Risking it all to serve

Photo By Spc. Paul Harris | Looking through the glass of the turret on the Humvee, Spc. Joshua Stern, native of San Diego, dismount squad automatic weapon gunner, 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1-8 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, prepares to move out on patrol from Forward Operating Base Paliwoda in Balad, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Paul J. Harris, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office)  

BALAD, IRAQ

05.12.2006

Courtesy Story

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BALAD, Iraq - Imagine if you had the right degree, the right job, the wife, the car and a condo in San Diego minutes away from the beach. Would you, in your early thirties, give all of that up to enlist in the Army as an infantryman and serve your country for the next three years?

Spc. Joshua Stern, dismount squad automatic weapon gunner, 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1-8 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, wanted to contribute to the Global War on Terrorism and decided to give up the life in the fast lane to come to Iraq to serve his country.

Stern took a military leave of absence with HSBC Bank where he worked as a financial analyst and enlisted July 2005. His wife Lorenda wasn't thrilled at the idea of Stern wanting to go to war, but it was something Stern felt compelled to do, even at the risk of their marriage.

"Even though my family and friends supported the war, I felt that nobody really understood what people sacrificed to come over here," Stern said.

Stern went through basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., and had to adjust quickly to the Army way of life.

"I was not as mentally prepared for basic training as I should have been," Stern said. "(It took some time) getting used to having someone tell me what to do every moment of the day. It was a hard adjustment from living alone for the last 10 years. I did not really care for basic training too much."

Stern's older brother is retired Army Lt. Col. Jack Stern. The elder Stern never pressured his brother to join the Army. In fact, Stern did not tell his older brother he enlisted until he signed the paperwork. The only help Stern received from his older brother was information on what units would be deploying to Iraq soon and that is how Stern found his way to Fort Carson, Colo.

He arrived in Iraq in late February 2006. Stern and his teammates are stationed on Forward Operating Base Paliwoda and their primary area of responsibility is the city of Balad, Iraq. Being an infantry Soldier in a mechanized platoon means being on call 24-hours a day and ready to go at a moments notice. They go out on patrol at varying times of the day as to not set a pattern for the enemy to follow. When out on patrol, his squad, nicknamed the "Violators," looks for insurgents planting improvised explosive devices.

Other times it provides security around some of the reconstruction efforts like the new water purification systems in the eastern region of Balad, said Sgt. 1st Class John Guidry, platoon sergeant, 2nd Platoon, Co. B, 1-8 CAB. Working together with the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police to provide security for these projects is seen as a good gesture toward the Iraqi people.

The experience of patrolling the streets and riverbanks of Iraq has not been exactly what the San Diego native expected.

"I expected the worst when I came out here, expecting to get into firefights every day," Stern said.

He feels more like a cop out on patrol, where the mere sight of his platoon's presence is a bigger deterrence to the insurgents.

"You don't know who the enemy is, sometimes you feel like a target just waiting to make contact," Stern said. "I have not fired my weapon outside of the FOB yet."

If no patrol is scheduled for the day, Stern then gets up around 9 a.m. and has breakfast before working out. The regimen of getting up to do physical training is one thing Stern likes about his new life in the Army.
"I like being made to go and do physical training every morning, I am in the best shape of my life," Stern said.

The facilities at FOB Paliwoda are night and day compared to its fancier neighbor Logistical Support Area Anaconda. There are no 24-hour swimming pools or surround sound movie theaters on FOB Paliwoda.

While three meals a day are served at FOB Paliwoda the food takes some time getting used to. Stern thought that Army cooks had gone the way of the buffalo but they actually cook here, even if it is to deep fry everything, Stern deadpans. All joking aside, he is grateful to have them here because it means he does not have to eat Meals, Ready to Eat three times a day.

There a six phones available to Soldiers on FOB Paliwoda but Stern tends to communicate back home mostly through e-mail. He never tells his wife what happens outside of the wire and tries to be as generic as possible in describing his day.

"It helps that she is in law school which keeps her busy and does not give her a lot of time to worry," Stern said.

Stern met his wife in Korea while visiting his older brother Jack who was stationed there. She was a linguist in the Army working for his brother at the time. It took her a long time to understand her husband's reasons for wanting to come into the military and his desires to go to Iraq. They eventually worked through their differences and Stern hopes to start a family when he returns from this deployment.

By the time Stern came to his unit at Fort Carson he missed out on the experience of going to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. It was there his unit got first-hand experience surviving the hot weather that Stern finds himself currently experiencing in Iraq.

Having to deal with the high temperatures, the plague of bugs and mosquitoes plus carry an average of 70 pounds of gear is one of the more difficult challenges of being in Iraq, Stern said.

With the remainder of his free time Stern likes to read or watch a DVD with one of his roommates: Sgt. James Craig, 3rd Squad team leader, 2nd Platoon, Co. B, 1-8th CAB. Craig has been pleased with the way Stern has come into the platoon and been able to fit right in even though he is new to the Army.

"He is 30 years old, he has already had a career, so he knows the whole business of professionalism," Craig said. "He is serious about life, he is married and his maturity level is up a lot higher than some of the other privates that we get straight from basic. He has done really well, better than most."
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• Date Taken: 05.12.2006
• Date Posted: 05.12.2006 10:08
• Story ID: 6357
• Location: BALAD, IQ