A Traveller between Worlds
Though American men and women our age are in Iraq, they live on a different planet and in a different time.
One such man is 22 year old Jake Pepper. He claims to have joined for "purely selfish reasons."
"When most people reach 24 years old they will not have seen and experienced what I have," Pepper said.
Pepper is not who you would expect. He comes from an upper-class family, his father is the Vice President of a major corporation and he was already attending DePaul University when he decided to enlist.
Last year, between January and May 2005, Pepper lived in Fallujah as a Navy Medic traveling with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines Corps - one of the most experienced and effective American units.
Pepper compares the anxiety he felt before leaving for Fallujah to "going from junior high to high school, only a lot more intense. It's the fear of the unknown." Pepper said that on leaving his family for Iraq it was "the first time I ever saw my dad cry."
Pepper said, "It is surreal when you first get there. But once you're there for a couple of weeks you begin to forget what people look like. That becomes your home. It is like how you feel when on vacation. It slowly becomes normal."
Pepper's unit found one of the largest weapons caches of the war - 20,000 pounds of armaments in a farm field. They also found a DVD inside a nearby house. Pepper understood the contents of the DVD as soon as it began to play. An insurgent in the video gave a long diatribe next to a guy kneeling down with a mask on and "then they kicked the guy over and sawed his head off. We possibly found the mask and pants that the guy wore."
When walking through city streets he sometimes heard mortars being fired, but said "you try not to think about it, because there's nowhere to go to be safe from them." One of Pepper's most vivid moments came when he saw four soldiers "messed up real bad" at the base's medical station, "I think one of them ended up dying."
At night Pepper's unit usually slept in a soda factory.
"We slept three to four hours a night. It's not hard to sleep when you're awake for 20 hours," he said. "You just have to trust the lookout guys."
Since being home Pepper has a phantom limb of sorts.
"I've had dreams that I'm back in Fallujah. The main reoccurring daydream is that I always try to reach down and find my pistol," Pepper said.
Pepper will be going to the Iraqi city of Al-Qa'im at nearly the same time we'll be starting next semester. As we walk between classmates on the cool, green Quad, he'll walk between people who want to kill him on the hot desert sand. While we sit comfortably, he stands.
War distills concerns to their raw core. As we worry about grades and money, Jake will worry about life and death.
One such man is 22 year old Jake Pepper. He claims to have joined for "purely selfish reasons."
"When most people reach 24 years old they will not have seen and experienced what I have," Pepper said.
Pepper is not who you would expect. He comes from an upper-class family, his father is the Vice President of a major corporation and he was already attending DePaul University when he decided to enlist.
Last year, between January and May 2005, Pepper lived in Fallujah as a Navy Medic traveling with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines Corps - one of the most experienced and effective American units.
Pepper compares the anxiety he felt before leaving for Fallujah to "going from junior high to high school, only a lot more intense. It's the fear of the unknown." Pepper said that on leaving his family for Iraq it was "the first time I ever saw my dad cry."
Pepper said, "It is surreal when you first get there. But once you're there for a couple of weeks you begin to forget what people look like. That becomes your home. It is like how you feel when on vacation. It slowly becomes normal."
Pepper's unit found one of the largest weapons caches of the war - 20,000 pounds of armaments in a farm field. They also found a DVD inside a nearby house. Pepper understood the contents of the DVD as soon as it began to play. An insurgent in the video gave a long diatribe next to a guy kneeling down with a mask on and "then they kicked the guy over and sawed his head off. We possibly found the mask and pants that the guy wore."
When walking through city streets he sometimes heard mortars being fired, but said "you try not to think about it, because there's nowhere to go to be safe from them." One of Pepper's most vivid moments came when he saw four soldiers "messed up real bad" at the base's medical station, "I think one of them ended up dying."
At night Pepper's unit usually slept in a soda factory.
"We slept three to four hours a night. It's not hard to sleep when you're awake for 20 hours," he said. "You just have to trust the lookout guys."
Since being home Pepper has a phantom limb of sorts.
"I've had dreams that I'm back in Fallujah. The main reoccurring daydream is that I always try to reach down and find my pistol," Pepper said.
Pepper will be going to the Iraqi city of Al-Qa'im at nearly the same time we'll be starting next semester. As we walk between classmates on the cool, green Quad, he'll walk between people who want to kill him on the hot desert sand. While we sit comfortably, he stands.
War distills concerns to their raw core. As we worry about grades and money, Jake will worry about life and death.
posted by Billy Joe Mills at 3:29 AM
5 Comments:
Hey, great column Billy. One of your best. No offense, but most of the credit probably goes to your subject. Those are some amazing stories. But it was a good job presenting an apolitical column to get people thinking about what some members of our generation are doing for the rest. Kudos.
Wow. I love this article. I think I might be in love with Jake as well. I heard the whole interview and I have to say that you did an amazing job bringing out the story. More importantly, thanks for what you do, Jake.
Jake sounds like quite a guy. I hope I get to meet him when he returns. Billy Joe, Please thank him for his service and wish him the very best for me.
I really like the comparison to the transition between jr high and high school. This guy who sits by me in the Barbri class said he didnt like it, but I think it illustrates what a lot of these guys must be feeling, particularly the younger ones who enlist right after high school. What other transitions have some of these guys experienced?
My only criticism of the column is that you ran it over the summer instead of the first week of classes. I think you should write some kind of follow up column in August.
Well done my friend.
Wish him well from me. Tell him to keep his head down and come home safe.
Tom T.
It is amazing that Jake left a life of comfort for a life of uncertainty. Looking at my own life of collegiate comfort, it honestly shames me to think of the lives of people like Jake.
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