From Marblehead to Afghanistan - And Back

Last weekend, I had the privileged opportunity to sit down with Lance Corporal Anthony DiGiammarino of the 3rd Battalion 5th Regiment of the United States Marine Corps for a conversation about his time in Afghanistan.

Anthony is the son of Marblehead residents Jennifer and Larry Digiammarino. He is also a brother to Alexandra, who just finished her freshman year at Stonehill College; Kathryn, who is currently a junior at Marblehead High School; and Michael, an MHS freshman.

Anthony has recently returned home from serving in Afghanistan and is now happy to be home in Marblehead for a couple of weeks to spend time with family and friends. He was nice enough to sit down this past weekend and share some of his experiences from Afghanistan.

After enlisting in August 2009, Anthony was first sent to Parris Island in South Carolina to attend boot camp. From there, he went to Camp Geiger in North Carolina for Combat Training, onto 29 Palms in California for Communications Training and then to Camp Pendleton in California where his unit is based.

Aside from the usual boot camp preparations and getting in shape, Anthony trained for his job as a Radio Operator before being deployed to Afghanistan in September of 2010.

The first stop in Afghanistan was the Marine’s main base or “camp.” This longstanding base, DiGiammarino said, is the epicenter for all other satellite bases. It has an airport, bus route, a recreational facility complete with flat screen TV’s, Xbox, Play Station, internet and ping pong tables.

Another feature that Anthony seemed to enjoy there was the cafeteria-style food hall that he said offered “real food.” However, these comforts of home would no longer be available where Anthony would soon be transported to. He referred to his new destination as “the middle of nowhere.”

For the next several months, Anthony and his unit lived behind “dirt walls” in a fabricated area that he described was no bigger than that of Marblehead High School, including the parking lots.

These satellite bases, he said, are called FOB’s, Forward Operating Bases, which are surrounded by 10ft high sand-filled walls created from a product called HESCO. This product is a multi-cellular defense system that consists of lined, metal squares that are stacked on top of each other and filled with sand and the thickness of the wall is determined by the travelling distance of bullet penetration.

The sleeping quarters in the FOB, which he said houses about 30, are also made from HESCO walls and a roof that is topped with 1,300 sand bags that help to protect from mortar rounds. The bed DiGiammarino slept on every night was a cot.

The food, he said, was awful. The Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, weren't exactly delicious and Anthony said it’s literally a mixed mystery in a brown paper bag that includes a heater, similar to a hand warmer that is activated by water.

Although occasionally the MRE’s contain chicken, Anthony said he thinks it is likely closer to tofu. It is as simple as dropping the mystery meat in the heater and voila, dinner is served! Also available to soldiers in Afghanistan, he said, are Cheez-It type crackers and occasionally Skittles and coffee.

Anthony said that he really prefers to eat out of his care package sent from home but, if mail isn’t delivered, MRE it is! Thanksgiving and Christmas had memorable meals for him, but he can only recall that it was turkey and that it was really good.

Life in the FOB was lacking of comforts and entertainment, for obvious reasons. They were there to carry out a job. I asked Anthony if he knew the days of the week and he said “not really. Some guys counted the days while others could care less. Thanksgiving and Christmas just kinda showed up one day. There was one guy in our unit, who everyone hated, because he was always counting the days.” Time was more important to Anthony as he didn’t want to be late for anything.

The climate was strange with temperatures that could go from extreme cold to extreme heat. “The weather was not normal. There were sandstorms and for one month it didn’t stop raining and everything flooded because it came off of the mountains.” He also said that when they arrived, it was dry and all dirt. And when they left, the mountains were starting to “green.”

When his unit first arrived and they experienced the fighting for the first time, “we would all get up, get dressed, grab our gear and want to get on the wall and start shooting.” But the commanding officers quickly shut that down and told them all to get back to bed. At first, Anthony said he would be sleeping “and bombs would be going off and I was like ‘Oh my god!’” After he settled in and the sounds of fighting would wake him up, I asked him what he would do. He simply stated “I’d try to go back to sleep.” He also added that if they needed help during the fighting, he’d know about it.

The Afghan people actually lived in the FOB with the Marines and included former members of the Taliban, Afghan Police and some members of the Afghanistan National Army. They also housed and protected the “governor” of a nearby city. Interpreters were needed in order to communicate with the US troops.

Life outside of the FOB was a very different story. Afghan kids would come and visit and there were set rules that governed these visits for safety reasons. Afghans were known to use their own children as weapons, sometimes strapping them with bombs. Anthony said that there was a certain distance that they had to keep and that they could not shoot them.

I asked him how they communicated that to the Afghan children and at what point did they have to take action. He noted that a lot of hand gestures and yelling were used to keep the kids back. He said that there was also a time limit on how many times that they had to ask the children to back off, stay away.

Mostly, the kids were looking for water and “chocolate”, a word that they used for all candy. One funny story was when Anthony was on the wall of the FOB with a fellow Marine and a group of boys came to ask for candy. Anthony said he used his hands, telling the four boys “Hey, you! (Pointing to one) Fight him (pointing to the other) for the chocolate.” “Not a real fight” Anthony said, just goofing around.

Combat was something that he witnessed and it seemed that the fighting came at the same time of the day, sunrise and sunset. Although, he can remember one event that occurred in the middle of the day. Troops were sent out on foot patrol as they didn’t have tanks. I asked Anthony what the worst injury was that he witnessed. He said “Ah, death."

After spending seven months in Afghanistan, Anthony started to prepare for the trip home. To make sure that “nobody went insane,” the Marines start to tell the unit that they are headed home soon. He explained that before they left the states for deployment to Afghanistan, a baseline psych test was given to them on computers with a series of questions and puzzles, similar to a baseline concussion test for athletes. This same test is given to them when they return to their home base in the states to determine sanity and mental well-being.

Departing Afghanistan, stops were made in Germany and Maine for refueling, arriving back at Camp Pendleton on April 11. Anthony was happy to be back in the states, knowing that his family and friends were waiting to see him and that there was some good food to be had.

While back on base in California, waiting to come home to Marblehead, Anthony learned of the death of Osama bin Laden. I asked him what his reaction was and if there was a celebration there, much like the rest of the country. He really didn’t have a superfluous answer for me.

He learned about it through a text from his aunt, a quick mention from his roommate and more securely from his Formation the next morning. “There was too much going on and not many cared as they just wanted to go home. Marines talked about it amongst themselves, but it wasn’t a really big deal.” He described it best as “business as usual”.

Happy to have him home, his family had a cookout for him complete with chicken and steak, but he really wanted pizza and went to Tony’s for that.

Anthony’s mom, Jennifer DiGiammarino said “We are all so proud of what he has accomplished and who he has become. We are very thankful that he is home safe and hope the next deployment doesn’t come too soon.”

Heading back to base in California at the end of the month, Anthony said the transition from civilian life to being a Marine again will be easy because “they don’t give you a choice.”

Thank you Lance Corporal Anthony DiGiammarino and to all of the enlisted men that serve our country. Also, thank you “Ant”, as his sister Alexandra affectionately calls him, for sitting with me and sharing your story.