Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:47 | Jesse Walburn grew up wanting to go infantry. His recruiter got tired of talking to him before he was old enough and, when he was, he enlisted and set off to basic and Airborne school. Through no fault of his own, he was cut in a winnowing process. Then he received orders for the 82nd Airborne anyway. Is this a mistake?
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It was intimidating for Jesse Walburn when he arrived at the 82nd Airborne. He was not Airborne qualified but he was sent there, anyway. As soon as the long rucks started, though, he gained respect because he could carry a lot and he never quit. When his unit deployed to Afghanistan, they kind of rambled around waiting for an assignment.
It was slow in the beginning when Jesse Walburn's unit set up a base in the Arghandab Valley. The first casualty was memorable. Right where he had just knelt down, another man was seriously wounded by an IED. A certain mindset was needed to deal with this.
Jesse Walburn's first firefight started when a round from a recoilless rifle hit his Humvee. The rest of the team dismounted and moved on the enemy but, as the driver, he was required to stay with the vehicle. It had a flat tire and he was told to get out and change it. Then the gunfire started up again.
The base was not in good shape when Jesse Walburn's unit took it over. They were lucky to have a man who had a construction background and he built better towers and ran electricity where he could. The road to the base was always infested with IED's, which was a real headache in several ways. Then, the real fighting season heated up.
When a pallet was floating away in the river, a man tried to retrieve it and was knocked out when it bobbed up and hit him in the face. He had to be evacuated and Jesse Walburn recalls that they never found out what happened to him. He and a couple of other guys felt guilty about two other casualties suffered by the unit because they felt partly responsible. (Caution: strong language)
They were on their way back to base as night fell. After a pause the word was passed to move out but there were three man who didn't get the word. Jesse Walburn describes the mad scramble that happened once they were missed.
Coming home from that first deployment, Jesse Walburn talked to a psychiatrist who told him about a simple concept that eased his mind about Afghanistan. He later deployed there again for another highly kinetic tour and then he was lucky to have have two non-combat deployments that were actually fun.
They made a difference and the world was left better. That's what Jesse Walburn wants people to remember about Afghanistan. He reveals what music they were listening to while he was there and he describes the positive effects of getting together for reunions.
