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This Memorial Day, I, like most veterans of our current conflicts, will spend time remembering and honoring my fallen brothers and sisters, individuals like my pal Kevin. In 2004, Kevin Jessen saved my life. Not as soon as, however day in and day trip, for six months.
After I met Employees Sgt. Jessen in Iraq in 2004, his explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) staff was assigned to Activity Power Hunter, a Nationwide Guard unit from New York State. EOD was the “bomb squad.”
A tall, easygoing child from Arkansas, Jessen slot in with our New York staff. He was only a pleasant, forthright southerner, with a prepared smile. Everybody within the activity power knew him and instantly revered his unimaginable professionalism.
My unit all the time had one staff assigned as the short response power. So, we often escorted EOD groups to the location of roadside bombs (improvised explosive gadgets, or IEDs), whether or not they have been found or exploded. We spent lots of time with Jessen, discovered from him, and have become buddies.
He was an professional on explosives and IEDs, the bane of our existence in Iraq — the one factor we have been all no less than a little bit afraid of. However Jessen might tame them. He defused dozens of them, after detection. He inspected the stays of dozens extra that had exploded.
He was not solely a subject-matter professional, he grew to become an intelligence supply. He might establish the handiwork of particular bombers. He was sure that there have been two essential bomb makers close by, with two completely different kinds and several other emplacement groups. Armed with Jessen’s details about IEDs, our troopers have been in a position to detect and defeat them extra usually.
An IED exploding is terrifying. One minute, you might be rolling down the highway, all is quiet, drivers are centered on scanning the highway, again seaters might joke a little bit to alleviate the nervous stress.
The subsequent minute, the world explodes. Panic strains towards coaching. Worry bubbles up from the intestine, and also you execute your battle drills.
The roadside bombers in Iraq not often plant a single bomb. They hope to disable a patrol, then, if potential, assault once more. The second assault could be aimed toward uncovered troopers, responding medical automobiles, or responding EOD groups assessing the bomb crater.
Each journey on the roads of Iraq was a journey of anticipation of an IED.
On Sunday, March 5, 2006, throughout his second tour in Iraq, Jessen responded to a different name for EOD in Rawah, close to Mosul, on the head of the Euphrates River. Discovery of an unexploded IED meant each hazard and alternative. Reviews point out that Jessen was suited up in his bomb go well with and defusing the IED when a second undiscovered IED exploded, killing him.
There is no such thing as a doubt that the enemy had instantly focused Jessen. He was assassinated. I am certain the IED groups in Rawah hated him as a lot as those we had fought earlier.
We did not simply lose Employees Sgt. Jessen, our EOD man. We misplaced Kevin, who was not only a hero, however a hero of mine. And a pal too. One of many saddest components of soldiering is what number of buddies turn out to be heroes. Together with everybody you protected, I salute you, Kevin. You have been the most effective sort of soldier, and we miss you.
All of us have heroes. For individuals who served, a few of our heroes are gone. This Memorial Day, with women and men like Kevin nonetheless serving and defending, I hope all Individuals take a couple of minutes to mirror on the sacrifice of so many who’ve served our nation.
Memorial Day is our promise to our serving women and men risking their lives day by day that we are going to bear in mind all the time.
— John Byrnes is strategic director for Involved Veterans for America and a veteran of the Marine Corps and the Army Nationwide Guard.
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