While his friends and fraternity brothers were living normal lives as students, going to parties and pulling all-nighters at the library, Jason Doubleday was driving trucks to military bases around Iraq and pulling

all-night security watches over the temporary camps his convoy would set up in the desert.

Doubleday, a former Loyola business management and marketing freshman, left school to go to war in Iraq and is now trying to get back into school and the life of a normal student.

The New Orleans native joined the army reserves after high school, and after completing his base training, attended Loyola for one year. He was then deployed.

First he was assigned to homeland securit, but was later asked to go to Iraq with another unit because of his qualifications to be a combat truck driver.

Doubleday said that being deployed to go to Iraq did not come as a shock to him.

“When you join, you basically know that one time or another, you are going to be deployed and see a war,” he said.

Although his family and friends were concerned, Doubleday said that he was confident about going to war.

“I knew I would be fine; I knew that I could handle myself but everyone else was more nervous than I was,” Doubleday said.

Communications and English writing junior Ian Roche became friends with Doubleday during their freshman year when they both joined Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

Roche said that he was worried about Doubleday going to Iraq.

“I didn’t know how things were going to be over there, so I was kind of concerned. I didn’t know what he was getting himself into,” Roche said.

Though he could have refused the request to go to Iraq with another unit, Doubleday said that he was willing to go.

“I just wanted to go over there, do my job and go home,” he said.

Doubleday arrived in Kuwait in April of 2003, where he was stationed at Camp Arlington.

However, he rarely spent time in Kuwait due to the nature of his job transporting equipment throughout all of Iraq.

“Regardless, we were almost always in the danger areas,” Doubleday said. “I’ve seen all of Iraq.”

Driving a truck on the Iraqi highways might seem safe in comparison to other jobs Doubleday could have had, but driving an American army truck made him a target anywhere he went.

“Most of the time, they’d be unseen because they know they can’t outman you, so they’d get a cheap shot and try to kill as many Americans as they could,” he said.

Often, Doubleday said, these cheap shots would come in the form of bombs left in the middle of the road for trucks to run over and detonate.

He said that once, while watching the news, he learned that the men in a truck in his convoy were killed by one such bomb.

Doubleday said that he stayed safe by paying attention to what was going on around him.

“You learn, you live, and if you don’t learn, you’re dead,” Doubleday said. “We have a saying in the army: stay alert, stay alive.”

Though it was tough to deal with being far from home, enduring the desert heat, bugs and combat, Doubleday said that the hardest challenge he faced was dealing with the military authority, which, he felt, didn’t always make good decisions.

“They make a decision and you can’t do anything about it; you can’t negate that decision. You had no say-so,” Doubleday said. “For going over there and freeing the Iraqi people, you were basically a slave yourself. It’s kind of ironic.”

Doubleday said that one of these missteps of his authorities was the failure to communicate important information that could have helped him stay out of danger.

“The majority of the time, you will be attacked on a Monday or Tuesday. They didn’t feel that was important to tell us; I had to find out on my own,” Doubleday said.

Though Doubleday said that the United States did not have a good enough reason to enter Iraq, the country has to finish the job of renovating the country.

“Iraq is now our bastard child; we did the damage,” he said.

He said that it was sometimes frustrating to deal with Iraqi people who would make the army’s job more difficult by attacking.

“We were trying to rebuild stuff and trying to help out but there were people there preventing progress,” he said. “People didn’t appreciate what you were doing for them half the time.”

While Doubleday was on base in Kuwait, he had access to a cell phone and e-mail, but he said he tried not to dwell on the memories of home.

“I thought of it as a previous life. If you were thinking about all the things you were missing, you would start to feel pretty bad,” he said.

Doubleday returned to New Orleans about three weeks ago after serving 11 months in Iraq and said that he is glad to be home.

“So much stuff has changed,” he said. “It’s just an odd feeling; you’re happy, but it’s a shock.”

Now he’s trying to get back into the life he had here before he went to Iraq by registering for classes and spending time with friends.

“He’s tried to use [the fraternity] as a focal point to extend himself back into campus life,” Roche said.

Doubleday said that the experience in Iraq has changed him.

“If anything, I’ve learned how not to procrastinate, to just get stuff done right away,” he said.

“You have to look out for yourself there; if you need anything done, you do it yourself.”

Roche agreed that Doubleday’s experience in Iraq was influential on him.

“I think that some of the things he experienced over there make him see things in a more mature light,” Roche said. “I think his character is strengthened because of it.”

Doubleday said that he is looking forward to getting back into school, but that, if he is asked, he is willing to return to Iraq.

“The reason why I stay in [the reserves] is it’s a bad job but someone has to do it and I figure I can put up with it, so I’ll stick with it and try to do my part,” he said.

~ Anna Garvey can be reached at [email protected].

Near Tikirt, Doubleday “pulls security” in the middle of the road. “I´m basically being a sitting duck, making sure no one runs into our truck,” Doubleday said. (Photo Courtesy of Jason Doubleday)

Jason Doubleday, who, after completing base training, spent one year at Loyola before being deployed, sits atop a Humvee manning the attached 50-caliber machine gun. (Photo Courtesy of Jason Doubleday)