Monday, November 11, 2013

Remembering Their Service: An Interview with a Veteran

 
About the Interviewee: 
Idelfonso “Pancho” Colon Jr.  is the commander of the American Legion department of Puerto Rico.  He is a young veteran, only in his early fifties.  He was severely wounded while in combat in Iraq, and was honorably discharged.  He served for twenty-five years in the Marine Corps, and was First Sergeant at the time of his injury.  Today, he devotes most of his time to serving veterans here in Puerto Rico.  Below is a transcribed version of a phone interview from November 7, 2013.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Abigail:  What was your role within that capacity [as First Sergeant]?

Pancho : Really, I’m kinda brain-washed.  Haha.  I was part of Mission Accomplishment, you know, taking care of the people under me, and trying to get them home.

A: Why did you decide to join the Marines?

P: Oh, well it’s a two part thing. 1) The patriotism I had growing up, and I had a lot of family members in the military, and they were an example to me, and I followed their footsteps.  And 2) everyone talks about how hard it is to be in the Marines, so I thought I’d take on that challenge.
Everyone chooses to join for different reasons… One of my company commanders… he was a Harvard grad, and I used to say “what the heck are you doing here?” because he could pretty much write his own checks [with a civilian job].  But he would tell me, “I’m here because this is what I want to do-- serve my country.”  And I was like, wow, we’re talking about a man who could pretty much pick out what he wants to do in life, and… he was serving his country for peanuts.

A:  You know young people like me are looking to go pretty far in life, and sometimes we can be, even with the best intentions, selfish in those desires.  But no matter what, it’s important to find a way to give back.  And maybe that’s not what he did, but some way to give back.

P: Exactly… By the way, today is my ninth “Alive Day.” Today is the day I was wounded in Iraq, exactly nine years ago. 

A: So this is a day you kinda commemorate each year?

P: Not really commemorate, but it’s hard to forget, but you know, wounded soldiers, they always call the day [that they were wounded] their “Alive Day.”

A: Was there one time, for you as someone serving in the Marines, when you suddenly realized the gravity of your role in the armed forces?

P: Oh yes, yes.  I can give you an example.  It’s a little horrific, but it’s a great example for your question.  You know, nobody really wants to go to war but it’s one of those necessary evils I guess.  When we were in Talusha, we entered this torture chamber, and just to see that kinda vindicated the reason I was there.  I had my doubts, but when I saw these places with knee hooks and blood on the cement floors, I knew we were doing the right thing.  It was a pivotal moment… I was questioning my will to follow orders, but when you actually see the reality, these places where there are mass graves, where recently, they were still torturing people, and you liberate people from that, and it’s like “wow.”
One of the companies that I was first sergeant in was the one that liberated the POWs (Prisoners of War) at the beginning of the war—the two pilots, the woman-- they were a part of that group.  When you actually see something like that, it puts it back in perspective-- that what I’m doing here is really worthwhile. 
Not only that, but the schools that we built while we were there, the infrastructure that we helped build.  We brought water to places that never had water, never had electricity.  Even though we destroyed stuff, we actually did some humanitarian, “good” things too.

A:  Right.  It’s interesting to hear that perspective because there’s been a bit of a backlash about U.S. intervention, going into other places, but I watched this really interesting documentary recently called “The World Without US.”  This British professor did a study, and he concluded that if the United States stopped being the world’s, if you want to call it, “police,” we’d have a very different place. 
Sometimes the armed forces get a backlash for taking on things that aren’t directly related to defending the country, but who’s going to do it if we don’t?  There hasn’t been another country that’s stepped up to it. 

P:  That’s a great point, because in the two world wars that were involved in, our foreign policy was isolationism. We wanted to stay out of everyone’s business, but we answered in World War I, and we entered again in World War II.  Both times, we didn’t really want to be there, but it happened. 
You’re gonna hear it all the time. “Ah, we can’t be the world’s police.”—we didn’t ask for that job, you know.  It’s just the way things turned out.  And really, when we turn a blind eye, we’re just as responsible as the people who committed those atrocities.  I believe, granted, our country has done a lot of bad things, but I believe the good intentions were there.  It’s just how some of those things worked out.

A:  Going back to your experiences, was there something particularly that made you question yourself, what you were doing, something that you saw that made you ask “why am I here?”

P:  Yeah (the anniversary of that happening is in two days) [it] is when I lost my first Marine in combat.  As a leader, it’s kinda unrealistic, but it’s there: your goal is to bring everyone back [with] you.  But the very definition of war is that you’re gonna lose someone. 
So anyways, I kinda took that hard [losing the Marine]. You want to come home with everyone you left with.  When you look at reality, you realize that’s impossible, but still, you blame yourself.   “What could I have done differently?  If we had left five minutes later [would he have made it]?”  You start questioning yourself, but at the end of it all, you realize this is war, and this is what happens.  That  took a long time for me. 
Especially since he was only 19 years old, and I’d already lived a full life, and he was just in the prime of his. 

A: Nineteen years old.  Some of us [civilian] nineteen year olds (I’m not too far from that age), [are] not that responsible.  We’re just going to college or getting our first jobs.  But someone out there is defending our country…
This doesn’t even really have to be related to combat, but what was one of your best memories as a part of the armed forces? 

P:  The camaraderie.  The togetherness.  You live in a structured environment, and not many people question authority, but there is a bond.  Even though we come from all walks of life, it brings us all together, because that’s what our country is.  It’s something that my wife [she’s a veteran as well] says is the “most perfect, imperfect society that there is, yet it works.”  We’re dysfunctional, but it works.  It worked for us
A:  Do have one more story [that you want to share]?

P: I do.  There’s an old saying, like World War I or World War II, and they used to say “there are no atheists in foxholes.”  And let me tell you, that is true…

When I was evacuated for my medical evacuation, the first person who carried my stretcher was in the Airforce, but remember, I was in the Marines.  Still, he looked down and called me by name.  “Colon!” 

He was one of my recruits ten years prior, not of the Marine Corps, but he joined the Air Guard, and he was in Iraq, carrying my stretcher onto a plane and taking me to Germany. 

A second person was put in my [path] and that was a Marine next to me who was about 18-19 years old, and he had been badly wounded, and he had all kinds of hoses connected to him.  He was conscious and he was crying, and I put my hand on his shoulder and said “hey, look, we’re gonna be okay.”  Through that conversation with him, I found out that my son had trained him [in the military]. 

I don’t think God deals in coincidences. 

The plane landed in Germany, and the door opens, and I hear someone say “is Colon onboard?”  The air nurse said yes, and he comes over to me, and he shakes me by the shoulders, and says “Son, it’s me, Luis Serrano.”  Five years prior, he had been one of my trainers, but Luis Serrano had gotten out of the Marine Corps, and joined the Army Reserve to be a medic.  Here he was, taking care of me. 

Anyways, I get retired, I get sent to Puerto Rico.  All returning veterans have to go see a counselor, and they assigned one to me.  So [my counselor], she looks at my records, and says  “Hhmm, are you from New York? You’re from the Bronx?” 
I said “yah.”

“And your mother’s name is Judy, and your father’s name is Ildey.” 

“What?!”

“Yah, I used to go to your dad’s store [in the Bronx] when I was eleven years old.” 

I didn’t remember her, but this woman knew me, my family…

Going back to what I said, “there are no atheists in a foxhole,” God put an angel in every step of that journey to bring me back home.  Spiritually, I think that’s the best thing that happened to me on the way back.  And it’s also sign of the camaraderie…  If anything, I know God put those people there for me so I could make it home okay.  And that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.


Interviewer’s Note: 
I have known Pancho for a number of years through various youth programs with the American Legion.  Both he and his wife are incredibly inspiring individuals, and it was a great honor to interview him.  His story is rather unique, since we usually characterize veterans as old, wizened gentlemen with their stories of the triumphs and horrors of the armed forces half a century ago.  For Pancho, he was on the war-front during this recent, and arguably controversial, War in Iraq.  His insight on the motivations behind this war and the actions of the armed forces is rather interesting as it differs from many civilian opinions. 
Secondly, we often don’t realize what a profound effect active combat can have on a person’s life, even years later.  I remember attending a birthday party and noticing him standing at a distance from the crowd, at the front of the room.  I jokingly asked him if he was on sentry duty.  He told me that ever since he was injured in combat, he can’t handle being in the crowd; he feels claustrophobic and trapped because it reminds him of when he was stuck in a mangled tank while in Iraq. 
 
Hopefully, as civilians learn the stories of our veterans and active soldiers, we can learn to thank them, not just for what they did on the front lines, but also for what they continue to endure on the home-front for the rest of their lives.    

No comments:

Post a Comment