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COURTESY CAPT. DEREK BIRD First Sgt. Robert Jennings, right, shown here with Spc. Charles Woolwine, returned home last month after over a year in Iraq.

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A soldier’s return

Readers came to rely on
a first sergeant's missives
direct from Iraq

When 1st Sgt. Robert Jennings first discussed writing a weekly column to tell the story of soldiers from Hawaii's 25th Infantry Division in Iraq, a Star-Bulletin editor asked if he'd ever written anything before.

"I write letters all the time," Jennings, 38, replied.

It wasn't exactly the answer the newspaper was looking for, but Jennings was given the green light and for more than a year provided a first-person account from Iraq of the Alpha Company Gators, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division (Light).

Jennings' "A Soldier's Story" column became a weekly letter from the front in Kirkuk, keeping readers, parents, friends and family updated on the Hawaii-based soldiers -- from their deployment in February to the unit's first casualties, the historic election on Jan. 31st and, finally, the return home last month.

"It got so much bigger than I thought it would," Jennings said in an interview by phone Friday from his hometown in Florida, where he is spending time with family.

"My biggest fans were the parents (of soldiers)," he said. "A soldier doesn't think about writing his parents when he's done a six-hour patrol."

Jennings said he spent a couple of extra hours each week replying to an average of 25 to 35 e-mails from readers.

Tourists vacationing in Hawaii would read the Star-Bulletin and keep reading Jennings' column after returning home.

A mother from Portland, Ore., said in an e-mail that while her son was not in Alpha Company, she felt she understood what he was doing after reading Jennings' column.

Jennings remembers a note from a local friend in Hawaii who simply e-mailed: "Hey, bruddah can write."

A 21-year Army veteran, Jennings is the senior enlisted man in charge of about 135 soldiers. He said he wasn't sure what to expect when his company was sent to Kirkuk. One of the things he wanted to prepare his soldiers for was the probability that not all of them would return.

Before they deployed, Jennings called his company together and asked the soldiers to look to the man on either side.

"'Percentages say that there's going to be a few of us missing when we get back,'" he recalls telling his men.

On April 4, a sister unit, Charlie Company, lost Pfc. John Amos.

Then in a roadside bomb explosion and ambush on May 2, Staff Sgt. Todd Nunes from Alpha Company was shot in the head and died from his injuries. Ten other soldiers were wounded, including Spcs. Charles Woolwine, Juan Hernandez and Joseph Salinas and Pfc. Cory Ferguson, who were evacuated for further treatment.

Woolwine lost a leg in the attack. A few days ago, Jennings learned that the Army accepted Woolwine's request to stay in the service.

"He'll be a super role model to any soldier," Jennings said.

There was another hero that day, he added. Spc. Qi Zhu, who was born in Fujian, China, but is now a U.S. citizen from New York City, is credited with saving Woolwine's life. Jennings said Zhu, although he was also injured, managed to tie a tourniquet around Woolwine's leg and stabilized Hernandez's abdominal wounds. Zhu was recommended for the Bronze Star.

Now that he's back in Florida for a month, Jennings plans to ride Harleys with his father to Bike Week in Daytona Beach and spend time with his brother and his brother's family.

He's glad to be home, but he's still adjusting to being back.

"It's still strange, driving," Jennings said. "I see a bag on the side of the road and I want to jump to the other lane, because a month ago it might have blown up."

Jennings is still deciding whether he will stay in the Army or retire in June. He's put in a request to run the ROTC program at Stetson University in Deland, Fla., which will allow him to spend time with family.

The experience in Iraq was worthwhile, Jennings said.

"I really think that we made a difference," he said, adding that Woolwine feels the same way.

Jennings said his mother kept a scrapbook of his columns and that another bound volume of clippings is in his unit's regimental room at Schofield along with the trophies, awards, colors and streamers that tell the 140-year history of the 21st Regiment (Gimlets).

"I want to make sure what we're doing is documented," he said of his column. "That's my unit's history. We've just written another chapter in our unit's history."