The Ailes family thought they’d survived the worst. Now their
son, Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes, is scheduled to return to Iraq.
”
It’s very nerve wracking,
”
his father Joel said.
The Ailes family thought they’d survived the worst. Now their son, Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes, is scheduled to return to Iraq.
“It’s very nerve wracking,” his father Joel said. “There’s so much going on over there. It’s a very scary thing. We just pray that if he does go that he comes back in one piece.”
The 21-year-old Gilroy High School graduate has no doubt that he will be sent to Iraq. He has been training in the field and learning how to speak, read and write in Arabic for the past month at Camp Pendleton.
“We’re definitely going back,” he said. “They don’t tell us when, but we’re going soon.”
Going back to Iraq, the Marine expects things to be worse, but his attitude is “suck it up, deal with it.” He has little tolerance for complaints after seeing the poor living conditions of many Iraqis.
The first time, he was deployed from February to May 2003. He was based in Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, where he guarded and patrolled towns on foot. He thinks he’ll likely be doing foot patrols again and using his new language skills to communicate with Iraqi citizens.
Soldiers, who are new to his unit, ask Ailes to tell them about Iraq.
“They ask questions. A lot of them are pretty excited to go,” he said. “They want to see a different country. They’re probably not going to be excited when they get there.”
Among the harsh realities they’ll face are the country’s intense heat, blasting sandstorms and, well, spiders. One night, Ailes was sleeping under the stars because it was hot inside the tent and woke up to find a camel spider on his chest. The venomless arachnids are about the size of a human hand and come out at night to feed on other insects.
“I think I woke everybody up from yelling at it,” he said.
Besides the desert crawlers, Ailes is not looking forward to the heat, which will be reaching its climax when he expects to arrive within the next three to four months.
“It was hot in the shade, and the worst part was probably drinking hot water in canteens,” he said.
Two weeks before he returned to the United States he and other soldiers improvised to construct a volleyball and net. They used strings and tape to make the net and wrapped tape around a black trash bag for the ball.
Overall, he said, there was never a dull moment. The oddest time came when he was on home soil and had to turn in his rifle.
“We felt like we were naked,” he said. “(In Iraq) you have to take your rifle with you everywhere you go.”
Ailes graduated from high school in 2001, and he was taking classes at Gavilan College when he enlisted in the Marines.
“He chose to do this,” his dad said. “He understood the risk going in. He’s just doing the best he can.”
But knowing that doesn’t make the situation any less difficult for his parents or three sisters.
“It’s never easy when you’re sending your only son into harm’s way,” his father said.
