Marine describes emotions, dangers of war in Iraq

Sand everywhere: in his nose...in his ears...in his food.

That's just one of the memories that 1st Lt. Luis Tapia has about serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during the recent war in Iraq.

Lt. Tapia, whose father is Deacon Ramon Tapia of Sacred Heart/St. Columba parish in Schenectady, has been in the military for two years. As part of the 1st Force Service Support Group, he was first deployed to Northern Kuwait and later to a position near Nasiriyah, Iraq, where he served as a communications technician.

In the war

"I never would have imagined this," Lt. Tapia told The Evangelist this week while visiting his parents in Glenville. "It's one of those things where you say, 'Is this happening to me? It can't be.'"

At the outset, the 24-year-old Marine expected to be posted to Iraq for up to a year or more, but he is back after six months. "Everything went by relatively quickly," he said. "When you're in war, you don't get a lot of info. Everything changes at a rapid rate."

Camp life, as Lt. Tapia described it, was a curious mixture of low-tech living and high-tech work. While the soldiers had internet and e-mail access, for example, laundry was done sporadically, by hand and in a bucket. Although packages from strangers arrived, full of razors, deodorant and letters from elementary-school students, parcels sent by his parents were lost en route.

In harm's way

Although Lt. Tapia and his unit never saw direct combat, they experienced situations that had, months before, only been hypothetical.

"Every missile the Iraqis shot arrived in our direction," he said, calling the events "a never-ending game of hide-and-seek. There's nothing that can prepare you for it."

In the camps in both Kuwait and Iraq, alarms signaled the imminent arrival of oncoming fire. Soldiers were required to drop what they were doing, scramble for their protective gear and run for a bunker.

Emotions

As time wore on, Lt. Tapia said, his original "heart-pumping" reaction faded into annoyance: "We knew the missiles weren't going to hit us, but we had to wake up, run to the bunker and sit there for an hour anyway."

Amid such tension, his emotions ran high.

"When you got there, you didn't know when you were coming home," he explained. "You were lonely, but there was always so much to do that there was no time for that. And you were angry at getting shot at and not being able to shoot back."

Post-war threats

Many of Lt. Tapia's friends are still in Iraq, where daily guerilla attacks are carried out against U.S. troops.

"I always knew that the time after the war would be the most dangerous," he said. "It's real easy for a unit to be demoralized. You never know if you -- or a friend of yours -- could be next. But you joined the service for a reason, knowing that you may have to pay that price. You have to get up and go to work in the morning like everyone else. Honestly, you don't want to go. But if you gotta go, you gotta go."

Still, the Iraqi citizens Lt. Tapia came in contact with always seemed happy to see the troops. Young children would often come up to the military vehicles to beg for food and water.

"They are glad that Saddam's out of power, and are eager to start running their own country without foreign intervention and live their own lives," he said.

Families

Lt. Tapia, who is single, can't imagine how Marines with spouses and children deal with deployment and war. Even for him, there was "nothing easy" about the assignment.

"You gotta leave everything behind," he said. "You leave your apartment, good food, your car, coming home from work and taking a bike ride. I don't take those things for granted anymore."

His homecoming coincided with the marriage of his younger brother, Javier, so relatives and family friends from as far away as Puerto Rico flooded the Tapia house to welcome him back, and to congratulate him and his brother on their separate achievements.

Faith in foxholes

Last week, the Tapia family gathered for a Mass of Thanksgiving at Immaculate Conception Church in Glenville to celebrate his safe return.

Lt. Tapia said that God was on his mind throughout his deployment -- and faith is definitely necessary in the field.

"The fact that you may never be coming home again -- you think about that," he said. "And there's so many situations that you don't have all the information you need to make the right decision. You're under stress, short on time, had little sleep; [you're] hungry, tired, sweating and uncomfortable. You need someone to guide you in the right direction to make the right decision. We had good people that believed in God, and I think that's why we won the war."

(8/14/03) [[In-content Ad]]