From Algebra to Afghanistan: A Math Teacher Goes to War

By Franke Gracia

On 9/11 college mathematics instructor Franke Gracia watched the towers fall. On 9/12 he hung on every word of the news reports of the attacks. On 9/13 he placed a phone call to St. Louis, Missouri, because that is where all records are kept for former military officers. Gracia informed St. Louis, My bags are packed, I just need orders. After initial setbacks and delays, he was finally called to active duty and served a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. Captain Franke Gracia served in a key leadership position with an Infantry Task Force consisting of more than 700 soldiers. While serving, from time to time, he would sit down and write, partly to chronicle his experience, but mostly for the therapy it provided. This book contains those writings. The author is not a professional soldier or war correspondent, but rather an ordinary citizen-soldier who volunteered to serve. This book contains Captain Gracias musings, observations, frustrations, joys, sorrows, anguish, anger, resentment, bewilderment, humor, exasperation and pride the captured thoughts of an ordinary American soldier serving in a war zone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477117989

Franke Gracia

Franke Gracia was born in Brownsville, Texas, and grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. He holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in mathematics from the University of Texas – Pan American. He is a faculty member of the mathematics department at Temple College in Temple, Texas.

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Franke Gracia.

Library of Congress Control Number:                  2012909334

ISBN:                    Hardcover                   978-1-4771-1797-2

ISBN:                    Softcover                    978-1-4771-1796-5

ISBN:                    Ebook                       978-1-4771-1798-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

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www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

Book Intro

Article #1                      Life Isn’t Fair

Article #2                      They’re So Young

Article #3                      Together

Article #4                      In Country

Article #5                      Technology

Article #6                      June 13

Article #7                      Humor

Article #8                      I Wish All Americans Could Meet…

Article #9                      Anti-War Protest

Article #10                    Dear Mom

Article #11                    Diversity

Article #12                    Leave

Article #13                    Thanksgiving

Article #14                    Christmas

Article #15                    I’m Used To It Now

Article #16                    Dear Mrs Young

Article #17                    Cpl Tillman

Article #18                     War Is Insanity

Article #19                     Honor

Article #20                     Sometimes, No Words Are Necessary

Article #21                     Dear Uncle Art

Article #22                    My Odyssey

Conclusion

Book Intro

Hi,

My name is Franke Gracia. This book is about my deployment as an Infantry Officer to Afghanistan. I am not a writer, nor a professional soldier. I am an educator, a mathematics instructor for a small college in Texas. I was deployed as a member of the Texas Army National Guard. That is why I think this book is rather unique; not written by a soldier or writer, but rather by a citizen-soldier who volunteered for active duty after 9/11.

Before volunteering to serve I wrote OP/ED pieces for a newspaper in South Texas. When I received orders to deploy I contacted the paper and told them that I was going to try and write articles while deployed, about my experiences. I told them I was not even sure I would be permitted to do so by the military, or whether I would even have the time. Well, as it turned out, I somehow managed to write just over 20 articles during my year and a half long call up to active duty. This book is merely the collection of those articles. Fair warning; the articles will not read smoothly from one to another, but rather disjointly. This is because they were written weeks apart, whenever I had a few moments to put some thoughts together.

In looking over the articles I had to resist the temptation to change them, modify them, do what I thought might improve them. I think that would have tarnished the uniqueness of what they are: the scribblings of an ordinary citizen-soldier while on active duty with an Infantry Task Force. I hope you will forgive my grammatical errors.

Prior to the articles I have provided a list of military acronyms and terms that may be unfamiliar to someone without a military background.

I hope my prose makes you laugh. I hope it makes you cry. I hope it makes you angry. I hope it makes you sad. I hope it touches the entire gamut of your emotions, but most of all, I hope it touches your heart and that you don’t soon forget it. If that happens, then I will be most content. Thank you for taking the time to read my book.

Franke Gracia

Captain, Infantry

Texas Army National Guard

Task Force Alamo

Afghanistan May 05-April 06

Acronyms and terms that may be unfamiliar without

a military background

1SG—First Sergeant

1LT—First Lieutenant

2LT—Second Lieutenant

Blank adapter—Device attached to muzzle of weapon that enables firing of blank rounds

Blue Force Tracker—GPS system that tracks friendly blue force

Binos—Binoculars

Chalk—Specific aircraft load (derived from when aircraft flight number was written on troops’ back with chalk)

Chinook—Army utility helicopter

CPL—Corporal

CPT—Captain

Freqs—Frequencies

FOB—Forward Operating Base

IED—Improvised Explosive Device

JOC—Joint Operations Center

Hooch—Slang for soldier’s sleeping/living quarters

Log Cell—Logistics Cell

LT—Lieutenant

Outside the Wire—Off a military base or forward operating base

Ops—Operations

R&R—Rest and Recreation

SFC—Sergeant First Class

SGT—Sergeant

QRF—Quick Reactionary Force

TOC—Tactical Operations Center

USO—United Service Organizations

Zulu time—Primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time

Article #1

Life Isn’t Fair

Spring 05

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Checking feet after roadmarch—Ft Hood

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Prior to deploying—Ft Hood—Hi mom!!

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Roadmarch Fort Hood

*Written while still at Fort Hood

When I was young, my mother taught me to play fair. I was punished and chastised for not being fair. As I grew older, it became abundantly clear that life is not fair. Never has been. Never will be. I was a young man before I finally came to the understanding that, while my mother’s motives may have been altruistic, she lied to me.

Ever since 9/11, I have been trying everything I could to get back into a military uniform—with no success. Finally, after unbelievably frustrating battles with the beast that is the military bureaucracy, the letter I had been waiting for at long last arrived and I was assigned to a unit with the Texas Army National Guard. Almost immediately, I began to hear rumors of an imminent mission overseas. When the alert order finally came, Uncle Sam sent me to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, for an intense study of Afghanistan.

It was there that I was given an information overload by university professors, state department officials and military officers on the history, economics, culture, customs