Specialist A.J. Baddick and mother, Ann Baddick fold flag flag flown by the 103rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron flown over Afghanistan. Asked how she felt about her son, Ann paused, cried and said, “I’m just proud of him.”

Specialist Andrew Joseph Baddick, son of Joseph and Ann Baddick of Jim Thorpe has reenlisted for six years. He completed his original enlistment of three years, including a recent six months in Afghanistan.

Specialist A.J. Baddick (left) was part of a group that shared dinner with General Tommy R. Franks, Commander in Chief, United States Central Command when Franks gave a Thanksgiving speech to the troops.

A part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Specialist A.J. Baddick was a radio transmitter operator. In Afghanistan, he monitored Coalition ground forces when they went into caves to retrieve caches of Taliban and al Qaeda weapons.

A. J. Baddick of Jim Thorpe died in Iraq.
This interview took place as he preparing to go there.

Jim Thorpe 1/29/2003

A soldier’s greatest enemy is loneliness. Peril is a sometime part of the job but loneliness is a constant companion.

That has been the experience of 25-year-old Andrew Joseph Baddick, his friends call him A.J. In 1999, the Jim Thorpe native enlisted for a three-year hitch in the Army.

“After Iraq, there’s North Korea. We are looking forward to a period of continuing conflict,”
Specialist A.J. Baddick

“The first two and a half years were rough,” said A.J. Then, while stationed in Afghanistan for six months, he bonded. “I realized who among my family and friends stuck by me—and I grew into the Army.”

He was trained at Foot Hood, Texas and stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In Pittsburgh, while on leave from Fort Bragg, A.J. met a girl. The relationship developed. She would fly to North Carolina to see him. They fell in love and got married.

“I’m going through a divorce right now,” he confided. “Because of the military, I was gone all the time. We grew apart. She hated the Army and I loved the Army.”

“I hardly ever got to see her, hardly ever,” said A.J. “It was tough.”

“I’m not the only one,” he continued. “My Commander said, ‘Don’t feel too bad, there’s other people.’ There’s 150 of us, guys in the 82nd Airborne Division, that are going through a divorce.”

“I have no regrets about enlisting in the Army,” A.J. said. He completed his original three years enlistment and has reenlisted for an additional six years.

“If I got out, I would do the old things that I did in high school,” he explained. “I just realized that there wasn’t much for me to come back to in Jim Thorpe. So, I opted to stay in. So far, I’m making a career out of it.”

Making of an RTO

A.J, is an R.T.O., a radio transmitter operator. In Afghanistan, he monitored Coalition ground forces when they went into caves to retrieve caches of Taliban and al Qaeda weapons.

If the Coalition ground forces got into a battle, they would call in their location to A.J. He would plot it onto a computer grid., which, in turn, would be projected onto a plasma screen for the Commanders to direct air support.

“An incident happened the other day,” noted A.J. “If I was still there, I would have been the one calling in the B-1 or B-52 bombers, the F-16s and A-10 Warhogs to attack the enemy.”

By there, A.J. was speaking of the Bagram base, the Coalition compound located about 20 miles north of Kabul. That’s where he practiced his specialty as a R.T.O.

“My biggest surprise was that I wound up doing a job that I was never trained to do,” A.J. explained. “Fortunately, I picked it up fast and it made a big impact on people’s lives.”

At Fort Hood, Texas, A.J. was trained to operate a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, a highly electronic tracked vehicle used to bring troops into battle. He drove for the Commander.

After transferring to Fort Bragg, and after undergoing a battery of tests, A.J. was selected to be a Major’s driver for the Assault Command Post at Fort Bragg.

Six months later, he was deployed to Afghanistan. “When I got there, they needed a RTO,” he recalled. “So I became one. They gave me two minutes of training—I had to learn it all myself.”

As an RTO, A.J. monitored the incoming air waves and transmitted the information to aircraft and ground forces. He quickly learned the call signs and the way the pilots needed information.

“I had to understand the difference between an air grid and a ground grid. “Trying to transform one to the other was the hardest,” he said.

Mission Unexpected

As an RTO, A.J., typically remained at the base and out of harm’s way. But one day in late September 2002, he assisted on a resupply mission.

A.J. was walking with five officers, two Captains, two Majors, and a Lieutenant. “We were just minding our business,” he explained. Suddenly, we took rocket fire and small arms fire.”

Two rockets landed about 100 yards from them. They took cover as they were pelted by small arms fire. “We tried to return the fire but were unable to find out where it was coming from,” he said. “It lasted no more than five minutes. We stayed under cover for a while and then snuck away. As it was unexpected, we didn’t have radios with us.”

Though that was A.J.’s closest call, he said, “I have buddies that were shot at every day.”

Life in Afghanistan

It was August of 2002 when A.J. arrived in Afghanistan. The daytime temperatures in Bagram sizzled at 120°F. At night, temperatures settled into the 80s.

A.J. Was surprised by both the heat and the primitive living conditions. For the first two weeks, he lived in a 20-person tent called a G.P. Medium.

August began a period called the “120 days of wind.” “It was a constant hot dry wind. Never less than 20 mph and as high as 80 mph. The wind picked up our tents blew them over.”

On top of the 120 dry degrees every day, the local waters were polluted and bottled water had to be flown in from Germany.

“I didn’t get a real shower for close to five weeks, until showers were built,” A.J. Noted. “We would take showers using bottled water.”

By January, the weather became cold and wet, with temperatures of 20 degrees F. “It only snowed once, on Christmas eve. We went out and threw snowballs at one another,” he said.

A.J. Got to meet local Afghan men hired by the Army to build housing and shower areas. “They helped us and we helped to stimulate their economy,” explained A.J.

“We worked and spoke with the Afghans everyday,” said A.J. “They were happy we were there to help them and make their lives better. They helped the Americans in their way and we Americans helped them in ours.”

For the local people, the Army built schools, furnished school supplies and medications. “We would often go to the orphanage schools and give the children medicine to treat sickness from the local diseases,” A.J. Added.

The Brink of War

Asked how he felt about the Administration’s rush to war in Iraq and the developing protest movement, A.J. replied, “It’s hard to describe my feelings. I know some people don’t want us to go into Iraq. Other people want us to go in and get it over with, so we could go back to our normal lives again.”

“I don’t see that happening,” he continued. “After Iraq, there’s North Korea. We are looking forward to a period of continuing conflict.”

After a 20 day visit, A.J. returns to Fort Bragg and waits for his new orders. America waits with him.

What does A.J. Fear most? “Just the loneliness. Being away from family and friends, wondering what was going to happen. Just not having a hug or not petting a dog or going to McDonalds to grab a burger.”

KABUL

Oh, the beautiful city of Kabul wears a rugged mountain skirt,
And the rose is jealous of its lash-like thorns.
The dust of Kabul's blowing soil smarts lightly in my eyes,
But I love her, for knowledge and love both come from her dust.

The first stanza of a poem written in the 17th Century by Saib-e-Tabrizi