Tower soldier home on leave from Iraq
Army Specialist Jeremy Barnby, 20, of Tower has been enjoying his 15 days of leave in the place he calls home.
Barnby, who has been deployed to Iraq since earlier this year, is a paint ball fanatic.
On Monday, outside the house of his parents David and Mary Lou, a stone throw from the Tower village limits, he was checking out the accuracy of a paint ball gun and firing off a quick round. His dad and brother Jacob, 12, watched.
He admits to being a paint ball gun enthusiast. In one of the pictures from his tour in Iraq, Barnby is seen in desert Army fatigues with a paint ball gun magazine in his hand.
While home he attended a Red Wing game last Saturday, which ended a long Detroit winning streak. ?It?s probably my fault they lost,? he said.
Jeremy also may participate in opening day of the firearm deer season. After that, he?ll begin his three-day journey back November 16 to wrap up the final months of his tour in Iraq.
Mary Lou Barnby said she is proud of her son, ?I just don?t like having him over there.? Mary keeps in contact with him via the Internet and only worries when she hasn?t heard from him in two or three days.
Jeremy?s father David is proud of all the men and women serving in the armed services.
?THEY ARE there and they are doing a duty and they are sacrificing their lives,? said Dave Barnby. ?It?s something that the American people have done for years and will continue to do, and we should just stand behind them.?
Barnby is part of the Third Infantry and has taken part in house raids, searched homes for terrorists and insurgents, and has participated in dismount operations along with his transportation duties.
He entered the delayed entry program February 2003 while still in school, and left for basic training in late July 2003.
After graduation from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Barnby was deployed to South Korea for a year, and after a holiday stay home last year, he traveled to Fort Stewart and joined the Third Infantry Division, where he received additional training before shipping out to Iraq.
His said the experiences have been both good and bad in Iraq. Jeremy has been impressed with the Iraqi people, ?you can see the joy on their faces when we come around. All of the kids come out of the houses and swarm all over the Humvees. They?ll be looking for chocolate or candy.
?YOU CAN SEE how happy their parents are, especially the poor ones, when we give them a back pack or a pair of shoes. It?s also nice to see the Iraq security force improving.?
Security personnel have been able to conduct missions without support from coalition troops, Barnby said. ?Nine months there, it?s improved 1,000 percent. They get a lot more confident when they work with us. If we see something they need to do differently we?ll tell them.?
Car bombs and improvised explosive device (IED) remain daily concerns and dangers. In April, three members of the Third Infantry lost their lives when an IED destroyed a Humvee they were traveling in.
?On my very fist patrol, March 3, we were responding to an incident where they found a suspected IED,? said Barnby. ?We were going out there to help out, and on the way there the Humvee in back of me was hit. I couldn?t believe it was actually happening. Our guys got scratched up a little bit. I guess it hurt a couple of civilians too.?
JEREMY RECALLED one incident between Baghdad Airport and his camp when
?He hit the Humvee,? Jeremy said. The person then drove away before shots could be fired.
?Later there was a car bomb that went off in the same area,? said Barnby. ?It could have been a car bomb that failed to detonate.
?I?m glad we?re over there. I?m not looking to say if we should be over there or not. All I know is that we are there so we have to make the best of it.?
Mary added: ?We trust in God to keep him safe. I?ll be glad when he is out of there.?
Jeremy has a twin brother, Jonathan.