Under fire

As the C-130 Hercules bound for Central Iraq jerked through the air, Ranger Parrish couldn't help but reflect on how quickly his life had changed.

“There were probably fifty of us squeezed in tight with our rec sacks sitting in our laps,” he said. “We were strapped in like a race car… and then all of the sudden we were going down.”

The pilot was performing a tactical landing in which they raced to a high enough altitude to avoid surface-to-air missiles and then landed as quickly as possible, like a 150,000-pound stone falling from the sky.

His mind spinning, he was put into a convoy that would take him into the small town of Al Owja, where Saddam Hussein had been captured less than a week earlier. Almost immediately, they came under enemy fire.

“I just kind of sat there,” he said. “Someone said, 'Parrish! Shoot back!' I didn't know what I was shooting at, so I just stuck my gun< out and fired.”

It had been a week since he had learned that he was going to Iraq. Before he would return home, he would survive some of the fiercest fighting in the region and, eventually, stand in the middle of Saddam Hussein's palace.

−◊−

For Parrish, joining the Army was like taking over the family business.

“Everyone in my family has been in a war,” said Ranger Parrish, a 21-year-old Iraq War veteran and student at North Lake College. “My uncle and my dad were both in Vietnam. My uncle is in the Army right now. He's a sergeant major in the National Guard.”

Ranger's father, Lt. Col. Gary Parrish, was an Army Ranger and a career officer. “My dad was a big Army/football guy,” he said, smiling. “When I was a kid growing up, I was just the kicker on the football team. I was a soccer person.”

At the time, following in his father's military footsteps was not something he ever envisioned for himself.

During the summer of his eighth grade year, his father died of a heart attack. Of the many reasons that he joined the Army, his dad's death was the most important. “I felt at the time that it was for my dad… making it up for being everything he didn't want me to be before he died,” he said.

When high school ended, Parrish didn't know what he wanted or where he was going. “I went to the Army just because I didn't want to go to school,” he remembered.

−◊−

After graduating high school, Parrish was sent to Fort Benning, Ga. where he would go through basic training. “Basic training was hell,” he laughed. “It was waking up at five in the morning every single day, doing push-ups, sit-ups, running, getting yelled at… it was hell.”

Once basic training was finished, Parrish and was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. Fort Hood was most notable at the time for being the home of the 4th Infantry Division, which was already serving in Iraq.

Parrish thought he would be serving in the 1st Cavalry Division – safe from serving in Iraq. But a call from his commanding officer while he was on leave, telling him that he'd been reassigned to the 4th Infantry, changed everything.

“I actually told the guy in charge of me, 'I'll be back tomorrow,'” he remembered. “He told me I needed to get back that day.”

He came back a day late, deciding to take the matter into his own hands. “I was really pissed off about it,” he said. “It was part denial and part shock.”

It was his mother who ultimately gave him some comfort. “She told me that if I survive then I get to do stuff like [this interview] and if I die then I die with honor,” he recalled.

On the last day, as they prepared to leave Fort Hood bound for Kuwait, his brother and his best friend arrived to see him off. “I remember saying goodbye to my brother… I
didn't show it because I wanted to be strong, but as soon as I got on that plane I cried my eyes out.”

“The thought of never seeing someone again is really, really scary,” he said. “You see it in movies and on the news every day … but until you know somebody. Just the thought of never seeing my brother or my mom… everything that I knew before I put on an Army uniform. The fact that I could be playing soccer somewhere, getting messed up with my brother and my friends on the weekends, but instead I had to put on a uniform and go to Iraq. It sucked.”

From Fort Hood, they made their way to Dallas, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Kuwait before finally arriving in Iraq.

−◊−

Adjusting to life on the ground in Iraq was not an easy task. Parrish's platoon, along with one other platoon, stayed in a small police compound that had been raided a few months earlier. It was crowded and uncomfortable.

“I went from having life good – being at my best friend's house, waking up whenever I wanted to waking up whenever bombs …,” he said, his voice trailing off. “It becomes life. You can only live in so much hell before you become a part of it.”

“The first couple of days really, really sucked.”

The capture of Saddam Hussein in Al Owja on December 13, 2004, a week before Parrish arrived, had been a proud moment for the 4th Infantry. Many of his fellow soldiers believed that with Hussein in captivity, the war would soon be over and they would be going home. “There's a lot of people that really thought that was the main reason we went over there: To capture Saddam,” he said. “Everyone was really happy because there were talks of about going home, but at the same time the fighting was increasing, the bombs were going off more and the insurgents were getting smarter.”

In fact, guarding the small town, which was roughly the size of the North Lake campus, was becoming increasingly difficult. “It was just insane because people were rioting because Saddam got caught,” said Parrish.

Parrish and his unit were responsible for finding and removing those who remained loyal to Saddam. Every night they raided houses where insurgents were believed to be hiding. Parrish served as a member of the assault squad. He was often the first person in the door. “[On the raids] I don't think I ever felt so close and so much further away from God at the same time,” he said. “You pray to God that you don't get killed but at the same time you damn God for being over there in the first place.”

It is the memory of the raids that remain with Parrish today. “Whenever we did raids,” he said, “we'd separate the women and children and then take them in. We'd put sandbags over their heads and take them out of the house.”

One particular incident is most vivid to Parrish. “Sometimes, the women and children would fight back, and this time one of the women fought with a gun,” he said. “You have to do what you have to do.”

“It's a target until the aftermath when you realize what you've done,” he remembers, looking down into his hands. “It doesn't go away.”

“Little kids over there are born into that,” said Parrish. “They're born with an AK-47 in their hands, and they don't go anywhere without it. It sucks to see something like that happen. Their fathers might die or go to prison, but their kids are going to do the same thing, so it's never-ending.”

One child, in particular, sticks out in his mind. “I saw him every single day asking for food and water,” he said, a slight smile creeping across his face. “I took a long time to realize that for this kid, it must be tough to live life the way he does. He's probably doing the same thing right now, asking soldiers for food and water. They are people too. Not all of them are bad.”

−◊−

In the March 2005, Parrish and his unit received word that they would be going home. It was a story they had heard before, and they didn't believe it this time.

“Our company commander had told us, 'Pack up, 'cause you're leaving in a week,' and we didn't do anything,” he said. “So, one night while we were sleeping he came in and said, 'What are you doing? You're getting on a convoy and leaving for Kuwait in 10 minutes!'”

The scene was one of jubilant chaos, according to Parrish. Soldiers rushed around, trying to get all of their belongings packed. “People were wearing other people's boots, and some people weren't wearing any socks,” he said.

“We were really going home.” They took a convoy south, through Baghdad, en route to Kuwait, the same trip he'd made when first coming into Iraq.

After a couple of days, they boarded a plane for the U.S. by way of Germany. “Everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs. It was a happy day. I wish I could relive that moment because I've never been so happy. That's one of the best moments of my life.”

The celebratory mood lasted all the way back to Fort Hood, where they got off the plane, and got into a bus which would take them to their Welcome Home ceremony. With one foot off the plane, Parrish could tell he was home. “I could see a big sign that said, 'Welcome Home, Ranger!' and I started crying,” he recalled. “It was so great. It was the best day of my life. Seeing my mom and my brother there. I didn't think I'd ever see them again.”

Parrish got to leave that day to be with his family, and he stayed with them at a hotel near the base. “The very first meal I had when I came back was McDonald's,” he laughed. “I had two Double Quarter Pounders with cheese. Eating MRE's for months, they're so healthy and I got back and ate the most greasy, best sandwich in the world.”

It took time for things to return to normal after he returned home. The day-to-day life in Iraq was still with him. “I didn't get much sleep at first,” he said. “I had to sleep with a pillow in my hands. I was used to sleeping holding my weapon and it was different going to sleep with nothing in my hands.”

−◊−

Serving in Iraq was a life-altering experience for him. “It sucks that it takes something that extreme to really open your eyes to life,” he said. “After being over there and shooting, living in hell, patrolling the same streets every single day and raiding the same houses for months and moths… I get back and wonder what is it for? I mean, I got medals, but some things… they're not worth the medals. People lose their lives. I'd love to sit here with a couple of friends that I lost just like before the Army, but Iraq is where they died.”

“My views towards the war totally changed after being there,” he said.

At home, now, Parrish feels like he's been a part of something that unites him with his family, especially his dad.

“I don't think he'd like my tattoos at all,” he laughs. “but he wanted me to play football and he wanted me to be in the Army.”

“One out of two ain't bad.”

— For a transcript of Dylan Biles' interview with Ranger Parrish, go to:
http://www.theblazeronline.com