Photograph by Steven Higgs
Billy Reed shares stories about his year in Iraq while taking a break from his duties as house manager at the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity house. Constant threats from improvised explosive devices and car bombs, he said, left little time for relaxing in Iraq. He got used to it but never became complacent.
One member of Billy Reed's squad died when he was in Iraq - a soldier who strayed too far from the unit and was shot by a sniper.
But it was not this sort of face-to-face combat that Reed worried about. It was the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and car bombs that he feared the most.
"I always thought a war was about fighting an enemy in uniform, you know who the enemy is," he said. "But this situation is nothing like that."
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Bloomington native Reed, a solider in the Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 150th Field Artillery, served a one year tour in Iraq from 2005-2006.
"When we first got there we would just barrel through the cities and drove like a bat out of hell," he said. However, as time went on, he admitted, he got used to being in Iraq, adding.
"But you don't get complacent," he added.
The constant fear of IEDs and car bombs kept him worried everyday. "You just hope one doesn't get you," he said.
And he was lucky enough that one never did, although a few were close. Reed's convoys were struck by IEDs on three separate occasions during his one-year tour. They hit in front and in back of his vehicle on drives through the city.
"It's a dangerous place," he said. "Vehicles blow up. ... Insurgents don't care if innocent people get hurt."
Regardless of the danger, Reed signed up for another tour of duty while in Iraq.
The 46-year-old describes himself as a soldier who joined the armed forces in 1970. He then re-enlisted in 1991 and served a tour in Kuwait.
Photograph courtesy of Billy Reed
Reed’s unit worked closely with Iraqi police searching for insurgents. He said the 100-degree-plus weather, combined with 70 to 80 pounds of uniform armor was almost unbearable.
He has served in the Army National Guard for more than 10 years now.
When he is not on duty, Reed works as a housing manager for several IU fraternities. And while he may choose what task to complete first on campus, abroad there was no choice. It was always mission first.
"We woke up in the morning, knew we had a job and did what they told us to do," he said. "... If an IED went off, you kept going -- mission first."
To complete his missions, Reed worked with the Iraqi Police (IP). Together, the IP and Reed's troops tried to keep order in Iraq and searched cities for insurgents.
And if maintaining order wasn't difficult enough, detecting insurgents proved to be a challenge.
"As far as looking at somebody, you couldn't tell who the army was," Reed said. "...There was no way to know who was who."
So to find insurgents, they relied on a spray that picked up remnants of chemical explosives. If someone looked suspicious, Reed and others would ask them to show their hands and then sprayed them to check for contamination.
However, not everyone was cooperative. Sometimes men refused, but they were going to show their hands one way or another, said Reed.
Patrolling was made harder by their gear. While protective, vests and other equipment added an extra 70 to 80 pounds, according to Reed.
And with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, these extra pounds were not always welcomed. If they could get by with less, they did, said Reed.
"The trucks were air conditioned, but it didn't do a lot of good," he said. "I carried two drums (barrels) with me, and I remember smelling something burning. I looked back, and it was
Photograph courtsey of Billy Reed
Soldiers enjoyed playing with the Iraqi children, though only the young ones would talk to them. Older kids were wary of the Americans.
my drums melting together."
But regardless of the heat and the danger, the morale was always high, said Reed.
Although it was mission first, it was not the missions that made the biggest impression on Reed. It was the Iraqi school children who touched him most.
There were very few schools open when he got there, said Reed. But as time went on, more and more kids started to attend school.
Soldiers often had their families send school supplies for these kids, he said. Families would send packets of paper, pencils and "little toys from the dollar store."
But it was only the younger children who took these gifts and interacted with soldiers.
"I guess the younger ones were more curious," said Reed. "The kids older than 15 didn't talk to you much. ... They were leery of you. If you waved they did not wave back."
With regular interactions between him and the Iraqi kids, Reed could not help missing his own family back in Bloomington. A father of three, Reed said the worst part about Iraq was being away from his family.
Reed and his wife Marlene have two sons at home, and a third son, William, is getting ready for a tour in Iraq.
Although Reed agreed to another six years with the Army National Guard, he is still nervous about his son going there. But he understands why William must go.
"It (Iraq) gives me a newfound respect for my country," he said." I heard we were a free country, but this makes you see the freedoms you do have."
Erica Ballard can be reached at elballar@indiana.edu. Student journalist Alex Damron contributed to this story.