Halfway home: Army Specialist Eric Estabrook offers soldier’s view of Afghanistan

When Army Specialist Eric Estabrook talks about his wartime experiences in Afghanistan during the first part of his deployment, there is a gravity in his voice that is unmistakable.

Retired police officer Bob Estabrook welcomes home his son, SPC Eric Estabrook, U.S. Army, with a poster in front of the United Church of Christ. Eric is on leave from his duties dismantling bombs in Afghanistan. He will return to duty on May 17. He takes with him a father’s pride and prayers from a community that he will return safely.

It is the tone of a young man, just 22 years old, who no longer takes anything for granted — a man who, by his own account, has learned to appreciate life on an “incredibly large scale.”

“Being there and doing the job, it changes you,” said the Canton native by telephone last week. “It definitely changes you. If anything you learn to appreciate what you have and this great country you live in.”

Currently home on leave where he is enjoying time with family and friends, Estabrook — whose father, Bob, is a retired Canton Police officer — will soon head back to Afghanistan to begin the second leg of a 12-month tour. And while a part of him would prefer to stay in Canton, he said there is another part of him — perhaps the bigger part — that is itching to rejoin his fellow soldiers and get back to work.

In fact, Estabrook said that on some level, the two-week R&R has been one of the most mentally challenging aspects of his deployment, noting that it can be awfully hard to ‘rest and relax’ while his friends remain in harm’s way overseas.

“It’s been pretty difficult to be home,” he acknowledged, “because everything is still going on over there and I’m not there for it.”

The violence has also started to “heat up” in the past few weeks and is expected to continue into the summer, which is “fighting season for the Taliban,” according to Estabrook.

With stakes this high, Estabrook said survival becomes a matter of luck as well as skill, and so far, his company has been the beneficiary of both.

“We’re very good at what we do,” he said, “although there’s a certain aspect of luck to it, and we’ve been very lucky. We haven’t lost anybody.”

As part of a counter-IED task force operating just southwest of Kabul in Wardak Province, Estabrook’s particular job thus far has consisted mainly of “route clearance” missions — ridding the area of improvised explosive devices to make travel possible for soldiers and civilians alike. He said missions are conducted almost every day and involve a lot of dismounted foot patrol, or “walking around.”

As routine as they may sound, however, Estabrook stressed that missions are never dull and always dangerous. He is also a team leader, meaning that he is directly responsible for four other soldiers, and, as one might expect, he takes the duty very seriously.

“We come across all types of stuff that would just shock you,” he said. “You’ll be walking through a field and you’ll walk right up to a rocket on the ground, or you’ll walk right into a minefield.”

In terms of the soldiers’ living situation, Estabrook noted that everything is improvised, from the makeshift gym to the showers made from storage containers. “Everything we have we pretty much built,” he said. “Before that we were living in tents.”

And despite their efforts to be as unobtrusive as possible, Estabrook described interactions with civilians as constant and unavoidable, and the level of support they receive seems to vary from person to person.

Besides the language barrier, he said there are numerous other obstacles that limit trust and communication — everything from religious and cultural differences to their complicated relationship with the Taliban, which is very much alive and well in Wardak.

However, for the most part, Estabrook said the civilian population there consists of poor farmers who simply want to be left alone.

“They grow up so hard over there, it’s ridiculous,” he said, while adding that, unlike Americans, they have almost no attachment to material possessions.

Even the little children, most of whom do not own a pair of shoes, seem unconcerned with toys or clothes, or even candy. Instead, he said they typically ask for pens so they can learn how to write, and Estabrook is more than happy to oblige.

“A lot of times they make my day,” he said, adding that “little kids are little kids” regardless of where they grow up.

Yet the cold, hard reality — and one that Estabrook needs no reminder of — is that there are people in Wardak and elsewhere throughout Afghanistan who consider Americans to be their bitter enemies. And it is the Army’s job to determine exactly who those people are, which he said is not always an easy task.

“It’s weird because you don’t know who you are fighting,” he said. “It’s the faceless war, I guess you could say.”

For that reason in particular, and because there has been no formal declaration between nations, Estabrook sometimes fears that the severity of the situation has been lost on the average American. But make no mistake, he said: It’s war.

“I’m definitely in a combat zone,” he said. “There’s definitely combat going on, and living in that environment definitely takes its toll on you once in a while.”

Being in such a high-stress environment, Estabrook said it is critical that everybody does his job and does it well, and more importantly, does it instinctively.

“You get into a rhythm,” he explained. “You don’t really have time to think about it; you just do it.”

Estabrook also considers himself very fortunate to have a family that is so supportive, including his twin brother, Adam, who lives in Florida with his wife and three children. He said the two of them remain very close and talk “pretty much every day when possible.”

Ultimately, while there have been times when he has been homesick or even times when he has wanted to quit, Estabrook said he is proud of his decision to join the Army and is 100 percent committed to completing his deployment, which ends in December.

Shortly after that, in February, his Army contract will be up, although he has no idea at this point whether or not he will re-enlist.

“I kind of just want to make it through this deployment in one piece before I make any further commitments,” he said.

Understandably so, Spc. Estabrook. Just return home safely.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=2412

Posted by Jay Turner on May 13 2010. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.