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Reservists come home from Iraq

• A group of young Marine Corps reservists return to family, friends and work after seven months in Iraq.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — At 24 and 25 years old, five Marine reservists returning from duty in Iraq now have three mobilizations and two deployments to Iraq under their belts.

Gathered Wednesday at the Detachment 2 headquarters at Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany, the soldiers described the last seven months as a more peaceful, yet extremely hard-working period in their Marine Corps careers.

Lance Cpl. Chris Griggs said never expected the reserves to keep him so involved — until Sept. 11, 2001, which happened while he was in boot camp, he said.

“I had a feeling after that happened that we would be very busy,” the Valdosta native said.

He and Panama City resident Cpl. Brian Seago spent the last seven months at Camp Fallujah, where Griggs input data on vehicle maintenance and repairs for several branches of the U.S. military, he said.

“So they can see when it (a vehicle) is getting worked on and when it’s ready to go,” Griggs said.

There was little free time, and even fewer ways to spend it — or money — at Fallujah, he said.

“It’s pretty much going to the gym. We were pretty much working 13-14-hour days, so going to the gym, reading, or going to the Internet center (and) trying to keep up with everybody.

“It’s actually pretty dull over there,” he said.

But the pay is decent, and Griggs saved “a pretty penny” toward his “real life” in Georgia.

“You have nothing to really spend your money on over there, so as long as you don’t spend it all on the Internet... you can save it all up and pay off debts whenever you get back, buy a new vehicle if you need one, save money for school.”

Griggs has a year left toward a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Valdosta State University and plans to use his savings on a PhD in the same subject, he said.

Brian Seago’s friends at the Panama City beach club where he’s a bouncer and server welcomed the reservist back from his second deployment over the weekend.

“I catch the sunset pretty much every afternoon” in his civilian life, far from Camp Fallujah where he worked as a supply clerk.

His second deployment to Iraq was more peaceful than his first, and he had a new job and new title.

“We didn’t have any incoming over there, so as far as combat-wise, it was a lot more relaxed, a lot more peaceful and quiet,” Seago said.

Even after six years with the reserves, Seago said he never expected to spend as much time in a combat zone.

“I didn’t, I sure didn’t. I guess your mentality changes over time,” he said.

A spiced chai smoothie — available at the Green Beans Coffee cafes at many U.S. military installations — “keeps you honest,” said Sgt. Phillip Harrison of Fort Valley.

The beverage was a highlight of his seven months at Camp Taqqadum, known as Camp TQ.

Weightlifting was the husband and father’s activity of choice when he wasn’t engaged in medical logistics work at TQ, and the money he’s saved will be nice, because he returns to the U.S. in search of work.

“I’m gearing it toward getting my family situated,” he said.

Cpl. Daniel Erdman also returns from TQ to family and a girlfriend in Moultrie, after six-and-a-half years with the reserves.

“When I first enlisted, it was before 9/11. There was nothing going on,” Erdman said.

“You went to the reserves; you went to college. I didn’t expect this much to be going on. ”

Returning to computer science degree program at Abraham Baldwin College in Tifton, he said he knows he’s different from his classmates.

“I’m 24 now and I’ll still be a freshman in college. With all these other ones that are 17 or 18, it’s just a next step for them.

“I know I’m lucky to be able to get back and to get going again.”

He wants to continue studying computer science, a skill he relied upon heavily at TQ, at Valdosta State.

“That was all I did, about 15 hours a day, was at a computer,” handling all the medical supplies for the province, he said.

Cpl. Lisa Weeks returns home to a three-year-old niece in Blakely after seven months of driving a Marine Corps 7-ton truck around TQ.

She put about 6,000 miles on the heavy duty vehicle during her second deployment to Iraq, which she said was “a lot calmer” than the first.

The 25-year-old joined the Marines five-and-a-half years ago.

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