GILROY
– About 130 Army Reserve soldiers with the 341st Military Police
Company spent more than a year in Kuwait and Iraq.
GILROY – About 130 Army Reserve soldiers with the 341st Military Police Company spent more than a year in Kuwait and Iraq.
The unit, based out of San Jose, was responsible for patrolling the main gasoline and supply routes into Baghdad, escorting convoys – two seven-hour drives a day, every day, for the past year – and providing personal security. The soldiers successfully completed hundreds of missions and logged more than a million miles of travel in temperatures that reached 150 degrees.
Like South Valley resident Rene Arbizu, the other 341st soldiers left jobs, wives and family back home to serve their country.
In Iraq, they came under daily fire. Arbizu’s platoon was ambushed “at least a couple dozen times” in the past six months and another encountered firefights. Improvised explosive devices and rocket propelled grenades were a constant threat.
Yet, the unit suffered no casualties.
“A few (soldiers were) wounded, but never during combat, just minor vehicle accidents – but no actual casualties,” Arbizu said.
He attributes his unit’s success to a constant vigilance, whether it was spotting boxes on the side of the road or watching locals for any suspicious activity.
“When we would go to work, out on the road, we would do whatever it took to make sure that we completed our mission safely and make sure that all of us got home, no matter what it was,” Arbizu said. “We didn’t go out there and rampage … but we were just always vigilant out there and making sure that we didn’t let anything suspicious, you know, get by us.”
Most of the Army reservists have served together for years and served together in the Balkans for eight months on a peacekeeping mission in 2001.
Arbizu said he definitely plans to keep in close contact with his comrades, who rarely left his side from March 2003 until landing in Moffett Field on June 19.
“We knew we would see each other three or four months down the road, but we’ve been living together for so long,” he said. “And just everybody on the same track, always doing the exact same thing together, we were kind of saying good-bye. … It was the end of something.”
Together, the 130 members of the 341st began adjusting to civilian life a month before flying to the U.S., during a break from missions. Back home, it still took a while to get settled, Arbizu said.
“We were at Fort Lewis … and a lady walked out with some balloons and one of them happened to pop. And the three or four of us that were sitting around all jumped. Not a big physical jump, but it definitely got us,” Arbizu said.
Conditioned to living in hostile territory, Arbizu now must consciously relax when he hears a helicopter flying to Hazel Hawkins Hospital in Hollister, located near his apartment.
It’s difficult to be separated from his weapon, too.
“Even walking around, even on post, you’re always carrying your weapon,” Arbizu said, “and now it’s not there. You’re always missing something.”
