Shawn Russell Stenberg |
| Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, 2001-present
Army
30th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division
Michigan; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Stewart and Fort Gordon, Georgia; Iraq; Kuwait
Staff Sergeant
Muskegon, MI
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Shawn Stenberg had served two tours in Iraq when he was interviewed for the Veterans History Project in April 2006. In the nearly two-year break in his service, he saw significant changes in Iraq. Supplies, from food to body armor, improved dramatically. Some things, however, changed for the worse. The Iraqis had lost their fear of the soldiers, and he routinely came under attack. He also experienced the Army transitioning from a larger, more centralized organization to something like what it was in Vietnam, with an emphasis on every soldier being an infantryman first. Thus, he found himself training cooks and chaplain's assistants for combat, amongst other bewildering duties. (When researcher Larry Minear re-interviewed him on September 11, 2007, Stenberg anticipated being redeployed to Iraq in January 2008. Stenberg remarked, "You change forever when you experience something like this, whether the change is for better or worse.")
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