A Story of Today's Soldier

[Shortdawg]

A photo of rifle-toting Matthew Fasnacht threading his way through thick tropical growth in Iraq tells the story.
And yet it doesn't.

Fasnacht's face is partly hidden by his helmet and the goggles universally worn to shield eyes from makeshift bombs.

A long-sleeved camouflage shirt signals nothing of the blast-furnace heat experienced by Fasnacht and other Army paratroopers with the 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment.

Fasnacht is now visiting his parents, Jeff and Dr. Patsy Fasnacht of Landisville, while on three weeks leave.

Today, he'll join his family in celebrating missed birthdays, Easter and Christmas.

Last week, Fasnacht belatedly crowned the still-standing Christmas tree with an angel, an old family tradition.

Members of the Hempfield High School girls' softball team, which Jeff Fasnacht coaches, decorated the house for his return.

But the younger Fasnacht's mind brims with war memories good and bad.

On Friday, a day after leaving Fort Bragg, N.C., the 21-year-old Army paratrooper reflected on serving more than a year on the very different front lines of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Fasnacht enlisted in July 2001 shortly after graduating from Hempfield High School.

In June, 2002, he was deployed to Afghanistan, where he roamed the dirt roads and mountainsides and checked caves for enemy combatants.

Chinook helicopters landed him and his buddies on ridges, and they'd head downhill on patrol.

They lived in air-conditioned tents. Needy children sometimes approached them.

"Pens are the biggest thing the kids want, for school,'' Fasnacht said. "They say "Give me water, give me food.' "' Fasnacht was rotated out after six months and sent to Iraq Aug. 3, 2002. His unit mobilized so quickly his parents did not have enough time to drive to North Carolina to see him off.

"We can deploy anywhere in the world in 18 hours,'' said the well-trained Fasnacht, but Iraq posed a culture and climate shock.

"It's night and day'' between Iraq and Afghanistan, Fasnacht said.

Hitting the ground in Baghdad, he related, "We were allowed three bottles of water a day in 145-degree heat.'' That first month, "Taking a shower was pointless because you'd just start sweating later.'' A lunchtime cup of ramen noodles placed on the pavement quickly turned not warm but hot.

He mixed gallons of lemon lime Gatorade. He even made Iraqi friends while patrolling south and west of Baghdad day and night.

"We got to know the people a lot more than we did in Afghanistan. ... The people in Iraq seemed a lot more educated. Iraq is light years ahead of Afghanistan but still behind the U.S.

"They all have satellite TV'' and drive on paved highways like Route 283, related Fasnacht, who sometimes saw families sitting outside watching TV. "Every Iraqi male, I think, smokes.'' Tragically, Fasnacht said, many of the Iraqis supporting the American forces were killed by assassins, and he learned not to fraternize.

According to a military news release from December, paratroopers from Fasnacht's group, the 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, participated in Operation Panther Squeeze in Lutafiyah, "a series of 18 raids'' that netted 41 enemy captures.

Fasnacht was reluctant to speak about specific assignments but recalled a wide spectrum of duties that included everything from traffic control to collecting body parts of civilian contractors blown up by terrorists.

"That whole area is like the wild, wild West,'' he said.

There are no traffic laws, said Fasnacht, who rode on cargo Humvees protected by welded-on iron armor.

Every home has at least one AK-47 to guard against rampant thievery, he said. Gunfire broke out every night, although sometimes it was just rowdy wedding parties.

Though American troops were prepared for peacekeeping duty, he added, it was in some ways harder than combat.

"You didn't know who was the bad guy. One morning you could be drinking tea with them and at night they could be shooting mortars at your [base].'' Kids might greet troops with smiles one day and throw rocks the next. "Some of them love us; some of them hate us.'' On the night of Oct 9, Fasnacht's 21st birthday, his compound came under mortar attack.

But in his estimation, rocks and bullets were not the greatest danger.

That would be "improvised explosive devices,'' or homemade bombs.

One device exploded only about 30 yards from Fasnacht.

Detonation wires were often hidden in the dirt. A typical bomb might be made from an artillery round primed with a blasting cap, Fasnacht said.

"After a while they started putting them in dead animals. ... These guys are not dumb. There's a lot of engineers,'' and a lot of Iraqis were educated in the United States.

The picture was not all grim.

Fasnacht said he developed tremendous friendships with the guys in his unit.

He was able to call home every few days, though the rates were "astronomical,'' he said.

Letters and packages from home, including treats from the Hempfield High School home economics department, were among the greatest morale boosters.

"I couldn't believe how much mail I got,'' Fasnacht said. "The support was great.'' Ironically, he said, he gleaned much of his information from the news and other programs.

"It seemed like we were always watching David Letterman'' on the chow hall television.

Still, the stress was constant.

"Your emotions get affected,'' Fasnacht said. "The hardest thing is to maintain discipline'' when someone you know dies.

Back home, Jeff Fasnacht, an English teacher at Hempfield, said he and his wife were "news junkies.'' The worst times were in late 2003 when deaths were reported in Matthew's unit, Jeff Fasnacht said.

Patsy Fasnacht, who earned a doctorate in nursing science while her son was overseas, said "We'd almost get panicked at times.'' Matthew, their only child, has been awarded the Army Commendation Medal and the Army Achievement Medal.

His commanding officer praised him for his "ever-present positive attitude.'' Fasnacht's pride shows.

"The 82nd's the best,'' he said. "We train more. We had good leadership. We're paratroopers. We're physically fit.

"I chose my job because I wanted to be a grunt,'' said Fasnacht, who eventually plans to study industrial arts at Millersville University.

Still, he remains perplexed by the violence in Iraq and apprehensive about the possibility of having to go back.

"Why are they doing it? Why are they blowing up the pipeline? There's still a lot of questions out there.'' After nearly two years of active duty, he admits feeling down at the prospect of a third deployment.

"We never know,'' when the unit might be called to go back, he said.

"It could be six months; it could be a year from now. There's always rumors circulating , but what are rumors?

OUT

[Packo]

Dawg,

Thanks for a most interesting first hand article.

Airborne!

Packo