The San Matean

Issue date: 5/27/08 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Andrew Sosnick Sosnick in Iraq

Media Credit: Andrew Sosnick Private Sosnick during his training at Fort Riley in 2005.

Graduations should be a time to celebrate the next stage in life. For graduating CSM student and disabled Iraq War Veteran Andrew Sosnick, there was no time for celebration.

After graduating from Mills High School in June 2003, Sosnick, 23, joined the U.S. Army to fight in the Iraq War. Now that he is back in the states, he believes the war isn't worth it anymore.

"At first I was kind of gungho and I wanted to help out," Sosnick said. "But now as the war draws longer, I get less enthused about it. If they right now said 'Hey, lets withdraw everybody' I'd be really happy because I think it's almost not worth it anymore to risk our soldiers lives in a zone where there's not much results going on."

Sosnick, who was 17 and a half at the time, was underage to join the Army on his own. When he told his parents he wanted to join, they were worried.

"I tried to talk him out of it for a year," said Andrew's mother Diana Sosnick. "My husband took him to sign the papers, because a parent has to sign when you're under age. So I was pretty upset and I tried for about a year to talk him out of it, and I could have talked him out of it by the time he was 18."

During his time in Iraq, Sosnick, an E-2 Private at the time, fought in many battles, but one battle that occurred in April 2004 has stayed in his mind even to this day. His squad was patrolling streets near the Iraq city of Ar Ramadi Bradley when an RPG missile hit the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

"We were ambushed by at least a dozen insurgents," he said. "I think they were from the Kader Al Sadr Shiite Militia. One of the missiles cut through our Bradley inside and it cut off my Lieutenant's right leg, and it arced up and cut off my gunner's right hand. So he lost his arm in an instant, and the explosion rocked me back and I was like 'Oh my God' because I had flesh and blood chunks all over my hand. And I thought maybe it was me, and I didn't know what was going on at first, but then I saw it was them, and blood was everywhere. We couldn't get to them to help because the way the gun turret was oriented, we couldn't get inside to help them.

"So we got out of the Bradley, and they were still shooting, and we were pinned against the Bradley," he continued. "We had one guy go on top of the Bradley and try to help him but he got shot. Finally another Bradley came up and started laying down some cover fire. And I was our radio guy for my squad and I called up and I was trying to get a medivac, and I didn't know where we were. So I had to get the grid coordinates for our location and I wasn't sure what it was. So I was trying to run back from Sergeant to Sergeant to find out where we were and what was going on. Eventually we were able to gather up everyone into one vehicle and roll on out of there."

His squad was able to a medical out post and helped the wounded on stretchers including one who had to be given an oxygen mask because he was comatose. While helping his comrades, Sosnick remembered seeing a truck pull up with 12 dead marines.

"Battles were just happening all around," he said. "Of all the days I was probably the most scared there."

Sosnick later called his family and told them what happened to his squad. Diana, 50, described her reactions that day.

"He was able to make a phone call when they got back to their base after it happened," she said. "And he was describing all of the horrible things that had happened and he didn't mention himself yet and if he was ok or not. He was talking about all of these really horrible things that had happened and I was crying and beside myself on the phone. When he finally told us that he was ok."

Sosnick wrote a letter about the battle, and sent it to not only his parents, but to one of his favorite teachers at his former high school, Kelly Hensley. Hensley, 42, an English teacher, and the Journalism advisor at Mills High School, shared the letter with the other teachers and published it in the school newspaper, The Thunderbolt. He and the rest of the English department shared it with the students in all of their classes.

Sosnick was one of Hensley's Journalism students during the 2002-03 school year. When he told Hensley that he was going to join the Army, Hensley began to discuss his experiences in the Army with Sosnick and the two formed a bond.

"To tell him the truth I was kind of in a state of disbelief when he told me that he joined," said Hensley. "And he just didn't seem like the kind of kid to join. He would write when he was in Iraq, and he sent us the letter. It was the most powerful letter I ever read in my life. It was such a powerful letter that I shared it with all my classes and it was one of those instants where it made the war real for high schools students."

Sosnick came back in-between his tour in Iraq, and after serving a year overseas, he returned home in Oct. 2004 because his patrols water supply was contaminated, and now suffers from ulcers in his intestines. His mother described how she felt when he finally returned home.

"We were just elated," she said. "Even though he has a stomach condition from his time over there, we were happy to have him home we didn't care."

Sosnick partially regrets his experiences in Iraq, but says it taught him a lot.

"Part of me does just because I am a disabled Veteran now," said Sosnick.

"But I'm glad that I did my part still and I think it made me a better person, and I have a different perspective on things.

"I can relate more to our world around us. I'm glad I did overall," he said.

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