Yo! Youth OutLook

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a literary masterpiece. The book is about a handful of soldiers in Vietnam – the size, weight and (most importantly) the significance of each of the things they carried. Everything from girlfriend’s panties (worn around the neck for good luck), Cherokee hunting hatchets, comic books, illustrated Bibles, dope, cigarettes, condoms, chewing gum, pebbles, photographs, M&M’s and so forth. The stories are told through the objects they bear. O’Brien carried the things they carried inside for years, before writing short fiction pieces about them.

These days soldiers carry gizmos, if O’Brien where to write about things they carry today, he’d have to include a grip of technology – digital cameras, laptops, iPods, modern day gadgets lying in wait to capture the non-fiction, funny, tragic, bloody reality of war.

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One such soldier with a grip on tech is my boy C-los, 18. I first met him about four years ago. He was a tall, lanky, shy kid addicted to smoking menthols and talking mess after woopin’ everyone’s ass at HALO. Back then he’d huddle around me, and my friend Tear (C-los’ big brother) as we told small-time SF graffiti war stories.

These days, he does the telling, we do the huddling. He’s stationed in Mosul, Iraq and from what I know, he carries an automatic rifle, hella bullets (for a gunner), a pack of Newports, a special love for SF’s Mission District (for what it was), a digi-cam, an mp3 player/recorder and a laptop loaded with music and an a variety of mpeg music videos (Outkast’s Bombs over Baghdad ) & porn (8th Street Latinas) naturally. Not to mention some of the greatest war photos this world has ever seen. C-los knew half the guys in his platoon packs a digi-cam, after missions he’d download their photos. He has about two dozen missions from the point of view a dozen soldiers.

He also carries a special little chunk of military jewelry, a powerful piece of metal among colorful cords and symbols dangling from his uniform. It’s known as a combat infantry badge, it identifies soldiers who are out engaged in combat. It’s much heavier than the modest ounces it weighs.

“You become combat infantry the moment you get shot at.” He explained how they have a campfire ceremony that night. All the soldiers had their digital cameras to capture the moment.

“My first firefight lasted for four hours, I capped like two people that day. Right off the bat.” He says as he lights a stoge. When asked if he ever feels bad about killing people, C-los responds “The ones I killed… those motherf–ckers tried to kill me & my boys.” C-los said it’s about the man next to you.

“The people I’m with, they’re like country cats, who went hunting. I had to realize that these guys lived a whole different lifestyle growing up, Other than that, they’re like family. I trust those guys with my life.”

C-los tells me how there was a sniper taking out innocent people and Army personnel. He put up a fight, but when they actually got him, they threw his body on the back of a Hummer and drove it around town as an example.

“There’s no law out there, we are the law.” He said.

“They ain't got sh-t out there, they don’t even have a sewage system. When it rains I don’t know if I’m stepping in mud or sh-t.”

The U.S. Army works in collaboration with the Iraqi National Guard, some guys cover their faces to protect their families. “Other guys are just savages and show their faces, they don't give a f–ck.”

A lot of the time C-los carries AK’s and homemade RPG’s assembled from PVC pipes and wood, captured from the enemy on missions.

Some insurgents graffiti threats on the walls of the city in spray paint to dishearten the troops. “We have our translators write graffiti right back.” A tag battle in Iraq, how’s that for a graffiti war story? (You win, C-los.)

When asked about the general Iraqi public’s reaction to them, C-los responds, “Some are like, ‘I want no part of you’ you know, like we’re the devil and all that…kids love us. Well, at least the cool ones do. The ones who don’t like us distract us while their daddies shoot at us.”

But it’s not all bad, the troops still make time for goofy pictures (image ref), playing HALO and to sing their rendition of Lil John & The East Side Boyz’ Get Low in a fake Arabic accent.

He opens iTunes to show me the track he recorded on his Mp3 Player. (hear the mp3 at www.youthoutlook.org) We laugh out loud for awhile, then C-los, stares blankly, straight ahead.

“One thing I regret, to all the kids out there, I wish I would’ve finished high school. I wish I would’ve taken the school thing all the way right now. I’d have different friends, a chance to go to college. I would’ve had more money, more stuff.”

On his laptop, he opens one last picture, one taken of him from behind. He’s walking into a long, narrow corridor with high walls.

“All you have to do is shoot at me from up there and that would be the end of me…the funny thing is, I walk into situations like that everyday. Sometimes, it’s like, when it’s all over I look back and the wall behind me looks like shredded cheese, like in Pulp Fiction.” He laughs. “Sometimes, in the morning, I wake up and say, ‘sh–t… we’re still breathing.’”

“Damn, that’s real.” I whisper.

“Hell yeah, and it’s gonna’ stay that way.”

C-los packs his stuff away. He gave me most of his last night home. Not to mention, a priceless library of his (and his entire platoon’s) digital documentation of the war, some of which are printed on these pages.

I drive him, give him a cholo handshake. Tear gives him a hug. He walks into his parents house, oil refinery smokestacks in the horizon. He walks away. I know he’s anxious to return to Iraq, he said he wanted to be with his boys who need him. The last glimpse I get of my friend before he returns is of his desert fatigue pack as he cuts into the doorway. I know the gizmos inside, stand as witnesses bearing testimony to the things he and his friends have seen -- Stuff they carried back with them, not to mention, he’s also taking back hella porn.

I pray for C-los all the time. I also tell his war stories.

Josue is the Art Director for YO! 1 of 1