Back from Baghdad

4/17/08

By Brian Howe
Special to the Critic

People often have interesting stories to tell which is the case for one such student here at LSC who served time in Iraq.

Josh Fanjoy was stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. His rank is Specialist E4, and his unit was four battalion 320 field artillery, part of the 101 airborne division. Nearly two thousand were in the same station as him. It was very hot; the summers would reach 120 degrees and the coolest days during the winter only reached 60 degrees. But that didn’t stop him from doing his job. “I had to guard that gate for our base; some days would be 12 hours long.” He would sometimes hear bombs going off in the distance.

He didn’t guard the gate all the time, sometimes he would also do humanity missions, where he would help out the surrounding communities and try to make a better place for people to live. They would even give out food for people that had none.

Josh didn’t see too much fighting over in Baghdad. The most he saw was some mortars, and indirect fire. “It had its days, and had its off days,” Josh said. While he guarded the gate he didn’t see much action. The most he heard while guarding the gate was bombs going off in the distance.

When Josh wasn’t working you could find him playing cards and watching television in their recreation center. After the long days Josh looked forward to being able to relax in the recreation center. They had a separate gym to work out in and lift weights. They also had a general store where they could buy DVD’s or some snack food.

After the long days Josh liked the food. He said, “It was alright.” The showers were warm and he could get food most of the time. Many people were found in the dinning hall at one time. “The food here at LSC was about the same as the food in Iraq.”

Although Josh won’t be here next year, you can find him in Kessler Air Force base in Biloxi, Miss. He will be going there for Air Force forecaster training. Josh is currently a freshman in the meteorology major and he will be getting vital training. He is really looking forward to the nice weather and going back down south. Josh would return to Iraq if he had to.