Wounded Nevada Guardsman enjoys brief war respite

Will Oremus

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 | 11:18 a.m.

After six years of active duty in the infantry, Sgt. Jeremy McLoughlin decided he had seen enough of the military life and was ready to settle down.

He moved to Las Vegas in December with his wife, Amy, and his daughter, Shannon, and joined a Nevada Army National Guard unit stationed in Henderson. The McLoughlins expected the typical National Guard experience: "barbeques, one weekend a month, two weeks a year," Jeremy McLoughlin said. They began preparing to buy a house.

Three months later he was on a plane, heading to Iraq with the 72nd Military Police Company, assigned to the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

This week McLoughlin is home, but it's a temporary luxury.

He's savoring two weeks of convalescent leave with his family after being wounded by shrapnel in his leg last month when his Humvee hit a land mine. He will rejoin his unit when the leave ends.

He is one of two members of the Nevada National Guard who have been injured in Iraq, according to guard spokeswoman April Conway. No Nevada guard members have died.

McLoughlin's colleague, Spc. Brian Robinson of Las Vegas, 72nd Military Company, is also in Las Vegas convalescing after being injured in July during an attack on a convoy. Because his injuries were more serious -- his ears were damaged and he has broken bones -- he will not return to the unit, Conway said.

They were among 300 to 325 troops representing the Nevada guard in Southwest Asia in three companies: the Army Guard's 72nd Military Police Company of Henderson in Baghdad, the Army Guard's 777th Engineer Utilities Team Company of Las Vegas in Baghdad and Kuwait, and the Air Guard's 152nd Airlift Wing of Reno in Qatar. The two Army units have been overseas since March, the 152nd since August, Conway said.

Although he wishes he had more time at home, McLoughlin said he feels lucky just to be alive.

"I feel that I have a new life right now," he said. He said his old life ended on Aug. 19 when a remote explosive device was detonated underneath the Humvee he was riding in.

McLoughlin said his Humvee, the last in a convoy, had its front quarter panel blown off.

"They were waiting to initiate the explosion," he said. "If it had been two seconds later, I would have been dead."

McLoughlin said he blacked out for several seconds before waking up and realizing he had been hit. He said he looked at the driver, Spc. Mark Carabajal of Las Vegas, and the other passenger, whose name he can't remember, and asked if they were OK.

When they nodded their heads yes, McLoughlin immediately replied: "Then let's get the (expletive) out of here."

On Wednesday night 13-month-old Shannon sat on the carpeted floor of the apartment playing as her father recounted his brush with death. McLoughlin, tall and tattooed, swept his daughter into his arms and kissed her on the cheek.

Amy McLoughlin explained that Shannon doesn't understand yet what it means when her father goes away.

"We taped videos (of Jeremy) before he left," she said. "She watched them every day, sometimes even a couple times a day.

When Shannon saw her father's face on the television and heard his voice, "she used to try to talk to him," Amy McLoughlin said. "She'd go bring stuff and show it to him."

The family will have to readjust again when it comes time for Jeremy to return to Baghdad.

Amy and Shannon will return to their routine of writing letters and e-mails, watching the news every night and hoping for the best.

For Jeremy the return to active duty means being ready to get back in a Humvee and continue his mission of guarding high-security prisoners of war at the Abu Ghraib prison, knowing that there could always be more explosives hidden in the sand.

"I don't really want to get back in the vehicle," he said. "But it's like falling off a horse. What are you going to do? You get back on."

McLoughlin said the hardest part of his job is avoiding complacency. Working 12-hour shifts in oppressive heat that he described as "way worse than Las Vegas," that's no mean feat.

But he lives indoors, and leisure-time games like Scrabble, Monopoly and video games help McLoughlin and his compatriots relax.

"I play (Sony PlayStation game) 'Command and Conquer,' " McLoughlin said. "You can assault Baghdad -- that's the first mission."

Though he said he knows some Iraqi citizens who are friendly and helpful, McLoughlin doesn't claim to be a benevolent liberator. He said he views Baghdad as "a hostile environment," and he is adamant that the U.S. military needs to stay there until the region is secured.

"We need to capture Saddam ... We just need to finish the job that was started," he said. "If we don't finish it, then we're saying it's open game on the U.S."

From a personal standpoint, though, his main priority is clear: "I just want to complete the mission and come home safely."