CAMP VICTORY BASE COMPLEX, Iraq — Soldiers in the 4th Platoon of Albert Lea, Minnesota’s Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry Regiment, were based out of Camp Victory for around three weeks in November. Their mission was to conduct route security patrols to support the drawdown in Iraq that was completed Dec. 18.

As America’s military role in Iraq was coming to an end, Sgts. Michael Hall of White Bear Lake, Minn., and Noah Snater of Austin, Minn., had a few experiences that will stand out long after they return home next spring from their first deployment.

One of the highlights was their promotions from being specialists on Veterans Day at Camp Victory. First Sgt. Matthew Price and their battalion commander, Lt. Col. Charles Kemper, pinned them with their new ranks in a platoon formation.

“It meant more because it was a platoon event and because it was in Baghdad,” Hall remarked.

While getting promoted in Iraq will live on as a pleasant memory, they each had an experience that reminded them — and those who never did a route security or convoy security patrol — why they were on those missions.

On their first mission, Hall was part of a patrol that had to form a security perimeter around an improvised explosive device. They cordoned off the area and an explosive ordnance team was called to blow it up.

Snater also had a busy time during the route security team mission. Since there wasn’t a battalion aid station on post, Snater was responsible for treating all of the ailments that came up when soldiers were exposed to new germs when he wasn’t on patrols as the platoon medic.

Snater was also responsible for making sure the communications on his team’s vehicle were working prior to patrols and was the scribe noting starting points and checkpoints.

“It was nice to have more responsibilities as a platoon medic,” Snater noted.

Snater also had to examine a dead animal on the side of a road during one of the patrols. Staff Sgt. Luis Calderon of Rochester, Minn., knew from a past deployment that sometimes a burned carcass was evidence of a failed IED planter. The carcass was too badly burned to tell what it was from a distance, so Calderon had Snater examine the torso to determine if it was part of a human body.

Fortunately for Snater, the carcass turned out to be all that was left of a donkey. The flesh so badly burned that it looked like a garbage bag. If Snater had noticed anything suspicious, the Iraqi police would have been responsible for the investigation.

Hall and Snater, along with the rest of Delta Company’s 4th Platoon, played a small role in closing out America’s military role in Iraq, but their memories will loom large. Whether they want to or not, most Americans read about history. These soldiers helped make it.

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