WEBVTT 00:00.340 --> 00:02.880 Yeah . Okay . Um for the record , if 00:02.880 --> 00:05.120 you'll give me your first and last name 00:05.130 --> 00:08.470 and spell both of them please . Yes , 00:08.480 --> 00:10.850 my name is Staff Sergeant . Jason heck . 00:11.440 --> 00:15.360 It's A J . A . Y . S . O . N . H . E . 00:15.360 --> 00:19.270 C . K . Okay . And are you with the 00:19.270 --> 00:21.590 army ? The marines , The Navy . What 00:21.600 --> 00:23.656 which branch of the military are you 00:23.656 --> 00:25.656 with ? I am with the Marine corps . 00:26.340 --> 00:29.720 Okay . Now staff sergeant , as I 00:29.720 --> 00:32.540 understand it , you um just completed 00:32.550 --> 00:35.390 um Operation New Dawn overseas . Is 00:35.390 --> 00:39.170 that correct ? Yes I have . Okay . And 00:39.170 --> 00:41.392 you are from , is it dim it here in the 00:41.392 --> 00:45.060 panhandle ? Yes . Okay . Um 00:45.440 --> 00:47.773 Staff Sergeant I guess before I ask you , 00:47.773 --> 00:49.773 you know about the operation um you 00:49.773 --> 00:51.884 know are you are you planning to come 00:51.884 --> 00:54.107 back to dim it or I think I think I was 00:54.107 --> 00:56.162 told you have family in California . 00:56.162 --> 00:58.440 Where where are you planning to go now ? 00:58.440 --> 01:00.551 But you get to come home um Oceanside 01:00.551 --> 01:02.773 California is where my family is from . 01:02.940 --> 01:06.530 My my wife and kids are out there . Oh 01:06.540 --> 01:09.020 great . How many kids do you have ? I 01:09.020 --> 01:12.650 have to ? 2 , 2 girls . Good deals . So 01:12.660 --> 01:14.716 um you know or do you plan on coming 01:14.716 --> 01:16.827 back to the Panhandle anytime soon or 01:16.827 --> 01:19.490 California Where you plan to stay ? I'm 01:19.490 --> 01:23.210 not sure I would like to but it depends 01:23.210 --> 01:27.080 on how plans go when we get there . All 01:27.080 --> 01:29.250 right . When do you get to come home ? 01:30.340 --> 01:32.650 Okay . Hopefully before the holidays ? 01:33.440 --> 01:35.650 Oh great . Good deal . Good deal . Do 01:35.650 --> 01:37.817 you know ? Um Well you have to go back 01:37.817 --> 01:41.730 overseas at all after this ? Uh 01:41.740 --> 01:44.030 Honestly I really don't know you have 01:44.030 --> 01:46.460 to , I believe I have orders elsewhere 01:46.840 --> 01:48.840 that doesn't involve going overseas 01:48.840 --> 01:52.180 very often awesome . So you stay in the 01:52.180 --> 01:54.291 United States . That's good to hear I 01:54.291 --> 01:58.130 suppose . Alright . What ? 01:58.140 --> 02:00.210 Um Now I don't know what all you can 02:00.210 --> 02:02.043 and cannot tell me as far as the 02:02.043 --> 02:04.640 operation is concerned . Um you know , 02:04.640 --> 02:06.860 you guys , you know , made through it 02:06.870 --> 02:09.203 and you know , you get to come home now . 02:09.440 --> 02:11.820 How do you feel that being part of this 02:11.820 --> 02:13.930 operation ? How did that change your 02:13.930 --> 02:16.500 experience as someone who is in the 02:16.500 --> 02:20.450 military ? Well , 02:20.460 --> 02:23.850 uh this is my 3rd tour to Iraq . 02:24.540 --> 02:28.430 Okay , this is my first time as 02:28.440 --> 02:32.440 a training advisor , as part of this 02:32.450 --> 02:36.310 as as part of what this team we 02:36.310 --> 02:40.140 are with marty . Sorry , I was with the 02:40.140 --> 02:43.740 Iraqi Marine Iraqi Marine transition 02:43.740 --> 02:46.750 team training team was all right 02:47.740 --> 02:50.880 and our mission was to train 02:50.880 --> 02:54.850 advise and equip the Iraqi Marine Corps . 02:56.440 --> 02:59.660 Wow . What how I mean 03:00.340 --> 03:02.580 for you personally ? I mean , how was 03:02.580 --> 03:04.413 the experience ? Was it , was it 03:04.413 --> 03:06.880 exciting ? Was it frightening ? I mean , 03:06.890 --> 03:08.946 you know , everyone who's , you know 03:08.946 --> 03:10.946 overseas , you know , some say they 03:10.946 --> 03:13.112 love it . Some say they hated , I mean 03:13.112 --> 03:15.279 what was your personal experience ? Um 03:15.840 --> 03:18.520 It's about like everything else . It's 03:18.530 --> 03:20.641 life in general has its ups and downs 03:20.641 --> 03:22.530 and that's the same as it is on a 03:22.530 --> 03:24.586 deployment . It's gotta , it has its 03:24.586 --> 03:27.060 ups and downs . It's uh funny moments . 03:27.060 --> 03:30.760 It's it's tense moments , you know , 03:30.770 --> 03:33.250 but all in all it was a good deployment . 03:34.740 --> 03:38.050 What was the um , if you can tell me um , 03:38.050 --> 03:40.710 what is , what was the main purpose of 03:40.720 --> 03:42.870 Operation New Dawn ? What was it that 03:42.880 --> 03:44.769 the main thing that you guys were 03:44.769 --> 03:45.824 attempting to do ? 03:48.940 --> 03:52.910 New Dawn actually was a , it's the new 03:52.910 --> 03:56.270 mission after Operation Iraqi Freedom 03:56.270 --> 03:59.240 in 2009 . It was just the transition 03:59.240 --> 04:02.090 phase and they changed the name to 04:02.100 --> 04:05.920 Operation New Dawn . My main thing 04:05.920 --> 04:08.790 while I was there with my team was just 04:08.800 --> 04:12.730 to be with the Iraqi marines . So the 04:12.730 --> 04:14.990 rest of the mission , I'm not sure what 04:15.000 --> 04:18.990 all went on . Okay . So just 04:18.990 --> 04:22.330 your focus was just training the Iraqi 04:22.330 --> 04:24.386 troops pretty much is what you did . 04:24.386 --> 04:27.660 Okay . What um , 04:28.440 --> 04:30.570 now that you do get to come home and 04:30.570 --> 04:32.737 you know , you said you're going to go 04:32.737 --> 04:34.903 to California to be with your wife and 04:34.903 --> 04:37.126 Children . What are you going to do for 04:37.126 --> 04:37.100 the time being ? You know , until you 04:37.100 --> 04:40.630 receive your new orders ? I 04:40.640 --> 04:42.630 just pretty much just wait for the 04:42.630 --> 04:45.010 orders . That's , it's a waiting game . 04:45.010 --> 04:46.954 Now I believe I have orders in the 04:46.954 --> 04:49.080 system already . I just have to wait 04:49.080 --> 04:51.080 and see when I get home to see what 04:51.080 --> 04:54.260 date they are . Okay . 04:54.640 --> 04:57.600 What was 2009 ? Was that when you went 04:57.610 --> 05:01.380 overseas to Iraq ? Uh , no . 05:01.390 --> 05:04.750 Uh , I got home , 05:06.340 --> 05:08.950 There was one deployment in 2004 to 05:08.950 --> 05:12.610 Iraq . A deployment in 2008 . to 05:12.610 --> 05:16.080 Iraq and then we left May of 2011 to 05:16.080 --> 05:18.800 Iraq . Okay so you weren't there very 05:18.800 --> 05:21.860 long ? No no no . Okay . 05:22.640 --> 05:25.960 All right let's see . Um Mhm . 05:27.140 --> 05:30.530 Do you feel that your part of Operation 05:30.530 --> 05:32.586 New Dawn , I mean as far as training 05:32.586 --> 05:34.752 the Iraqi troops , do you feel that it 05:34.752 --> 05:37.180 was pretty successful ? I believe . So 05:37.190 --> 05:39.740 the Iraqi troops that were training the 05:39.740 --> 05:41.907 Iraqi marines , they're very receptive 05:41.907 --> 05:45.080 to the training that we provided them , 05:45.090 --> 05:46.979 they're willing to learn and they 05:46.979 --> 05:50.630 wanted to learn more . What what I 05:50.630 --> 05:53.030 guess . Let me let me reward that . 05:53.040 --> 05:57.030 What why why do 05:57.030 --> 05:58.974 you feel I mean just your personal 05:58.974 --> 06:00.863 opinion as someone in the U . S . 06:00.863 --> 06:02.970 Military , why do you feel that the 06:02.970 --> 06:05.690 knowledge that our military has is so 06:05.690 --> 06:08.700 much broader and needed to be shared 06:08.700 --> 06:11.890 with the troops in Iraq hard . What 06:11.890 --> 06:13.946 what does the United States military 06:13.946 --> 06:16.112 have knowledge ? Was that the that the 06:16.112 --> 06:19.760 Iraqi troops do not um 06:21.240 --> 06:25.070 leadership ? Okay A small 06:25.070 --> 06:27.050 small unit leadership . 06:28.740 --> 06:32.670 All the U . S . Military , they 06:32.670 --> 06:35.400 go from lower to higher . They're 06:35.400 --> 06:37.622 enlisted guys are in charge of enlisted 06:37.622 --> 06:39.733 guys with their officers in charge of 06:39.733 --> 06:43.650 them as well . And most 06:43.650 --> 06:45.761 of Middle Eastern countries including 06:45.761 --> 06:49.130 Iraq , they solely entrust their 06:49.130 --> 06:52.890 officers as their leaders which makes 06:52.890 --> 06:56.100 the enlisted guys wait for everything 06:56.100 --> 06:58.370 to come from the officers . So they 06:58.370 --> 07:02.260 cannot so they cannot you know they 07:03.040 --> 07:05.207 they can't make decisions on their own 07:05.207 --> 07:07.429 without someone telling them what to do 07:07.429 --> 07:10.160 so they don't have ranks . Um Like we 07:10.160 --> 07:12.216 do in the U . S . Military , there's 07:12.216 --> 07:14.327 just one head honchos and that's it . 07:14.530 --> 07:17.530 No they do have they do have rinks but 07:17.530 --> 07:20.760 it's not they don't rely on them , okay 07:21.840 --> 07:24.310 they don't uh they don't push that on 07:24.310 --> 07:27.360 them as hey you are a sergeant , you 07:27.360 --> 07:31.330 need to act as a sergeant , a sergeant 07:31.330 --> 07:34.790 and as another worker bee doing this 07:34.790 --> 07:37.140 and that when the lieutenant or the 07:37.150 --> 07:39.910 officer in charge of them is the head 07:39.910 --> 07:43.160 honchos okay . Gotcha . 07:44.640 --> 07:46.850 Let's see what um 07:48.540 --> 07:52.000 the now being you know overseas in Iraq 07:52.010 --> 07:54.232 the environment that you're in . I know 07:54.232 --> 07:56.454 you said in your experience you had ups 07:56.454 --> 07:58.566 and downs um I mean just being around 07:58.566 --> 08:00.732 you know the people that you know some 08:00.732 --> 08:02.788 hated us for so long , some didn't , 08:03.240 --> 08:05.650 did you feel I mean safe over there . 08:05.650 --> 08:07.761 The environment that you were in , do 08:07.761 --> 08:09.983 you feel like the U . S . Military that 08:09.983 --> 08:12.094 you know you guys were respected that 08:12.094 --> 08:14.150 you know there was really no fear in 08:14.150 --> 08:16.870 the area that you were in , the area 08:16.870 --> 08:19.560 that we're in was the port city of lung 08:19.560 --> 08:23.370 cancer which is way down south . Most 08:23.370 --> 08:25.910 of the profit of Iraq is brought in and 08:25.910 --> 08:28.930 out of that port and 08:28.940 --> 08:32.860 it's very I wouldn't say very but 08:33.340 --> 08:36.930 it is a safe location in Iraq . 08:38.640 --> 08:42.530 The people are as I told 08:42.530 --> 08:45.220 someone before it's if you go in and 08:45.220 --> 08:47.164 respect people you're going to get 08:47.164 --> 08:49.220 respect in return . If you go in and 08:49.220 --> 08:51.442 don't respect people , you're not going 08:51.442 --> 08:53.553 to get that in return . Um We did get 08:53.553 --> 08:55.776 the thumbs up and we did get the finger 08:55.776 --> 08:58.000 and you know , it's it's a it's a 08:58.000 --> 09:00.780 common thing . I mean it's it's 09:01.440 --> 09:04.140 you know , if I if I moved into an area 09:04.140 --> 09:06.420 and took over and handed it back , you 09:06.420 --> 09:08.198 know , I think I'd get the same 09:08.198 --> 09:10.420 response in the United States . Right ? 09:12.240 --> 09:15.790 Alrighty . Um You've given 09:15.790 --> 09:17.940 me a lot of information . Is there is 09:17.940 --> 09:20.162 there anything you'd like to add that I 09:20.162 --> 09:24.080 didn't ask you about ? Uh I'm not 09:24.080 --> 09:27.060 sure . I mean whatever you need to know , 09:27.840 --> 09:30.400 I can , you've given me a lot , you 09:30.400 --> 09:32.067 know , you told me about your 09:32.067 --> 09:34.233 experience , kind of giving me the low 09:34.233 --> 09:36.560 down on what your part of Operation New 09:36.560 --> 09:38.671 Dawn was , what you're doing when you 09:38.671 --> 09:40.782 come back , when you're coming back . 09:40.782 --> 09:43.540 Um I think I'm covered pretty well if 09:43.540 --> 09:45.707 there's nothing else you'd like to add 09:45.707 --> 09:47.873 that . I think we're pretty good to go 09:47.873 --> 09:48.250 okay .