Da-Chief
03-26-2007, 07:58
Naperville GI faces new kind of fright
(http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/313198,CST-NWS-soldier26.article (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/313198,CST-NWS-soldier26.article))
March 26, 2007
BY NICK FAWELL Naperville Sun
Naperville's Jon Dibblee knows what it's like to be in a war and look death in the face.
Having spent 13 months in Iraq as a U.S. Army infantryman kicking in doors and carrying out raids, the 22-year-old says you learn to deal with a new kind of fright.
"There were so many bullets and rockets flying all over the place," Dibblee said of some of the worst conditions he saw.
"I was convinced I wasn't going to see the next 20 seconds. I thought I was dead."
Dibblee graduated from Naperville North High School in 2003 and enlisted immediately after graduation in June. After being stationed in Georgia and Hawaii for seven months, he was sent to an area 35 miles south of Kirkuk, in northern Iraq.
Dibblee said weeks would go by "without anything happening whatsoever."
Then, suddenly, an improvised explosive device would go off, or he and his comrades would stumble upon bomb makers hidden away in little huts as his unit was doing its door-to-door raids.
"A lot of the time it was a family, and they didn't mean any wrong," Dibblee said. "But then we'd find guys up to no good."
'Strictly business'
Those "guys" included insurgents making IEDs (improvised explosive devices), as well as people placed on a "black list" or most-wanted list.
"It's one of those things that makes your stomach pull up into your chest," Dibblee said. "For a second there, you're like, 'I can't believe I'm actually doing this.' But then you think this is strictly business, and you've got to get the job done when it's all chaotic around you."
He would spend 14 months overseas, from January 2004 to February 2005.
After being stationed so far away from his hometown, Dibblee takes advantage of now being stationed a mere car ride away in Fort Campbell, Ky., to come back to Naperville for a brief visit with family, friends and his girlfriend, Amanda. He has been at Fort Campbell since last November.
"Usually when I'm home, I'm spending time with my friends that I've [known] for close to a decade now," Dibblee said.
He said the ability to drive around and see some familiar faces -- for far less than a $1,200 plane ticket from Hawaii would have cost -- is worth it.
"I'm going to take advantage of it," Dibblee said. "There's no point in me staying away if I don't have to."
In the past, explaining his duties to his friends had been tough for Dibblee. However, the soldier said people have been willing to accept his job rather than ask for elaborations.
"They used to ask me," he said. "They know what my job is, and they know what I do. They don't ask questions as much as they used to. They see it as let me do my own thing, rather than try to understand it."
'It's overwhelming'
Dibblee is scheduled to return for his second tour of duty in Iraq after September. And he likely will be doing the same thing he did -- except that he'll be going back to the front lines as a team leader, in charge of helping train and improve the confidence of a new crop of soldiers who have only been in the Army for a few months.
"Now I have to worry about, 'Am I doing a good-enough job? Can I bring these guys home safe?' " he said.
"The first time over, I was a private. My world didn't go beyond what I could see. Now there's that looming over me."
He also knows he could very well be held over an additional three or four months past his anticipated June 2008 discharge date with the Army.
While he knows what he'll be going back to, that doesn't necessarily make the thought of a second deployment any easier to digest.
"It's stressful either way," Dibblee said. "I do know what I'm going into, but at the same time the anxiety comes in that I want to leave sooner than later because I want to get it out of the way. ... I've been there once, and I know I can handle it."
Reflecting on his first venture into the war zone, Dibblee can't help but be amazed at what was asked of him.
"I was 19 years old, and I was making decisions that would change someone's life in two seconds," he said. "It's overwhelming."
Sun-Times News Group </STRONG>
© Copyright 2007 Sun-Times News Group | User Agreement (http://www.suntimes.com/aboutus/terms.static) and Privacy Policy (http://www.suntimes.com/aboutus/privacy.static)
(http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/313198,CST-NWS-soldier26.article (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/313198,CST-NWS-soldier26.article))
March 26, 2007
BY NICK FAWELL Naperville Sun
Naperville's Jon Dibblee knows what it's like to be in a war and look death in the face.
Having spent 13 months in Iraq as a U.S. Army infantryman kicking in doors and carrying out raids, the 22-year-old says you learn to deal with a new kind of fright.
"There were so many bullets and rockets flying all over the place," Dibblee said of some of the worst conditions he saw.
"I was convinced I wasn't going to see the next 20 seconds. I thought I was dead."
Dibblee graduated from Naperville North High School in 2003 and enlisted immediately after graduation in June. After being stationed in Georgia and Hawaii for seven months, he was sent to an area 35 miles south of Kirkuk, in northern Iraq.
Dibblee said weeks would go by "without anything happening whatsoever."
Then, suddenly, an improvised explosive device would go off, or he and his comrades would stumble upon bomb makers hidden away in little huts as his unit was doing its door-to-door raids.
"A lot of the time it was a family, and they didn't mean any wrong," Dibblee said. "But then we'd find guys up to no good."
'Strictly business'
Those "guys" included insurgents making IEDs (improvised explosive devices), as well as people placed on a "black list" or most-wanted list.
"It's one of those things that makes your stomach pull up into your chest," Dibblee said. "For a second there, you're like, 'I can't believe I'm actually doing this.' But then you think this is strictly business, and you've got to get the job done when it's all chaotic around you."
He would spend 14 months overseas, from January 2004 to February 2005.
After being stationed so far away from his hometown, Dibblee takes advantage of now being stationed a mere car ride away in Fort Campbell, Ky., to come back to Naperville for a brief visit with family, friends and his girlfriend, Amanda. He has been at Fort Campbell since last November.
"Usually when I'm home, I'm spending time with my friends that I've [known] for close to a decade now," Dibblee said.
He said the ability to drive around and see some familiar faces -- for far less than a $1,200 plane ticket from Hawaii would have cost -- is worth it.
"I'm going to take advantage of it," Dibblee said. "There's no point in me staying away if I don't have to."
In the past, explaining his duties to his friends had been tough for Dibblee. However, the soldier said people have been willing to accept his job rather than ask for elaborations.
"They used to ask me," he said. "They know what my job is, and they know what I do. They don't ask questions as much as they used to. They see it as let me do my own thing, rather than try to understand it."
'It's overwhelming'
Dibblee is scheduled to return for his second tour of duty in Iraq after September. And he likely will be doing the same thing he did -- except that he'll be going back to the front lines as a team leader, in charge of helping train and improve the confidence of a new crop of soldiers who have only been in the Army for a few months.
"Now I have to worry about, 'Am I doing a good-enough job? Can I bring these guys home safe?' " he said.
"The first time over, I was a private. My world didn't go beyond what I could see. Now there's that looming over me."
He also knows he could very well be held over an additional three or four months past his anticipated June 2008 discharge date with the Army.
While he knows what he'll be going back to, that doesn't necessarily make the thought of a second deployment any easier to digest.
"It's stressful either way," Dibblee said. "I do know what I'm going into, but at the same time the anxiety comes in that I want to leave sooner than later because I want to get it out of the way. ... I've been there once, and I know I can handle it."
Reflecting on his first venture into the war zone, Dibblee can't help but be amazed at what was asked of him.
"I was 19 years old, and I was making decisions that would change someone's life in two seconds," he said. "It's overwhelming."
Sun-Times News Group </STRONG>
© Copyright 2007 Sun-Times News Group | User Agreement (http://www.suntimes.com/aboutus/terms.static) and Privacy Policy (http://www.suntimes.com/aboutus/privacy.static)