Recalls humanitarian work that followed combat
By:G. Natasha Zoe
Despite two months of scarce deodorant, no showers, only one hot meal and delayed mail from his girlfriend, Lance Cpl. Luis Felipe Aguilar, 20, of East Camplain Road is proud of his work in Iraq, but really only wants to talk about the humanitarian work his unit did passing out food, preventing looting and cleaning up landmark sites.
Lance Cpl. Aguilar recently returned home from Iraq, and his time in Iraq is clearly divided into two sections.
The first part he does not like to talk about.
"First we went into Nasiriya, that’s where the actual combat took place," he said before quickly going on to talk about the humanitarian efforts afterward. "The actual experience was overwhelming."
"Combat it was not as shocking or scary as I thought," Lance Cpl. Aguilar said. But, he said, over time the cumulative stress takes its toll. "You have to be on alert all the time, that is the most nerve racking (part). We were never sure who was firing at us. We had to be really, really distinguishing, who was on our side and who wasn’t."
When it came down to actual combat, staying alive becomes a driving force. "I had to protect myself; had to ‘get him’ before he ‘gets me.’"
Combat changes a person, Lance Cpl. Aguilar said. "Knowing you had the power to end another person’s life in an instant is something most people don’t understand. Anyone can take a life away, but when they want to take yours away too, that is the difference. It changes you."
"We were lucky," he said over and over again, "our whole unit came back." Lance Cpl. Aguilar is part of Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. One of the Marines in Fox Company was struck in the face with shrapnel.
Although his trip to Iraq was not the first time Lance Cpl. Aguilar went overseas, "it was a reality check to see what we were fighting for. I saw what the Iraqi people had to put up with for the last several decades the poverty, the living conditions and the restrictions."
"Many of the kids didn’t have shoes until they were in their teens. Food was scarce."
Five to seven people were living in tiny clay houses with only one or two rooms. The living room served double duty as a communal bedroom. "All of them crammed in there, there was no space to do anything." The cramped living seemed totally unacceptable to the Marine who floated across the Atlantic Ocean on the USS Kearsarge where Marines’ bunks are five high, floor to ceiling.
"I’ve seen it," Lance Cpl. Aguilar said. "The Baath Party lived a different way. They had nicer houses, reliable vehicles and nicer clothing. They were like middle class, not in poverty."
One thing he did not see much of in Iraq was mail. The mail delivery was backed up. "After I got out of Iraq I received all the letters my girlfriend wrote me. It was disappointing," he said simply, while the pain clearly visible in his eye spoke eloquently about not receiving her mail when he was in Iraq and wondering why she was not writing. It was good to find out she had been writing, he said, and he is spending much of his time in New Jersey catching up with her.
Although the mail was slow, his unit did receive some care packages. There were toothpaste, razor blades, lotion, combs, baby wipes, soap and hard candy in the care packages, but no deodorant.
In the desert of southern Iraq, with daily highs in the 100s, deodorant would seem to be a necessity. "It was almost to the point it didn’t matter anymore. Moving around so much you can’t stop sweating, along with the fact it is so hot outside." The lack of deodorant was compounded by the lack of bathing facilities. "We got one shower in the two months, we jumped into a river. It was water. It was so nice!"
A shower was the first thing Lance Cpl. Aguilar wanted when he got back to the USS Kearsarge.
The Manville resident’s favorite part of his two-month deployment in Iraq was the humanitarian work. His work then was passing out food, preventing looting and cleaning up historical sites and landmarks.
"Some of the monuments and even graveyards were trashed, used like landfills," he said with more than a little confusion over why it was done. "We helped clean them up."
Cleaning things up is no new task for Lance Cpl. Aguilar. His car, a Volkswagen GTI, is spotless. Cleaning it is part of the way he is relaxing during his vacation.
For now all Lance Cpl. Aguilar wants to do is relax and enjoy the time with his family, friends and his girlfriend. He is also planning to go to the Shore on vacation.
After three weeks he’ll be going back to Camp Lejeune.
"I don’t know what is coming next other than that," he said.