Local Marine visits home after stint in Iraq

Not even two medical setbacks that delayed his entry in the Marine Corps nearly three years could keep Shawn Pietrzak from becoming a Marine. The lifelong Maricopa resident, who just wrapped up a visit home on a 96-hour leave, completed a six-month deployment in Iraq last week.

Pietrzak, 23, said he always wanted to join the military when he was growing up.

“I think that’s what I wanted to do when I was in kindergarten,” he said. “My mom said that’s what I always wanted to be.”

Pietrzak said when he was finishing high school in 2004, several of his friends were considering enlisting in the Marines. “I was going to join the Army but they were telling me about the Marines. I looked it up and saw that it was way different than anything else, and I said, ‘What the heck?’ “

He initially joined the Corps in 2004 but was released for medical reasons after being diagnosed with insomnia. He re-enlisted in the fall of 2005 after getting a clean bill of health. “I went to boot camp and about halfway through the training cycle, I cracked my heel in half,” Pietrzak said.

He returned in August 2007, went through boot camp all over again, this time completing the process.

Pietrzak, now a lance corporal with 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, served as a field radio operator in Iraq.

“The guys in ‘Windtalkers’ that have the radios on their back and work with the infantry, that’s what I do,” he said.

He was stationed around Fallujah, which earlier in the war was the site of some of the fiercest fighting. Pietrzak said things had calmed down considerably in the region, but his battalion did see some combat and took about three or four casualties during their deployment, including one Marine who was killed by a roadside bomb.

“Where we were at, we had suicide bombers, pot shots, people shooting at our convoys,” he said.

Pietrzak said life as a Marine had more similarities to civilian life than one might expect. “It’s kind of back and forth. It’s just like a normal job, except it’s not an average 9-to-5,” he said, adding that being ready to fight at a moment’s notice often led to long hours on the job. “It’s stressful at times. You’re often really fatigued.”

Pietrzak said he would stand post at a forward operating base for six to eight hours. “We’d get off and then go out on missions. We’d get back and it would almost be time to go back on post,” he said. “Some days, you wouldn’t sleep at all. You’d miss chow time most of the time.”

During the times he did have a chance to eat, Pietrzak enjoyed some of the Iraqi fare. “I remember we went to one of the local sheik’s house and before we came, they killed, gutted and cooked a lamb for us,” he said. “It was really, really good.”

While he was back in Maricopa for the first time in six months, Pietrzak said he was basically relaxing and spending money along with one of his fellow Marines, who joined him on his trip since he had nowhere specific to go on leave. “I took him with me and we’re just hanging out.”

Though he’s home from Iraq, and has a monthlong block of leave coming up at the end of May, upon returning to Camp Pendleton, Calif., Pietrzak, who has two years of active duty left in his enlistment, will begin a yearlong training stint for his next deployment in Afghanistan.

“Since we did a very outstanding job in Iraq, they want us to be the combat element for Afghanistan next year,” he said. “We deploy May of next year.”

The battalion will go through a few training packets, including cold-weather training to prepare them for the frigid temperatures in the mountains.

“That’s one thing the Marine Corps is known for. We’re always reiterating our training and making sure we’re up to date on our knowledge,” he said.

Pietrzak said he thinks his time in Iraq will benefit him and his Marines for their upcoming duty.

“Iraq kind of prepared us for an actual combat zone, because Afghanistan, as I’m sure everyone’s seen on the news and read about, is getting pretty hot over there. It prepared most of us to what to expect, what to look for. But I’m sure Afghanistan is a whole new ballpark.”

Staff photo