By Dale Brown
The Journal 

Kissler recounts time in Iraq

 

Last updated 12/20/2022 at 11:14am

In 2017, Army Staff Sgt. Jeffrey H. Kissler retired from the U.S. Army after serving honorably for 23 years.

CORRECTION: The front page story “Veteran shares Army stories” published in the Dec. 14 edition of the Ritzville Adams County Journal incorrectly identified a local man as being arrested for war by the Yugoslav government in 2001. The person arrested was Slobodan Milosevic, former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

- Editor's note: This is the second of a three-part series in The Journal.

Ritzville - One night in Mosul, Iraq, Jeff Kissler's team received bad intelligence.

The team raided a home, kicking in the door at 1 o'clock in the morning.

"We came up with nothing," he said. "I was on PR (public relations) that night and apologized to the man of the house. I told him the U.S. would reimburse him for any damages.

"Our raid obviously terrified his family," Kissler said. "As I was talking, this guy told us-in perfect English- 'You know what? I'm an English teacher. We're glad you guys are here. The kids will be fine.'"

"That kind of thing never happened," Kissler said. "Most of the time people were throwing stuff at us or trying to kill us."

Another time his team discovered a stash of nerve gas. Kissler said treaty provisions designated nerve gas manufactured before 1991 as something other than a weapon of mass destruction.

"A year later, I read that the government was finally trying to get rid of the stuff," he said. "Chemical weapons were ignored because of a treaty. It was all about politics."

He also remembered a harrowing incident on a flight from Mosel, Iraq, to Kuwait.

"We were in C130 airplanes, climbing out of Mosel, when the plane started banking - hard left, hard right, hard left, hard right.

"When we arrived in Kuwait, we learned that the plane had been dodging rocket-propelled grenades. The plane behind us got hit and had to make an emergency landing."

After returning from Iraq, Kissler spent time recovering from a surgery.

"Being on rear detachment was one of the hardest assignments I had," he said.

In that capacity, he trained soldiers to replace those "coming back on a one-way trip."

One of the first two soldiers he trained was deployed and later killed.

"Another trainer and I went to the guy's house," Kissler recalled. "The chaplain and casualty affairs officer were just leaving. It was tough."

He also managed a funeral for six soldiers lost in a vehicle attack, calling out their names as bagpipes played. When Kissler attended a similar event in Wyoming, he saw a World War II vet crying as he laid his grandson to rest.

While in Georgia, Kissler retrained for a new job in the Army. At that point, he could no longer jump out of planes or meet the physical requirements of the infantry.

So, he became an electronics technician.

When training was complete, he deployed to South Korea for three years.

"It was a great experience - great country, great food, great people, great assignment," Kissler said.

But things "got a little tense" in 2009 when North Korea sank a South Korean submarine. The torpedo was identified as a North Korean weapon.

"South Korea was gearing up. Everybody was 'locked and loaded' and ready to go at any minute," he said.

After Korea, Kissler spent three years in El Paso, Texas.

"It was disappointing," he recalled. "I lived about a mile from the Mexican border, but at that time rival drug lords and gangs were constantly killing one another."

Soldiers weren't allowed to cross over into Mexico.

"If you did, you wouldn't come back," he said.

In 2013, he deployed to Afghanistan.

"President Obama was downgrading forces there," Kissler recalled. "We were slowly reducing our footprint in small camps throughout the country. I flew in a Huey helicopter because the Blackhawks were busy flying out of Kandahar."

From Afghanistan, Kissler returned to Augusta, Ga., where he spent his last three years in the Army as an instructor, training 18-year-olds in electronics. His duty station was the 73rd Ordnance Training Detachment Garrison in Fort Gordon.

"We had classes of 20 soldiers," he said. "One day I was talking about logistics and noted that one of the military's greatest logistical feats occurred during Operation Desert Storm. A young man raised his hand and said, 'Sarge, what's Desert Storm?' Not a single one of those 20 kids had heard of that operation."

That's when he knew it was time to retire.

"I tried to give them as much knowledge as I could, but I didn't have time to be a history teacher."

So, having served 23 years in the Army, Kissler reentered civilian life.

- See Part 3 in the Dec. 28 edition of The Journal.

 

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