The Square Life

Sometimes service comes in camo. At least, that’s what infantryman Andrew Nutter will tell you. Nutter fought with the U. S. Army, First Striker Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division from October 2004 to October 2005. His main task, besides fighting, was to support the new Iraqi army.
“They’re not seasoned soldiers,” Nutter said. “We’d spend probably four hours a day doing joint missions with them and teaching them to be soldiers.”
Nutter said they sometimes gave the Iraqi soldiers their own personal equipment, such as gloves, knee pads and sunglasses.
Besides giving them equipment to make their job easier, Nutter said they got down in the trenches with them--literally.
“My job was to fight side by side with the Iraqi soldiers, as if they were our brothers,” he said. “They died right next to us.”
Nutter said a lot of civilian casualties were because of roadside bombs hidden in the potholes in the road. So, his division would help the army engineers fill potholes with asphalt in the dead of night.
“The insurgants would fill the potholes with roadside bombs,” Nutter said. “So we’d go out in the middle of the night, about two o’clock in the morning, and we’d be out there providing security for the workers.”
But not all Nutter’s service was down in the trenches. He said a lot of service they did was to help people they saw on the street.
"There were these groups of kids that would follow us around,” Nutter said. “So I’d always carry little toy cars and candy in my pockets to give to them.”
Nutter has been back from Iraq for a year now, and keeps to his Army roots by acting as a drill sargeant in the Army Reserves. That is, when he has time away from his classes at UVSC.
“I’m using the G.I. bill to attend school right now,” he said. “I don’t really know what I’m studying yet. I haven’t gone to school in eight years.”
Nutter said the adjustment back to civilian life was “a little strange.” But no matter the change. Nutter said he’d definitely go back, given the choice.
“It was the greatest experience of my life, to go over there,” Nutter said. “If I was asked to go again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”