Georgia, Fort Stewart YCA Graduate in Iraq

You may not remember me; I was in your spring '01 class. Immediately after graduating from YCA, I continued my college education that I started atYCA. Halfway through my second semester of school, everything in our country was halted by the attacks on our country on September 11th. After that happened, I realized that I wanted to be a part of something larger than myself, quit going to school, and enlisted in the Marine Corps security force program. Oddly enough, it was exactly one year after my enrollment in the Youth ChalleNGe program.

Since then, I have been to various schools up and down the East coast and finally ended up in Kings Bay, GA doing "Security Force" duties. Once my time at that command was over I reported to my current unit, 3rd Battalion 4th Marine Division India Company, in 29 Palms, CA. Two months after reporting in, we were deployed to Okinawa, Japan where we spent two months. My time there was a great experience of a foreign culture, however short-lived. In February of 2004, we were deployed to conduct SASO (Stability And Support Operations) in Rawah, Iraq. It's a small remote town, south of the Syrian border. We remained there conducting patrols and handing out candy to Iraqi children until April. One night in Rawah, we were told to pack everything up and that we would be leaving in 4-6 hours and moving to Fallujah. Once we arrived at our firm base in Fallujah, we were welcomed by some of the local Iraqis with a mortar attack and some small arms fire into our tent area. Nobody was injured in the attack and we were more than happy to return the favor the next day, we pushed into the city. Our entire battalion pushed into the city until nightfall came. We were about 8 blocks into the city when the first day ended. We held up there for the night and took up positions on the rooftops of the buildings. President Bush ordered his cease-fire the next day and we were ordered to hold. The first week and a half that we were there was entertaining. We were in firefights every night and even a few during the day. Total, we spent 27 days in Fallujah. Once we pulled out, we moved back up to Rawah where we finished the rest of our deployment which ended in July.

We have since been back in the states doing what seems like endless training. Up until about a week ago, we had been told that we would be going back in February or March. Then they changed "the word" and now we're going to be back in Fallujah by the end of January. They are telling us that if things there calm down we will be going into Ramdi.

While on a mission in Iraq I was talking with one of my friends and we found out that we have something in common. He was a cadet in the Wisconsin YCA, and we shared some of our stories. This letter was just an update to let you know what one of your former cadets is doing. Through everything that I have done in the last three years I have always looked back at my experiences at YCA and thought about how bad I thought things were when I was there, and looking back, it pales in comparison. Although it has helped me get through everything I have yet experienced and will do in the future. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone who may find it interesting, including any future cadets that may need a little motivation.
R/S
Justin W. Kurtz
LCpl/ USMC/ 0311