Home From Iraq

SEBRING - After spending 15 months of his 12-month deployment in Camp Speicher, Iraq, Army Spc. Brice DuBoice was ready to return home.

DuBoice worked with the hospitable and dealt with the hostile while anxiously waiting for news on his 9-month-old son, Ian, who underwent open heart surgery three days after birth.

Neither he nor his family expected him to make it home to Sebring from Fort Knox, Ky., in time for Thanksgiving, but he got a short leave and flew down Wednesday. That same day, Ian was able to go home with his mother.

In Iraq

DuBoice joined the 19th Engineer Battalion out of Fort Knox and was assigned to the area around Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's birth place, north of Baghdad. He and his mother, Julia DuBoice, remembered him trying for the Marine Corps at first.

"He wanted to join the Marines for the discipline," Julia said. "We had to talk him down."

The battalion, DuBoice said, was sent to repair some of the infrastructure, roads and buildings in the area. It also set up several check points, designed to catch insurgents fleeing Iraq during the surge.

He admired the customs some of the Iraqis displayed to him, though it surprised him at times.

"In their culture, everything is a bartering system," he said. "If you were to compliment (someone) on his T-shirt, they would give you his T-shirt."

Even when some other troops performed search raids in their homes -- he did not perform them himself because he was not certified to do them -- he said some would offer tea. But "it's a hit-or-miss kind of thing," DuBoice said.

He had a near-miss going down one road in a Humvee during his time there. DuBoice remembered two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) detonate around him, followed by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) firing in his direction. The hits damaged his Humvee and gave him a concussion.

He said worse things happened, mentioning one "unfortunate accident" that took the life of a lieutenant, though he did not elaborate on it.

The stress from the attacks paired up with a family problem back home.

Ian was born Feb. 10 but was then diagnosed with a heart condition, Julia DuBoice said.

"He had to be away from his son the entire time," she added. "I can only imagine being a mother... my infant child having open heart surgery."

Brice DuBoice said his worrying about Ian added up while he was in Iraq.

"You go somewhere where everyone hates you and wants to kill you... and then you have your family problems over here," he said. ""That's why you have chaplains."

Reflection

Tikrit calmed down substantially during the 15 months he was there. Although it was still rough, he saw more progress in Iraq than what he said the media was portraying, and thought the military should "just keep up, keep providing what we're doing.

"I can tell you that our unit made great improvements to our road system," he said.

As for himself, he said he had no plans to re-enlist. He said he wanted to train to become a detective after he's done with the service. He had to fly back to Fort Knox Saturday and expected to be discharged sometime in December.