1 50 1 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/0d6d6efa649f07dfbdcf4d6d2d1430f0.pdf f245ac36504268533dc5098ce0e1670b PDF Text Text Military Oral History Interview Transcript Adam Jordenson 13 October 2011 CS: Caleb Sonneland AJ: Adam Jorgenson CS: This is Caleb Sonneland in American Military History. It is October 13th at 7pm and I'm on the phone with Adam Jorgenson. Just brief, basic stuff at first, could you please state your birthday. AJ: It is June 26, 1981. CS: Great, and what branch of service were you in during the war? AJ: I was in the Army. CS: What was your rank? AJ: I was a specialist, E4. CS: OK and where did you serve specifically? AJ: Specifically where did I serve…in the state? I was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. CS: OK. AJ:. 101st Airborne. CS: And you enlisted, correct? AJ: Yes. CS: When and where was that? AJ: I enlisted in Austin, Texas in 2003, I believe. So I enlisted there. CS: And what made you enlist? AJ: What made me enlist? I was kind of looking for some direction. My dad had just had a stroke, so it would help the family out with having a steady income. CS: Yes. 1 �AJ: My dad who served in the Navy, when I told him, said "I wouldn't do it" and I was like, "Well, watch me" (laughs). CS: Your dad served in the Navy? I didn't know that. AJ: Yes, he was in the Navy. CS: Was that in Bremerton then? AJ: Yes, he was there, but not when I was alive. It was before I was born, yes. CS: OK, awesome. When you went to enlist, did you go by yourself, or did you go with somebody? AJ: I went by myself. CS: OK cool. So after that, what was the process? Did you get shipped out immediately or did you have a little time? I don't really know the process. AJ: No, after I enlisted, they sent me where you take some standardized tests to make sure you're not going to fall apart on them. I believe it was for me, it took a few months to actually leave. Eleven issued to that station, yes 11. CS: OK, so you went straight to…you went straight to boot camp or you got shipped out? AJ: I went straight to boot camp. I think I had a day to hold over before…like I got info. For some people it was a week or two. It was a little holding area, which is like boot camp as well. But for me, it was like two days and the next class graduated and the next class comes in. CS: And how long were you in boot camp? AJ: Boot camp was 16 weeks, I think. Yes, I was in the infantry…like normal boot camp is eight-week boot camp. They have their guarantee. But for infantry, it’s all straight boot camp? CS: OK, and how was that? Was it tough? AJ: Boot camp was…I was older than most, you know, people who join the Army at 17, 18. For them, it was a little tougher. For me, it was pretty easy. It was just a game. It wasn't that bad. CS: Interesting. When you got shipped out, where did you initially get shipped to? AJ: I initially got shipped to where I stayed...(unintelligible)…my whole army career. All seven years of it. CS: Interesting. Did you see any combat? 2 �AJ: Yes. CS: What was your job or initial assignment when you got there? AJ: My initial assignment was just infantry. I went to the 101st of the 1202 (deuce). Was a brigade. I was in Charlie Company 3rd Battalion. At first, it was just a regular infantry job, and then after that, I went and tried out to be an infantry scout. And that's what my job was when we (unintelligible) it happened pretty fast. CS: Did you say you applied to be an infantry scout? Or what was... AJ: Yeah, you got to try out. There's extra training and you got to actually try out to be an infantry scout. CS: And that was successful then? AJ: Hmm. CS: OK, cool. So you said you did see combat. Where about was that? AJ: We were in South Baghdad. Near…It was South of Biop. “Biop” is the Baghdad International airport. CS: OK...go ahead. AJ: Hm. I'm sorry, yeah, we were set up down there. CS: OK. Were there many casualties in your unit? AJ: I believe, when I first got to my unit, I got there right after they had come back. Because they were the first wave; they were the first to go into Iraq. So when I got there, I was a cherry (laughs). Brand new. CS: Yeah. AJ: They had just gotten back. I got there after a year, and then again, the first time they were there, I think they had three or four casualties. Then the time I went, they had like 53 or 54, I think…there was a lot more the second time. CS: The second time was? AJ: Yeah, there were a lot more casualties. CS: OK. And I'm just reading off some questions that our professor wants us to ask, tell me about a couple of your most memorable experiences, if that's alright. 3 �AJ: The most memorable experience…of Iraq or the Army? CS: Iraq would be... AJ: Goodness. There were a bunch of them. We averaged about an lED (improvised explosive device) about every other day. CS: Really? AJ: Yes, a lot of them. You get really used to it, because a lot of things are going off. And you're in a Hum-V, so a lot of them didn't really hurt anybody, so you're going to get used to it. CS: So were you an infantry scout when you were in Iraq then? AJ: Yes, we were in a RSTA unit, which is reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition. And that is snipers, we were URF's. You're talking helicopters. Like if people are in a sector and they get attacked, it's up to the helicopters to go out there and throw a rope down. That's the system. CS: And what were you doing specifically? AJ: What was I doing? CS: Yes. AJ: In the scouts, your job changes. CS: Okay. AJ: So, depending on what it is, you can go out for certain things. On routine missions, you can go out and patrol a sector. So, it just rotated out. You could be gunner, driver - you could just be dispatch. It just switched out for everybody. All turned out. And then you could go on…I would go on sniper OP's. Sit up there with snipers... CS: Did you say "OB's"? AJ: Yes, OP's. CS: Okay. And then were you awarded any medals or citations? AJ: Oh yes (laughs). CS: Yes? How did you get those? 4 �AJ: I got them…the Army just kind of hand out medals for like "Oh you've been enlisted two years, here's a medal." You know (laughs). So I got a couple of those awards. Then I got an ARCOM for killing three insurgents, I think. So I got an ARCOM for that. CS: Did you say a "NARCOM"? AJ: An ARCOM. Sorry, I'm using - I'm talking all Army on you. It's an Army Commendation Medal. CS: Yes, I'm sorry. I have a very cursory knowledge of all this stuff. Sorry about that. So while you were over there, how'd you stay in touch with your family? Or I guess, were you and Corinne dating…engaged? AJ: I was engaged to a different girl (laughs). CS: Oh, really? AJ: Yes. I stayed in touch…every once and while, we can go to Baghdad, you know, the big base, and use the Internet trailers. They would have that. You'd wait in line for an hour and a half, be at a computer for 15 minutes, and you know the Internet is so slow over there. You check like three e-mails and your time is up (laughs). CS: Short lived. How often did you go out there? AJ: When we first started, we weren't at that base. I think towards the last three or four months, we moved on to there. Actually, in trailers. We'd go out on the edge of it. So, at first we were out in our little camp and base, and then towards the end, they rotated us in, so we actually got to stay there, which was nice. CS: So on your routine day, what was your daily routine, I guess? AJ: On a routine day, we had targets that we were working towards. On a routine, boring day would be…we would go…they had scheduled us…it would be three days at a time. So three days, you'd go out in the morning. Early, at like four in the morning, or no, six in the morning. So there were three shifts. There was a morning, an afternoon and an evening and there was overnight. And every three days, you'd switch. So you'd have the all night (shift), and then in three days, you'd have the morning. CS: Okay. AJ: And then another shift, like a regular day shift, you go out, drive around and try and talk to the little communities they have there. And, you befriend them and that way they would tell us…there were insurgents all around there, and a lot of times, they were just afraid to talk. Because a lot of what was going on was between different villages…Sunnis and the Shiites. So, we'd go out there and we'd talk to them and every once and a while we'd go look for caches and 5 �buried weapons. But a lot of the time, it was just boring. We'd just drive around looking for...information really. CS: Did you ever find cached weapons? AJ: Oh yeah, we found huge caches (laughs). CS: Really? AJ: Yeah, it was one of the most boring things we did, because we'd show up...if this were a real war, like World War Two, the infantry scout would be going in three-man teams behind enemy lines and scouting the enemy. But in Iraq… CS: Where are the lines? AJ: We'd go and…do the boring thing. Walk around berms and canals. They'd have berms and you'd go around with a metal detector. It would go off and you'd dig, and a lot of times you wouldn't find anything. I remember one time, Sirco (his friend), was digging, he put his shovel in the ground and he pulled out a mine (laughs). He was like "Oh my God! A mine!" So he threw down the shovel and started running. CS: Was it a live mine? AJ: It was, yes. It wasn't set up, it was just cached. CS: Oh, okay. That's crazy. I asked you to talk about a couple of your memorable experiences, I guess what was your most memorable - do you have a single most memorable day? AJ: Single most memorable day…would probably be when engaged the insurgents from the sniper OP and killed all three of them. Well that was my most memorable day - that's where you get all the pats on the back for a job well done. CS: Yes, absolutely. AJ: I mean, there was so much…when you go from not having TV or not having alcohol, you got to adapt to that by getting into the brotherhood. So like, a lot of it for me, was so much fun. That produced a lot of memorable moments. CS: I’m sure it did. You probably made some of your best friends, I would d imagine, in spending that much time with people? AJ: Oh yeah. Yes, a lot of best friends. Well, a few best friends. CS: How did people entertain themselves? AJ: Entertain themselves? Gambling was one of them that got pretty serious. 6 �CS: Gambling, you said? AJ: Yes, card gambling. The soldiers are over there and they don’t have anything to do for excitement, so they would gamble. I got into a few games, but I’m not a big gambler. They would sit there, four or five of them, playing card games. I’m talking like...any card game. Holding the card on your forehead. CS: Yes, hold them, blackjack, Indian poker? AJ: Yes, but there would be $3000 in the pot. CS: The heavy hitters table. AJ: Yes, it got pretty fun to watch. Then they had weights, and I would always just go work out. CS: Get huge. AJ: (laughs) Yes. CS: What did you do when you were on leave? AJ: When I was on leave, oh God, shit man. That sucks. I went to go see my fiancé. When I left for Iraq, she joined the Air Force. And so she had got through basic training by the time I got leave. By the time I got through the deployment, and she was stationed in Germany. I took a f****** flight, instead of coming back to see my family, I took a flight to go and see her. When I got to Germany, she didn't pick me up from the airport. So I got a taxi ride to her base, and I didn't know where she was, so I just walked around until I found barracks room where she was sleeping. I was like…this is going…this is going suck. CS: Uh oh AJ: I think it was a weeklong. So basically, I went to Germany, stayed with her and it was just f****** awful. I couldn't wait to get back to Iraq. CS: Really? That'll happen. Was Germany the only place you travelled when you were on leave then? AJ: When I was on leave, yeah. When I was in Iraq. When I was back in the States on leave, I would just come back here to Austin. CS: You said you were in Kentucky? AJ: Yes, I was in Kentucky. CS: Okay, so that's not too far. It’s a little ways. 7 �AJ: lt’s about 14 hours. CS: Yes, okay. Wait, that's 14 hours? Really? AJ: Yes, it was a 14 hour drive. Fort Campbell is split. Half of it is on Kentucky and half is in Tennessee. CS: Damn. I didn’t realize that. What did you think of your officers? AJ: Uhhh (laughs) CS: You can be honest! You can tell me! AJ: Yeah? A lot of them were...there were some stellar, you know, rock star officers but the majority of them...the officers are a lot younger. CS: Really? AJ: My brother in-law, Aaron, was actually an officer. He got out right when I got in. But he was an officer. You become an officer…you become a first lieutenant. You graduate college, you're all of a sudden…you know, you go to officer training and it's just like basic. Then all of a sudden, you're in charge of a platoon of guys who have been there for 15 years. So they had a lot less experience. There were some that tried...I remember a mortar attack and captain…captain…so they're mortaring us, everybody’s taking cover, and he just runs out into the middle of this quad. He was like follow me! And everybody was shouting back, “Where?” They're mortaring us. Take cover sir. I remember an officer got out and fired on a tank - fired on a Bradley. Which…insurgents don’t have Bradley’s. He was just so hyped up and nervous; he just got out, dismounted and fired on the Bradley (laughs). CS: A Bradley is a tank? AJ: A Bradley is...picture it as a small tank. CS: Sorry. Again, there's my rookie military knowledge. AJ: Yeah, no. Go ahead and stop me whenever I do that. CS: So you're officially...your service is completely over, correct? AJ: Actually, yes. Just last month. CS: Really? So what was that like to have it done and dusted with? 8 �AJ: Oh, it was awesome. When I got back last year…I signed up for three years. So I served three years in camps, and I got stopped. When you come back from Iraq, they won't let you out. They want to make sure you're not going to go crazy. So I served three months or sorry, three years and some change. But you owe…you can sign up for two years, but the Army owns you for eight, no matter what you sign up for. So, it's inactive service. What that means is they could call you up, you could be getting married, going to college, and they call you up. The sad thing about that is that you don't get to choose. They put you with a s*** unit that deploys easily. So they must have had like…they're just kind of like "Here's $20,000 that we can leave in the lobby. You get a year out of civilization..." and I was like "Fuck you, no. That's bullshit. I don't like this idea." That's the one thing about the Army. "(Unintelligible), Sir." and I was like "Nope. (Unintelligible) s***." If I didn't do it, he's like, "You're going to get called back up and get nothing." and I was like, "I'll take that chance." My buddy bought into that service thing, he did it, and he went and he got guaranteed a year of stabilization on stateside. He can't deploy. But if you get deployed, they're like "You're coming with us." and he's like "No, I'm not." They go "You signed the contract." and he says "That doesn't mean anything!" His mom actually went to the congressman; she took a train all the way up to the commander of the base. They had said (to his friend), "Yeah, you got to go." And so his mom went to the congressman, but he had to honor the contract. They were going ship him off. So it's felt really good to know that…there was a while there where I wasn't checking the mail. Just because, you know, you get a letter and it says you got two weeks to report to here and then you're in camp for three more years. CS: So you'd just stay away from the mailbox to… AJ: I'd stay away from it, yeah. CS: You said you made some close friendships from your time in the service. Do you still keep in contact with them pretty regularly? The guys you met? AJ: I sure do. There's, you know…I keep relative contact with a lot of the platoon. You know, whenever somebody died. But there were at least four good friends that I still really keep in touch with. CS: And where are they located? AJ: They are like…two of my best friends…well, Edee Anthony (laughs). Anthony moved back to Ohio, but he went for another deployment. He stayed in. He got his six (years). That was one of the things that was like, if I had gotten my commission, my non-commission. If I became an NCO, they would have sent me somewhere else. And so everybody who did the most advanced special they all wanted to stay together. They knew each other. You have your solution then. But he (Edee) got his six, he went back to Iraq. He came back, got out, and he went back to Ohio. He 9 �ended up going to school for, I think, nursing. And then he lost his mind a little bit. He got arrested. CS: Oh boy. AJ: He was facing prison charges. For kidnapping (laughs). CS: For kidnapping? AJ: Well, no. Someone in his apartment complex had stolen his bike, his motorcycle, and he's usually really quiet. He's a big guy too. They told him his neighbor did it, so he was drinking and went over there with a gun. It sounds horrible from the perspective of a civilian (laughs). CS: I understand. AJ: Just because he has a gun, doesn't mean he's going to shoot him. When you're in Iraq, you have to have a loaded weapon on you at all times when you go to the bathroom. CS: Yes. AJ: So it's like, you go over there with a gun, of course he wasn't going to shoot him, but that's a lot more serious here in the States. He went over there and he was like, "You steal my bike?" and the guy was like, "No, my friend did it." So he was like "Well, take me to him." and he was like "Okay", so he went to go put his boots on and the cops came. It was a big, huge deal. But he said they kind of laughed leaving the guy's apartment. He just got some - instead of prison time - he just got some probation. So he's there, that was him. My other friend, that was kind of one extreme, came back and joined the police force. CS: Interesting. Where about in the police force? Or where? AJ: He's in Denver, like on the outskirts of Denver. CS: Okay, cool. So what, specifically…if you could give me the timeline of your years of service, like when you were in Kentucky, and then…you said you were in Kentucky in 2003? Or was it 2002 when you enlisted? AJ: I deployed, I think toward the end of 2005. All right, so 16 weeks there. So I believe that around that time, I was in Kentucky for about a year before we deployed. CS: Now is that 2005 to about 2006? AJ: I got out in some month and (unintelligible). I got out halfway through 2006. CS: OK, I misunderstood. So in 2002, you were in Kentucky and then you got shipped out in 2003? 10 �AJ: I got shipped out in 2005. CS: I'm so confused. AJ: So I joined in 2003, spent 16 weeks in basic, got shipped to Kentucky and was in Kentucky the whole time until, it was probably over a year, so I was in Kentucky until 2005, then I went to Iraq for 13 months, got back in 2006, then I had to wait, I think two or three months and then I got out. So I got out midway or towards the end of 2006. CS: Okay, okay, okay. AJ: But you still owe like, I was out, but I was in inactive service, which means, they could call you up and tell you they wanted you. CS: So, until about a month ago, you were inactively serving? AJ: Yeah. CS: And that's what you were talking about earlier with the… AJ: I don't have to do anything, but they can call you up. CS: So you were on-call basically. AJ: Hmm. CS: Well, that’s all the questions I have for you. That’s plenty of information, that’s going to be awesome. I really appreciate it. AJ: Cool. Great. No problem. 11 � https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e6352dc2000a1b4cc745899163af7d1e.mp3 fdc7117c4c0e600d41c7236a71e49466 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project Description An account of the resource Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers. Copyright Notice: Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Jorgenson, Adam Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Sonneland, Caleb Interview Date 10/13/11 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 24:15 min Copyright Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used. Tag Army, Fort Campbell, 101st Airborne, infantry, combat, Baghdad, Iraq, IED Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Adam Jorgenson, 13 October 2011 Subject The topic of the resource Iraq War, 2003-2011 Jorgenson, Adam Veterans Personal narratives, American United States Interviews Description An account of the resource Adam Jorgenson, born June 26, 1981, served as an Army Specialist in the Iraq War, South Baghdad. In this interview, he discusses a routine day of visiting communities, searching for weapon caches, and what soldiers did in their free time. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jorgenson, Adam Sonneland, Caleb Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a> Extent The size or duration of the resource. 11 pages Language A language of the resource English army specialist Fort Campbell Kentucky infantry scout RSTA Unit South Baghdad