get better at being able to secure their own AO and support them as they need it," said Faggiano. "We help the population as much as possible; build their economy, defend the zone and conduct offensive operations when needed."
When Faggiano first arrived in Iraq he was a bit surprised and thrown off to the amount of people they mix in with daily.
In Afghanistan, there were only a small amount of people within the villages, as they and the enemy basically outnumbered the community. However, in Iraq, it's a large amount of civilians mixed among the Soldiers and the criminals.
With that, it has been a different experience as a whole for Faggiano. Interacting with the local populace is key to their success within northern Ghazaliyah.
"It makes no sense to not take into account the large amount of people," he said. "You can't leave them out of it. You have to take into account humanitarian aide and how people feel about you."
With the enemy mixed with the people, Faggiano believes this presents itself as a problem.
"When you go out in sector during the day everyone is waving at you. I can be talking to a little kid on the street one moment and all of a sudden checkpoints 11 gets hit or there is an (improvised explosive device)," Faggiano said. "It's a difficult task very politically and militarily to solve this militia problem in Baghdad."
However, the Soldiers are doing what they must to track these criminals amongst the people. They continue to target and build information on these men to remove them from the streets, continually making the Iraqis life a lot better.
For the most part, the activity within their area has been low. However, when the intensity for the Soldiers was high and they were fighting the enemy forces, Faggiano recalls it being the most exciting for him during the deployment.
One night in March, when they were receiving heavy enemy contact, his team was on a dismounted patrol and were going to set up an observation post.
"I was walking point and we made contact, and I got to maneuver my guys the real, old-school way. It went well, by the book," said Faggiano. "We had suppressed them and (the enemy) had to break contact."
Faggiano got to lead his troops in combat, just as he has throughout the deployment. For him, this is what he enjoys doing.
"I enjoy being able to run a team, mentoring Soldiers on the right way to do things," he said. "I really enjoy being in a team with guys who all rely on each other. I really like my job as an (assistant team leader) because I still get to do what the Soldiers do but still lead them."
According to Staff Sgt. Robert Smith, a native of Burlington, N.C., Faggiano is a very approachable leader, who continually leads from the front.
"He is constantly trying to learn," said Smith, Faggiano's platoon sergeant. "He is very approachable and good with the Soldier. The Soldiers come to him with their problems."
Smith believes Faggiano's experience from Afghanistan, his constant motivation and good attitude help him and his Soldiers succeed.
To this point, Faggiano has yet to regret his return to the military. Though, he doesn't regret getting out the first time either.
"I'm glad I got out the first time because if I hadn't I really wouldn't have tried to improve," he said. "Now I am older and I can see the advantages of being in the Army."
Faggiano loves his job, and at the end of the day he feels comfortable knowing he is an infantryman in the 101st.
| Date Taken: |
07.18.2008 |
| Date Posted: |
07.18.2008 07:18 |
| Story ID: |
21590 |
| Location: |
BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: |
406 |
| Downloads: |
246 |
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This work, Infantryman rejoins military to lead troops into combat - Soldier's Afghanistan experience leads to successful OIF tour, by SSG James Hunter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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