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By Al Zdon
John Hobot knew he would be joining the military as soon as the 9-11 terrorist attack happened in 2001.
He had other reasons too. His grandfather
served as a Marine in the Pacific in World War II. "I have 27 cousins and not one of them joined the military. It seemed like kind of a slap in grandfather's face that nobody in my generation had
served."
Up to that point, Hobot had done well creating a civilian life for himself.
He had been born in Edina, grew up in Brainerd and then moved to Chaska when he was 14 years old. At
Chaska High School, he played football and hockey and a little golf. He was captain of the football team his senior year as an undersized running back and defensive back. He graduated in 1996.
At St.
Thomas University, he majored in political science and minored in business. He considered joining ROTC, but didn't like the four-year commitment at the end.
"After 9-11, it took me a while, but I
finally made up my mind." His decision was to join the National Guard in Minnesota in December, 2002.
"There I was in basic training at 25 years old. I was a little out of shape, but after a couple of
months I think I was in the best shape of my life. Basic came pretty easily to me. I was used to having coaches yell at me, and so the mental part was not hard."
As soon as basic was over, Hobot
enrolled in the officer candidate program at Camp Ripley, and was commissioned in August of 2004. Then it was off to the field of his choice – tanks.
"I wanted to be in armored, and so in
November I was back at Fort Knox for the armored officers basic course. They taught us anything and everything you need to know about tanks to prepare you for war."
And going to war was not just an
option. "I knew when I was in the officer's basic course that I was going to Iraq or Afghanistan. It was real. I'm going to war. And so everything you studied, everything you learned prepared you for
war."
In April of 2005, the call came to Hobot's battalion in the 34th Division that they would indeed be heading off to Iraq. In October, the 1-194th Armored and several other battalions from the
34th headed off to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for more training.
"It was a very long six months to train, but we had a lot of things to learn as a brigade. It's rare that a whole brigade combat team
gets deployed. There were 5,000 of us to get ready, and we had to learn everything from individual soldier skills to the unit level, battalion level and brigade level."
Still, the process dragged
on. "After a while, I was saying, 'Just send me to Iraq. Let's get this deployment going.'"
After a short leave where he got engaged to his future wife, Amanda, Hobot joined his comrades in the
journey over the ocean to Kuwait for, you guessed it, more training.
"For one thing, we just had to get used to the climate. Plus it just takes a while to get all 5,000 troops there. We had to go to
the ranges and re-zero our weapons, and get used to going around in full battle rattle."
A soldier in Iraq will carry gear and wear protective armor that can weigh up to 70 lbs. "Eventually you get
used to it, but you do sweat a little bit."
On March 27, 2006, C Company traveled to Iraq. Hobot was a platoon leader.
The possibilities for his unit varied from running check points to doing
patrols to "kicking in doors." Their assignment, they found, was going to be in providing security for supply convoys.
"It's one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq, right up there with patrolling.
It's in the top three most dangerous anyway, and I don't think anybody can argue with that."
Charlie Company was assigned to Talill Air Force Base in southern Iraq, about 310 kilometers south of
Baghdad. Supplies would come into the base and have to be shipped to Baghdad and other points in Iraq. The supplies would be loaded in a 38-truck convoy.
Hobot's job was to make sure those supplies
got to where they were headed, and to make sure nobody got hurt along the way. It was a difficult mission with the Iraqi insurgents determined to stop them.
The unit lived in tents for a month, and
then moved into small trailers.
"It seems to be hotter in Iraq then it was in Kuwait. Maybe because it's out in the flat desert with no trees or anything. But it wasn't unusual to have days where it
would hit 140 or 145 degrees.
"The only thing I can compare that to is when you walk outdoors in Minnesota and it's 30 below and your nostrils instantly freeze. In Iraq in mid-August, you walk outside
and your nostrils burn. It's like running a hair dryer into your nose. It makes you want to breathe through your mouth."
In Iraq, there was more training in cultural awareness and heat awareness. "You
just have to drink a lot of water." And there was getting used to the idea that this was going to be your situation for the next year. "You can see what's coming. For the first time, it's real. You might
say, 'Holy smokes, this is not a joke.'"
The Minnesotans were replacing the 648th Engineers out of Georgia, and went through period of "right seat, left seat" on-the-job training. For several convoys,
the Minnesotans rode in the right seats just observing what the Geogians did. The two teams then shifted places with the Georgia soldiers observing and offering advice as the 1-194th took over the
vehicles. In the end, the Georgians went home.
"You have to be careful because a unit that's been here a while starts to cut corners. They know what they're doing, and they know where they can cut
corners, because it helps them do their job better. As new guys, we couldn't afford to cut corners."
Hobot's platoon consisted of 22 soldiers. They drove large, heavily armored and heavily weaponed
vehicles to protect the semi-trailer trucks in the convoy. The men had Humvees and LMTVs, a very large truck, to begin with. Later, they got ASVs to go along with the Humvees. "The ASV is like a little
tank on wheels. It was as close as I was going to get to tanks in Iraq."
On May 5th, 2006, the Minnesota Guard unit was on its own, and for a month Hobot's platoon lived a charmed existence. "All the
other platoons were getting hit left and right, but we had a little bit of luck."
The technique the unit used was to have two scout vehicles head up the road in front, one on either side. Hobot's
command vehicle would be next and the other vehicles would be interspersed with the convoy, with Hobot's second in command bringing up the rear. There would be six gun trucks in all.
The main danger
were the roadside bombs, or IEDs. The trips were often 300 miles one way, and so the Iraqi insurgents had a lot territory to use in planning an assault.
The attacks might simply consist of one bomb
going off. More likely, there would be small arms fire after the bomb stopped the convoy. And in some cases, there would also be rifle-propelled grenades – called a complex attack because the enemy
was using several means to try and kill the Americans.
The main thing, Hobot said, was to get the convoy moving again as quickly as possible and get out of the "kill zone." "They want to confuse
you and then attack you."
As officer in charge, Hobot had several options once the convoy was attacked including fighting back, immediately heading off down the road, or changing to the other lane to
continue forward. "You just have to make a decision, what you think is right."
On June 6, one of the scout vehicles was hit by a roadside bomb. "I had to quickly assess the damage and check out the
guys. They'll be checking each other out too to see if everyone's all right."
In this case, the vehicle had to be transported into Baghdad International Airport for major repairs. Another unit took
the convoy to its destination.
"On June 6th, it all sunk in. The reality and the seriousness sunk in. We could have just lost three guys out there. Thank God they were not hurt."
"We felt pretty
safe in our vehicles. The Army did everything it could to keep them armored, and they were upgrading all the time. It was about as safe as it could get, but still in the back of your mind, you wonder. If
an insurgent wants to kill you, they'll build a big enough bomb to do it."
Again, the platoon had another "lucky" streak, going a month without another incident. But following another IED on the 4th
of July, the pace picked up considerably. Hobot estimated that from that point on, one out of three convoys was attacked. "It was 'game on' after that."
The Independence Day attack was one Hobot won't
forget. "It was a 130mm mortar round about 10 meters from my truck, near the Baghdad International Airport. There was a loud boom and a huge fireball came across. I checked on the guys, making sure they
all had their fingers and toes and that nothing inside was hurting."
The bomb shredded three tires on the truck, but the "run-flat" air system kept the tires inflated until the convoy got to a safe
point. "There were holes in the truck, and the bullet-proof glass was cracked.
"That was a big wake-up call for me. In the back of my mind it occurred that I might not make it out of here. After that,
I was more in a life or death mode."
The Minnesotans learned through experience to get better at their jobs, including knowing the likely spots for attacks, assessing the damage quickly, and
returning the fire quickly. The intelligence unit that helped the platoon, Hobot said, did an outstanding job in keeping the team informed about what it might encounter.
The platoon also changed its
speed. They had been taught by their forbearers to hustle down the highway at a good speed. As time went by, though, the platoon changed the speed of the convoy to a more moderate rate. "By going slower
we were able to find the IEDs rather than hit them."
Communication was essential. Hobot's vehicle was known as "Bastard 1" and the other trucks were "Bastard 2" and so forth. All the trucks would know
instantly where the attack was coming from.
"We always shot back. Our brigade was known for stopping and fighting the enemy. When we got attacked we got busy. Later on, I learned from interpreters
that the insurgents were learning to avoid attacking the trucks with the big red bull (the 34th Division's logo) on them."
The enemy might be in a building, in a grove of trees, in the tall grass, on
the canals or wadis that are common in the Iraqi countryside.
The Minnesotans would fight back with 50 caliber machine guns and guns that fired explosive charges. The later weapon was especially
feared by the enemy. The platoon could also call in attack helicopters to the scene.
And so on it went for 80 missions. Eighty times the platoon got in their trucks and headed north to protect a
convoy, and the reports on the missions fell into a dull and deadly cadence: IED, IED, small arms fire, complex attack, IED, IED, IED, complex attack, small arms fire, IED, complex attack.
"You get
better and better at it, but at the same time you realize that you could do everything right and still get killed out there." Several in the brigade did get killed. "That was always very tough."
One
of the toughest things, though, besides the enemy attacks, was the news near the end of the brigade's year in combat that they were going to be extended for four months.
"We all kind of knew it was
coming. We were good at what we were doing, and why would they send us home? They needed us to support the surge."
Still, when the news came, Hobot said morale went into the toilet for a couple of
weeks. "The way I told them was that I knew they were all looking forward to spending that tax free money they were earning. I said they were going to have a lot more of that tax free money. They just
looked at me like, 'Are you kidding me?'"
Hobot said the brigade went through the classic phases of anger, denial and finally acceptance. "All you could do was suck it up and drive on. You had to turn
all that anger back into the mission."
The Minnesotans were due to go home in March of 2007 and instead stayed in Iraq until July and August.
Hobot's platoon got a new job for a time guarding a
radio relay station, and then did route clearing assignments on Iraqi roads.
It was during these later months in Iraq that Hobot often worked with an interpreter, and was able to hone his Arabic
speaking skills that he had learned through a special Army course at Camp Shelby.
"I got to be pretty decent at speaking the language, although I was limited to what I needed for the job. I could say,
'Do you have weapons?' and, "Are you lying to me?' and, 'I know you're lying to me.'
"It would throw them for a loop to hear an American speaking Arabic. And even though I didn't know that much
Arabic, I made them think I did. I would spend an hour each day with my interpreter, improving my Arabic and improving his English."
The last month in Iraq was spent guarding convoys again. It was
tense duty. "After 16 months of seeing my guys get attacked, just living in that operating tempo, seeing what we saw, when we did that last mission, it was like having the weight of the world lifted off
our shoulders."
Despite the continuous bomb and weapons attacks, not one person in Hobot's platoon was seriously hurt.
The way home was wonderful for the Brigade with warm welcomes in Maine where
they landed, and at Camp McCoy and Volk Field in Wisconsin. There was a police and motorcycle escort to the Sauk Centre armory for the final ceremony.
"The first month back was kind of like a dream
world. Am I really out here fishing?"
The hardest adjustment back home for many was simply running their lives again, Hobot said. "In the military, everything is pre-planned for you. You don't have to
do anything except do your job well. Back home, all of sudden you have to make choices about what you want to do with your life."
Another area of adjustment was the fact that 22 months had gone by.
"For us who were deployed, it was like 22 months of a dream of how things used to be, but guess what, live moves on. People and things change in 22 months, and can be much different than the dream world
you left behind."
John and Amanda got married three weeks after the lieutenant got home. "It was good for me. All I had to do is get my tux, Amanda had done everything else for the wedding."
Hobot
went back to work at General Electric in Eden Prairie, where he had worked for six years, but the job wasn't the same. "I didn't feel right, I wasn't enjoying it any more. Plus I was used to the
responsibility of 22 guys."
Hobot did some part-time work with the National Guard and then applied and won the job as public affairs officer in February this year. "I'm loving it. I know I'm an armor
officer and PA is not the norm for that, but it's something new every day, different things. I enjoy it."
He says that he knows the possibility of going back to Iraq or some other overseas duty is
likely. "My wife accepts that too. There's a good possibility that I'll go back in a couple of years. National Guard people often get deployed a couple of times. The Guard used to be a strategic reserve,
but now we're an operating force."
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