BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq –
Staff Sgt. Wilbert G.B. Josef
Home Unit: 1st Logistics Readiness Squadron
Location: Balad, Iraq
What do you do? Vehicle Maintainer
What's a day in the life like ... while in Balad? Working on General Purpose Vehicles 6 days a week.
What will you remember about your deployment 20 years from now? The different people that I've come across.
What's the most useful item you packed? My laptop.
When did you realize you "weren't in Kansas anymore;" aka your "Dorothy" moment? When I was already wearing my helmet and vest, geared up and experiencing a C-130 landing.
What has been the highlight of your tour? Volunteering at the Air Force Theater hospital helipad, transporting wounded soldiers, locals, civilians from the helicopters to the hospital.
What's the best part of the deployment? Incomparable training, experience and money.
The worst part? Being away from my family and the casualties of war
What new survival skill have you learned? Just being able to know how, when and where to take cover every time you hear the alarm siren.
What do you do during down time? Volunteering at the hospital.
What is the first thing you will do when you return? Spend time with my wife and kid.
What is the first thing you will eat when you return? Steak and a bottle of red wine, preferably Merlot.
What insight/experience will you take away from your time over there? I believe that there are no good or bad experiences in life; it is just a matter of how well one faces the consequences of it. It is how you RESPOND positively and not how you REACT negatively.
What do you miss the most? Just having to relax in a serene environment and forget about all the mortar attacks and alarms that I hear time and again.
How is your job that you are doing now different from the job back stateside? The missions and how quickly we have to adapt.
Have you tried the local cuisine? No.