Having It Good Downrange: A One-Year Military Tour in Iraq

By Paul Bouchard

Incoming! Incoming! Incoming! That was the all-too-familiar signal causing US Army JAG lawyer Paul Bouchard to drop everything and seek cover in a concrete bunker, under a table, or beneath a palm tree during his one-year military tour in Iraq. As Bouchard patiently waited for the all-clear signal, he understood each uncertain moment was just part of living and working in a combat zone.

In this true account of his experiences and those of his fellow JAG corps buddies deployed in Iraq during 2010 and 2011, Bouchard shares his observations about a country where temperatures reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit, and where everyone faced a variety of dangers, to include nighttime kidnapping attempts. Detailing how he and other JAG officers coped and stayed safe while defending soldiers, Bouchard provides insights on Saddam Hussein and his brutal regime, military base comforts, the horror induced by a troubled American soldier, and the ways some soldiers cleverly circumvented the prohibitions behind General Order Number 1.

Having It Good Downrange shares a JAG officers fascinating narrative of his one-year deployment in Iraq as he carried out the rewarding work of defending Americas soldiers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491733998

Paul Bouchard

Paul Bouchard is the author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction including Priya’s Choice and A Catholic Marries a Hindu. A retired Army JAG officer, he practices law in the Washington, D.C. area.

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Copyright © 2015 Paul Bouchard.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-3400-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3399-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014908601

iUniverse rev. date: 03/24/2015

For Tony, Steve, Bennett, Mike, and Amy.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

In writing about my one-year military tour in Iraq, I have done my best to recollect events and recreate dialogue as I remember them. The views expressed in this article are my own and not those of the US Army.

We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.

Winston S. Churchill

It really hit me when we were watching the movie Restrepo.

The it I’m referring to is the realization of how good I had it during my one-year military deployment to Iraq from 2010 to 2011.

We were four JAG captains, two paralegals, and our regional defense counsel (RDC)––a lieutenant colonel––sitting around a large-screen TV in the Trial Defense Service (TDS) Office in Camp Victory, Iraq. The seven of us were eating pizza and popcorn and watching Restrepo, a documentary based on Sebastian Junger’s book War. The movie is a true account of the soldiers of Second Platoon, B Company, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, and their combat experiences in Afghanistan’s Korangal Valley. The movie is named after one of the Second Platoon soldiers, PFC Restrepo, who died in combat in that dangerous, enemy-infested valley.

There I was, enjoying pizza and popcorn in a nice,