As I interviewed the men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, they all came back with the same message. And that was after America was attacked on 9/11, they wanted to do something to help and enlisted in the military. It was in that moment that I realized they each took a leap of faith, not knowing what was ahead of them. But they knew what they were leaving behind and were intent on protecting it; hence, the book title emerged as A Leap of Faith: The Men and Women Who Served Post 9/11. Their faith also emerged as strength and resonates through their incredible stories. Each veteran story is preceded by their favorite Psalm.
As I interviewed the men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, they all came back with the same message. And that was after America was attacked on 9/11, they wanted to do something to help and enlisted in the military. It was in that moment that I realized they each took a leap of faith, not knowing what was ahead of them. But they knew what they were leaving behind and were intent on protecting it; hence, the book title emerged as A Leap of Faith: The Men and Women Who Served Post 9/11. Their faith also emerged as strength and resonates through their incredible stories. Each veteran story is preceded by their favorite Psalm.
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Overview
As I interviewed the men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, they all came back with the same message. And that was after America was attacked on 9/11, they wanted to do something to help and enlisted in the military. It was in that moment that I realized they each took a leap of faith, not knowing what was ahead of them. But they knew what they were leaving behind and were intent on protecting it; hence, the book title emerged as A Leap of Faith: The Men and Women Who Served Post 9/11. Their faith also emerged as strength and resonates through their incredible stories. Each veteran story is preceded by their favorite Psalm.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781490792217 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 11/27/2018 |
| Pages: | 282 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author
She published her 101st Airborne father's wartime letters in the book, COMES A SOLDIER'S WHISPER, opening the door for her expansion to Veteran advocacy, compassion and understanding PTSD within her own family. VIETNAM AND BEYOND was honored as a finalist for the 2015 Eric Hoffer Book Award and Jenny's first children's book, WHEN DADDY COMES HOME has also been honored as a finalist for the 2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award and addresses the challenges faced when Daddy returns changed by the war experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jenny shares a child's journey of their parent's military service to and from war in a unique child's perspective. These publications have changed Jenny in a profound and totally unexpected way. She believes they will change you too.
Follow Jenny's book projects on her website:
http://www.JennyLasala.com
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Karolyn Smith
U.S. ARMY IRAQ
"THIS IS A GLOBAL WAR THAT'S BEEN COMING SINCE 420AD."
My grandfather on my mother's side was a Merchant Marine in WWII.
He passed away in the 90's and never spoke of his experience. My grandfather on my dad's side was a WWII Marine, and passed before I was born. But I read about him in books; he was a full Bird Colonel in the Marine Corps. Dad was a Vietnam Army Veteran, and despite little snippets of his time in Vietnam, there was not much discussion about service.
Prior to enlisting, I was a Velodrome Sprinter and attempting an Olympic level achievement. My first big race was in 1989 at the US Olympic Festival in Norman. We were the "hopefuls" in our respective sports and marched in the Opening Ceremonies with Ronald Reagan as the guest speaker!
I moved to Sydney Australia in 1994 to train at the Australian Institute of Sport. When I came home, I set my sights on the Sydney Olympics but I had a few minor injuries and then 9/11 came ... When I went to the Army recruiter in San Diego, I was in the best shape of my life coming off my season. I told them that I wanted a non-typical job for women, to be stationed in Europe and to go to a rapid deployment unit. That's exactly what I got. As an "MP" I had all types of cases that normal civilian law enforcement had (car chases, arrests, murder, suicide, theft etc. etc.). When I deployed I had 4 job duties, conducting combat patrols within the NW sector of Baghdad, conduct raids on suspected terrorist home, teach over 200 Iraqi police officers how to conduct law enforcement operations and Personal Security Detachment (PSD), a high threat position that enabled us to transport a high risk target and get them to a safe place.
From April 2002 to December 2005 I was with the 127th Military Police Company (709th MP Battalion, 18th MP Brigade, 5th Corps, Hanau, Germany) and from 2007 to 2014 I served with the 382nd MP Detachment in San Diego (Reserves). I have over 300 Combat patrols in one of the most difficult sectors in Iraq. I was engaged daily with small arms fire, improvised explosive devices (IED) and car bombs (VBIED). I was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for Exceptional Meritorious Service. I was also awarded the Combat Action Badge for "directly engaging the enemy". On Sept 7, 2004, I was standing next to Lt. Tim Price, who would be shot in the face and killed, and died at my feet. Lt. Tim Price's death was a defining moment for me. When Lt. Tim price was killed it was a day that shattered the sense of security he brought to our team. As I leaned down to help him and discovered he was dead, I realized that I was in perfect line of sight of the shooter. It wasn't more than a few seconds when I asked out loud, "Just go ahead and do it man, get it over with," and found myself getting mad at the shooter for making me wait too long to kill me. I don't know why he didn't kill me. It was the most vulnerable moment of my life, completely stripped bare and waiting to die. I felt like I was the only one on the entire planet for that moment. What struck me most was the gunner that I drove that day. As I looked at him to provide cover fire, he froze from the sight.
In the Al Shula Providence of Baghdad, we quelled an attack by over 80 well-armed insurgents (see ARCOM) and cleared the area of their presence. We permanently removed them from the Earth. For the first 6 months we were engaged daily with a very active and brutal sector to patrol. I had 8 Iraqi Police stations to train and show them what I did with what they had. That was our soul mission, but as the war progressed, we found we had to start conducting Raids, for which I was placed 2nd in the stack and would dynamically enter a home to capture wanted individuals. I think being a turret gunner as a woman stripped me of my gender (not in a bad way) and allowed me to become the very best of who I am, find all my strength and to persevere within chaos. The feelings and emotions had to be completely contained, until I got home, for if you had a bad day at this job, you were not coming home.
After coming home my brain wanted to process Iraq and the endless movie reel in my head. As long as my eyes were open the movie was playing, over and over again. It made me easily agitated, angry and scared. I called off a wedding with no way to explain to my fiancée what was going on. There was no avenue to articulate my issues even though he was a Veteran with the Australian Army. I think combat is harder emotionally on women, and while I will always encourage women to serve and move forward with deployments, I could have benefitted from a group of women like me. I was linked with the WWP, but they put me in a sexual assault group. They said, "well, we don't have any other combat Veteran females, so this is the best we have". I decided to go to the VA PTSD clinic and that pretty much saved me. I stayed single for a very long time but recently found a Veteran who likes me the way I am.
The worst part was seeing how the jihadists murdered children and grandmas and grandpa's just to get to me. It was their own people and they didn't care. It was difficult watching women who would never be anything in this lifetime because they were born to that culture. I sometimes wonder if my inspiring them made their life that much worse to know, had they been born anywhere else, they maybe could of made a better life.
I suffered some injuries and have a herniated L4 L5s1 and secondary to inhalation from inhaling a bomb blast. There was one too many bomb blasts that knocked me out for a couple of seconds. I have hearing loss in my right ear and ringing in the other and sinus issues from something in the soil.
The VA Environmental Services department checked me, because there were WMDs in our two areas of Taji and Yarmouk. They would use old warheads to create the IED's with Mustard or Sarin gas. I had the vernacular of a Sailor, harsh and full of expletives. You would be amazed at the anatomically impossible string of words you can put together when someone's trying to kill you. I became isolated and lost friends who didn't understand why I couldn't come to their BBQ. As much as the war helped shaped me, it was actually an amazing and horrific experience. It let me know, that when everything is going wrong, when the worst is at my feet, I won't crumble or falter.
I do not regret my service and in fact, I was the best of me in war. I was the best I will ever be. I saved a life and took a life. I was placed in situations of engaging the enemy and except for the 13 roadside bombs they hit me with, despite taking my best friend, and throwing everything they did at me, I would go again.
We had a foothold in Iraq and were making headway. There was so much corruption that we had to weed out the bad, build their force back up, then train them. Within the year, we were getting a few police stations to a point where we felt they may be able to fend off an attack. We have bases in Germany and Korea and still needed to stay for stability. When Obama announced an exit date, my heart broke. When you tell an enemy you are leaving, they sit back and watch. Obama was touting how attacks had decreased. Of course they did, why waste their bullets and rockets and men, when they just had to sit back and watch us go? Two weeks after the withdrawal in Iraq, the Taji police Station and one of my Police Stations fell to enemy hands. I patrolled with those Iraqi men, shared stories about their kids and their hearts for a Free Iraq and I knew they had to be dead. War fighters were taken from the American people in the war seemingly all for a campaign promise. The cut back on the military shows how little the Caliphate is taken seriously. This is a global war that's been coming since 420AD. President Obama wanting a unified globe is trying to strip our nation of its identity and now that he sent folks back into Iraq, we've had our first causality. I feel his hate and discontent for the military people and in 2014, I didn't want to serve under him any longer and got out.
When I came back to San Diego my parents were at the airport. I was welcomed home like I came back from Kansas. I don't know what I expected upon returning home, but whatever it was, it wasn't there. I felt no pride from them that their daughter went to war. My mom asked me once, "Are you ever going to go back to being you again?" I said, "No this is the new me". Once I was in a store with my mom and she turned to me in the crowded isle and said, "Have you ever killed anyone?" and I said "um, yes," and she just started bawling. What did they think I did over there? They cannot conceptualize what I did so they pretend it didn't happen.
To help bridge the gap of understanding between civilians and our Veterans, I would recommend holding a town hall meeting and asking us to come and speak. That way, you will know what we need and we will help you connect to us better. We Veterans don't want you to understand us, but to accept who we are now, and stop looking for the old person. We like who we are. We were tested to our limits and survived. The big issue is for families to get used to the new us.
After I left Active Army, I went into the amazing World of private Contracting. Not many women were on my team back in 2006 and for the next 5 plus years I found that I was the only woman, which made it another long stretch of breaking glass ceilings; I was never trying to do that, I simply wanted to work with exceptional people and that mostly meant retired military guys.
I am 2014 Veteran of the Year for the 71st District of San Diego, selected by Congressman Duncan Hunter and chosen by Assemblyman Brian J. Jones. I invest over 60 hours a year of volunteer time with organizations like the Veterans Village of San Diego and Team Red White and blue. I adopted a very special kitten. Her name is Sophia. She is an amputee and I partnered up with Fablab San Diego and we created the first 3D printed prosthetic and completed prototype. The intent with the prosthetic is to have Sophia be a therapy cat for wounded Veterans at Balboa hospital as well as a therapy kitten for kids with amputees and/or fighting diseases such as bone cancer.
I just completed my first authored book "Sophia the Bionic Cat". The goal is to show what grit; determination and perseverance will do for anyone, through a cute little kitten. Kittens, unlike dogs, when they purr release Oxytocin, it's a natural mood elevator. If a Veteran with chronic depression can't have a dog for whatever reason or even a civilian who deals with this issue, I want them to consider a kitten.
As I go through this process of creating prosthetics for my kitten, I am also opening the door for prosthetics for retired War Dogs and even expanding the conversation into a more advanced prosthetic for our wounded War fighters.
PSALM 91:5
You will not fear any danger by night or an arrow during the day.
CHAPTER 2Daniel Attilio
U.S. MARINE CORPS IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
"GETTING SHOT AT MADE ME MORE MAD THAN ANYTHING ELSE."
My paternal grandfather served in the US Navy and passed long before I was born.
One uncle served in the US Navy and another uncle in the United States Marine Corps, both during the Vietnam War. My father completed two tours in the Vietnam War with the USAF, one as gunner aboard the AC-47 Spooky gunship and another as tail gunner aboard B-52 Stratofortresses. My wife served in the US Navy as a Corpsman and my youngest brother currently serves in the USAF.
I enlisted with the Marine Corps in July 1992. The United States Marine Corps recruiter was, and still is the greatest salesman on the planet. Initially I wanted to join the USAF, as my first passion is aviation. However, the Marine recruiter said the closest I would get to airplanes would be changing lights on the runway. I wore glasses way back then. My second desire was driving tanks. He said he could get me guaranteed 18xx, the Military Occupational Specialty code for Tank and Amphibian Assault. I heard tank and was hooked, although it didn't work out that way.
Leaving for boot camp, MCRD San Diego was not a big deal for me. The first days of boot camp can only be described as violent chaos, always getting yelled at, having to run here or there and always to slow for those barking orders. Following boot camp and Infantry Combat Training course I reported to Assault Amphibious School Battalion to complete training, as an Amphibious Assault Vehicle Crewman – an 1833, not quite tanks but in my opinion the best job in the Marine Corps. For three months I trained to be an AAV crewman, with time spent learning how to drive on land, in water, to employ the UpGunned Weapons Station and of course how to maintain that 26-ton monster.
I did a total of six deployments overseas, 1993 to Okinawa with Alpha Company 3D AABN attached to Combat Support Group where we participated in Exercise Cobra Gold in Thailand and spent two or three months at Camp Fuji in mainland Japan. In 1994/5 I deployed Okinawa with Echo Company 3D AABN attached to the renamed Combat Assault Battalion and later attached to Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Belleau Wood in support of Operation United Shield. We were the last US combat units to leave Somalia. My favorite duty was with the Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch from 1996-1999 where I got to drive the AAV and had the opportunity to rebuild nearly every component on that vehicle with lots of learning that served me well later. I deployed with Alpha Company 3D AABN to Okinawa in 2000 and 2002 and again in 2003 and 2004 with Alpha Company 3D AABN in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. For the 2003 deployment, I was 1st Section Leader, 1st Platoon in direct support of India Company 3RD Battalion 4TH Marines for the push to Baghdad and in 2004, I was a Platoon Sergeant, Headquarters Platoon on FOB Fallujah. After those deployments I reported to Assault Amphibious School Battalion in 2005 and remained there until retirement in 2012.
The 2004 deployment was even more chaotic since we started by living in FOB Fallujah. If you climbed atop one of the taller cement jersey barriers you could see the town of Fallujah right across MSR Michigan. It was so hot; you could not touch anything left out in the sun after only couple minutes. The vehicles were like ovens that cooked us daily. There were dust storms nearly every day along with mortar and rocket attacks. The getting shot at wasn't the worst thing as it was intermittent. It was the misery of the hot, bright, dusty and barren environment was constant and consistent.
For OIF I, I was with India 3/4, McCoy's Marines and we bounced all over Iraq on the way to Baghdad. We got moved to each engagement within driving distance. There was Basara, Basara International Airport, Al Kut, Anasariya, Adawaniyah and several others on the way to Baghdad. During OIF II we assaulted into the city of Fallujah. At conclusion of that operation we conducted mechanized and later motorized patrols along MSR Mobile and MSR Michigan between Fallujah and Abu Garab.
Getting shot at made me mad more than anything else. I was in a position of leadership; I could not afford to be anything but aggressive when there were Marines under my charge. During the assault into Fallujah my AAV pulled forward of the lines to destroy an enemy position. The location provided better fields of fire so we stayed forward of the lines. Every so often we would pull forward of a building to engage enemy positions, and stayed there all night. I think I shed about five years off my life that night. There were four of us aboard the AAV. The plan was alternate between positions to allow each of us to grab an hour or two of sleep through the night. That didn't happen. The AAV is aluminum and steel and when it cools all that metal starts contracting, making all sorts creaking, screeching, popping and cracking sounds. We stayed up all night peering through the tiny vision blocks looking for enemy activity. I told my crew to keep vigilant, as Hadji will be in his ninja pajamas to crawl all over us. As horrible as friendly casualties are in combat, we lost three Marines in OIF I, and five in OIF II from our unit.
The worst part of the OIF II deployment was receiving a Red Cross message. I had returned late in the evening from a patrol along MSRs Michigan and Mobile after couple days without sleep. My CO, XO, 1st Sgt and Company Gunny pulled me aside, to give me the news and hand me the satellite phone. My younger brother had been murdered. There I was in Fallujah and yet my younger brother, the one "safe" at home in Houston was killed. I got emergency leave to head to Houston and attend the funeral. My youngest brother did not deploy and stayed to help the family. There was no way I could leave my Marines in Fallujah. So back to Fallujah I went.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "A Leap of Faith"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Jenny La Sala.
Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword, ix,
Dedication, xiii,
Introduction, xvii,
Karolyn Smith "This Is A Global War That's Been Coming Since 420Ad", 1,
Daniel Attilio "Getting Shot At Made Me More Mad Than Anything Else" Private First Class Jordan, 11,
Barichello Walburn "Fate Had Other Plans For Me", 21,
Colonel (Ret) David Rabb "I Had To Self Destruct To Survive", 29,
Colonel (Ret) Dr Kathy Platoni "I Would Drop Everything To Deploy For A 5Th Time In A Ny Millisecond!", 39,
Richard Cody Branch "I Was Highly Motivated And Proud", 47,
Thulai Van Maanen "He Was Buried With Military Honors", 53,
SGT Brian Conwell "I Wanted Them Gone", 63,
Catherine Ganley "I Have To Believe That Divine Intervention, Or Maybe Guardian Angels Were Looking After Us", 71,
Douglas Szczepanski, JR. "The Only Reason I Am Alive Is Because Of Jesus", 79,
Nichole Alred "We Had Insurgents Trying To Break Into Our Camp", 87,
Armando E. Ramos "It Was My Last Combat Mission Outside The Wire In Iraq", 97,
Jamie Holmes Olvera "The Flag Reminds Me Of Those Who Are Laid To Rest Underneath It", 105,
Thomas Brovarone "I Live A Life Of Consequence", 113,
SGT Brian Joseph Gibbs "Medically, Emotionally And Spiritually It Changed Me", 123,
Natasha Theodossiadis "I Wanted To Be A Part Of Something Bigger Than Myself", 131,
Clark Anderson "Running Out Of Blood Was Not An Option", 137,
Shaun Duffin "A Cavalry's Charge", 143,
Michael Womack "God Has A Plan For My Life", 149,
Samantha Jean Jasso "I May Not Be Where I Am Today", 157,
Captain Joe Geiger "I Can Close My Eyes And Feel The Dry Grit In My Boots, Smell The Buring Garbage, And Hear The Radio Mics Key Up", 165,
Cody Robinson "I'm Tired Of Seeing My Brothers And Sisters Die", 173,
Josh Weddell "I Wouldn't Trade Them For Anything", 183,
Eric J. Perez "We Were Taking Out Terrorist That Were Killing Civilians", 189,
Dani Sieben "The Petals Of This Rose Are Not Easily Wilted", 195,
Al Abbondanza "Using Your Weapon Could Be Accidently Deadly", 201,
MSgt Eldonna Lewis Fernandez "It Sounded Like An Adventure", 207,
Eric Linke "We Need That Strength To Maintain Peace", 213,
Kat Morris "The Army Was Always My First Choice", 219,
Montgomery J. Granger "It Made Finding A Battle Rhythm Difficult At Best", 225,
Julia Maki Pyrah "I Had Never Felt That Kind Of Lonely Before", 233,
Leasha West "It Is Rare To Meet A Female Marine There Are Very Few Of Us", 241,
Nicolas "Neeks" Martinez "My Life's New Mission Is Forever Dedicated To Helping Others", 249,
Erika Luna Tharp, 255,