of Iraq and its people,
and of coping with war
Sayreville man tells
of Iraq and its people,
and of coping with war
By jennifer dome
Staff Writer
FARRAH MAFFAI U.S. Marine Cpl. David Carrazana returned from Operation Iraqi Freedom last week after four months of duty in the Middle East.
When U.S. Marine Cpl. David Carrazana joined the service, he never assumed he’d find himself staring at the glowing sun as it set over the Iraqi desert.
But Carrazana, 23, who returned last week from his tour of duty with the Marine Corps Reserve, will look back with pride on his experiences this year and his country’s mission.
"Operation Iraqi Freedom is exactly what we’ve accomplished out there. Those people do feel free, they feel better, they feel safer," Carrazana said.
The corporal is an eight-year resident of Sayreville. He resides on Zaleski Drive with his sister Valerie, 13, and his parents, Ada and Frank Sebasco.
Before Carrazana graduated from Sayreville War Memorial High School in 1998, he signed up with the Marines because he wanted a focus and help with college tuition.
"I signed on before I even got out of high school. I was 17, so my mom had to fill out and allow me to go in. So I went right after high school," he said.
He chose to enter the Marine Corps Reserve, rather than active duty, so he could attend classes at Middlesex County College, Edison.
"I was determined to be a Marine, though," Carrazana said.
Not only is his brother Fabian, 22, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, but his uncle is a colonel in the Army. His father is a detective with the Elizabeth Police Department.
A Marine’s beginnings
With the Reserve, Carrazana said he is responsible to report for duty one weekend a month and for two weeks during the year — a schedule that sometimes conflicted with his schooling.
"The first four years were kind of tough for me," he said.
Though "everybody assumes those two weeks out of the year are in the summertime," he said he was required to serve two weeks during February in Norway in his first year of service, causing him to interrupt his classes.
Over the next three years, Carrazana also pulled out of classes to go to Romania during the summer.
By the time of Sept. 11, 2001, Carrazana was continuing his education and also working. He was notified in January 2002 that he would be activated, and he soon left for training in North Carolina.
"The whole year out there, we were assuming we were probably going to go to Afghanistan because that was the priority out there," he said.
During his year in North Carolina, Carrazana also traveled to Kosovo for more hands-on training.
"The reason for Kosovo is it gave us an idea how to deal with people and how to deal with searching people, through people’s houses and stuff. Since it’s a little bit lower of a hazardous level, it was perfect training. More realistic as opposed to doing the base stuff," the corporal said.
It was after he returned from Kosovo that Carrazana said people began talking about Iraq.
"We knew it was coming," he said.
Carrazana was able to return home for the holidays in December. During his time at home, he said his father told him not to worry about his upcoming mission, that he would return safely.
"My mother was really strong. She didn’t cry at all," he said.
Iraq’s changing landscape
On March 8, his Reserve unit, Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, was activated.
Carrazana said he arrived in Kuwait on April 1 and went into Iraq three days later.
"We were there for the last four and a half months," he said.
"The first month, I would say, Iraq wasn’t a pretty sight. It was really bad the first whole month we were out there," Carrazana said, noting, though, that he cannot elaborate about the initial weeks of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
After U.S. forces took over Baghdad, Carrazana said, the danger level began to drop. Although he also spent time in Basra, Carrazana said that most of his time following the overturn of the Iraqi capital was spent policing in An Nasiriyah, located southeast of the capital.
"That’s when we would do random vehicle searches, raids on people’s houses. We would get tips like, hey, one of Saddam’s generals lives here, or, this person did that, or whatever the case may be," Carrazana said.
"So we did a lot of raids on people’s houses, searched a lot of vehicles and uncovered a lot of weapons. I mean a mass amount of weapons," he said.
Carrazana described An Nasiriyah as "primitive" since there was no running water or electricity.
"An Nasiriyah’s unlike Baghdad. Baghdad’s got city streets, it’s got lights, it has electricity. It has everything working for them," he said.
In An Nasiriyah, the streets are just dirt and there is garbage everywhere, he said.
However, Carrazana said he believes An Nasiriyah is more cultural and governed by religion and the rules of the Koran.
"The women walk six paces behind themen, and they do all the work, [carry] buckets on their head, move rocks and stuff like that. In Baghdad, [the men] are allowed to walk next to their women. They can kiss in public. The women [in An Nasiriyah] get arrested if they kiss in public," he said.
"The people are very beautiful there too, though," he said. He remembered that the young girls, most of whom spoke some English, treated the soldiers politely, he said.
Many of the Iraqis were skeptical of the Marines at first, Carrazana said. But soon the people warmed up to them and were happy with their presence.
"They got to see that we have hearts," he said.
Often, the troops would help the people by bringing them food or water. In turn, the Iraqis would provide information to help the troops, according to Carrazana.
"They were happy we were there. They cried when we left," he said. Carrazana said he believes the Iraqi people felt they would not be protected once the troops had gone.
"Out there made me realize what I take for granted out here. Those kids didn’t have anything. Those people don’t have anything. When they don’t have any water or electricity running, I don’t even know how they make it through a day," the corporal said.
"These people, they just fight through all that stuff. They make amends out of what they have, and that’s incredible," he said.
‘Brothers’ cope together
Carrazana’s own living conditions in An Nasiriyah were lacking when the unit first settled there, he said. At first the group took hold of an old warehouse that was extremely dirty. But after some time, his commanding officer located a more suitable warehouse and the unit set up checkpoints on all sides of the building to keep a watch on their surroundings.
"In the Reserve, what’s good is we have a lot of guys who have other jobs at home. So we have plumbers, technicians, carpenters, everything you can think of," Carrazana said. He said the men even hooked up air conditioners in the warehouse where they lived.
"We managed to get electricity running for An Nasiriyah, I mean, the whole city. Water pumping for them [too]," he said.
During the months he spent in Iraq, Carrazana said the best part was being with the group of men he had trained with in the Reserve.
"I’ve known these guys for the last five years. We’re bothers," he said.
"I have my family here and I have my family there. All those guys are like my brothers, they are my family. I would take a bullet for any of them, and they would do the same for me," he said.
"Those guys, I trust them with all my heart," he added.
To pass the time, Carrazana said the men built a volleyball net and often played soccer as well. Card games, compact disc players, and taking pictures of Iraq also gave the men things to do when they were not working.
The men also adopted a little friend, a stray dog they named An Nasiriyah after the city they helped police.
"She was our morale also. She made us feel like we were at home," he said.
Unfortunately, the cost to bring An Nasiriyah back to the United States was too much. The troops left the dog with another unit at a gas refueling point in the Middle East, Carrazana said.
One thing he was confronted with in Iraq that he had never experienced before was the unbelievable heat and the sandstorms.
"It was hot as hell," Carrazana said.
"You get used to it because it’s a dry heat. Out here it’s humidity, so you feel sticky and whatever. But over there it’s dry heat. You don’t get the sweat because the sweat’s dry when it comes out of your skin," he said.
During sandstorms, Carrazana said, the men sat close together so they wouldn’t lose each other. He found it difficult to talk, as well, since opening your mouth would leave you with a mouth full of sand.
"You’re like in a big tornado," he said. "The sand’s blowing around and you can’t see anything."
Reconnecting with family
The worst part about being away from home, Carrazana said, was missing out on the happenings of his family and friends. He said he especially missed his sister and mother, as well as his girlfriend, Melissa Mercado, of Edison, and her daughter, Tatyana, 3.
Mercado said that luckily she connected with a Marines support group who helped her, as did Carrazana’s family, through the tough times while he was in Iraq.
Both Mercado and Carrazana’s sister Valerie, speaking from his family’s Zaleski Drive home Tuesday, said they wrote letters often. Unfortunately, the mail service was very slow at first, but it eventually sped up, and Carrazana’s unit also gained access to e-mail after some time.
"We were there for about a month and I hadn’t gotten any letters yet. So I got to the point where I was, like, you know what? Forget it. I’m not going to get any letters. When I finally got a letter, I got two, from my mother and Melissa. The way they both said how they missed me, it made me cry," Carrazana said.
"That was probably the best thing to happen to me, to finally get some mail, because that was our morale," he said.
Besides missing his car, Carrazana said he missed his mother’s cooking the most.
"I missed being home with my mother. I’m very close with her," he said.
When he found out he would be coming home, Carrazana said he was happy, especially since he knew the area in An Nasiriyah would be well taken care of. A Special Forces group from Italy moved into his unit’s spot, making him feel confident about leaving.
As for how he feels about Operation Iraqi Freedom, Carrazana said the goal was much more complicated than many people may have realized.
"Everybody in America has a big heart. We’re not vengeful people, and I don’t think these other countries realize that," Carrazana said.
"You have to be in the situation to really understand what it’s like," he said about the conditions in Iraq.
Luckily, his own unit fared well while in the Middle East.
"We all came back in one piece," he said.
Although the location of Saddam Hussein is unknown, Carrazana said he does not think the Iraqis care because they know the ruler will never be allowed to return to the country, much less take power again.
"Those people, I wish I could give them the world," he said about the Iraqis.
Now that he’s home, Carrazana said he will continue with active duty at Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County for the next three months. Then he will return to work and school.
"Going to Iraq, that did it for me," Carrazana said. "That made me realize there is a lot out here I do appreciate.
"I focus more on things that I want to accomplish because I don’t want to ever go down. I always want to move forward," he said.

