thedrifter
10-03-07, 01:40 PM
Published: October 03, 2007 12:35 pm
LaVale Marine home on leave from Iraq
Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News
LAVALE — In 2005, Jay Nestor was a senior sitting in a classroom at the Allegany County Center for Career and Technical Education.
In 2007, Nestor was a Marine lance corporal sitting in a turret atop a Humvee, manning a gun. That Humvee eventually lost its front end to an improvised explosive device along a road near Alasahd. Four Marines were aboard.
“Our driver had a leg pretty messed up,” Nestor said, seated in his family’s Cash Valley Road home with his mother, Linda, and grandfather Jim Nestor. “I got some shrapnel scrapes around my neck and face, but I was fine. The other three of us walked away, but the driver was taken out by helicopter.”
“He called me the next day,” Linda said. “It was good to hear him.”
Nestor joined the Marines in February 2006, spending time at Parris Island, Fort Leonardwood, Camp Geiger and Camp Lejeune before heading to Iraq in February 2007. He returned to the states in September, but will go back to Iraq sometime during 2008.
“The Iraqi people like having us there,” Nestor said. “The come out and wave and run after the Humvee.”
The Nestor family knows military service. Jay’s father, Kenneth, was in the Air Force, and grandfather Jim, the Army. Jim is currently the commander at Gold Star Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6452 in Ridgeley, W.Va.
Though trained in heavy equipment, Jay became a turret gunner in Iraq. “If an IED explodes, we make sure all of the ordnance has been exploded. If we find one that has not exploded, we call in a special team that wires it and sets it off,” he said.
While stationed in Alasahd, Jay has lived in what he describes as wooden shacks. “There are also cans,” he said, referring to prefabricated living quarters, “which are nicer, but I haven’t lived in those. We’re pretty much on the move all the time with the Humvee. We are a security reaction team and something is always going on.”
Linda said she sends a lot of packages and phone cards and does a lot of praying. Recently, Jay accompanied her to her job at the Western Maryland Health System and said hello to many of her co-workers.
“This area is really good in supporting us,” Jay said. “People here are very patriotic for the most part.”
“I wasn’t worried about him over there,” said his grandfather. “I just had a good feeling about how things would turn out for him.”
Michael A. Sawyers can be reached at msawyers@times-news.com.
Ellie
LaVale Marine home on leave from Iraq
Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News
LAVALE — In 2005, Jay Nestor was a senior sitting in a classroom at the Allegany County Center for Career and Technical Education.
In 2007, Nestor was a Marine lance corporal sitting in a turret atop a Humvee, manning a gun. That Humvee eventually lost its front end to an improvised explosive device along a road near Alasahd. Four Marines were aboard.
“Our driver had a leg pretty messed up,” Nestor said, seated in his family’s Cash Valley Road home with his mother, Linda, and grandfather Jim Nestor. “I got some shrapnel scrapes around my neck and face, but I was fine. The other three of us walked away, but the driver was taken out by helicopter.”
“He called me the next day,” Linda said. “It was good to hear him.”
Nestor joined the Marines in February 2006, spending time at Parris Island, Fort Leonardwood, Camp Geiger and Camp Lejeune before heading to Iraq in February 2007. He returned to the states in September, but will go back to Iraq sometime during 2008.
“The Iraqi people like having us there,” Nestor said. “The come out and wave and run after the Humvee.”
The Nestor family knows military service. Jay’s father, Kenneth, was in the Air Force, and grandfather Jim, the Army. Jim is currently the commander at Gold Star Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6452 in Ridgeley, W.Va.
Though trained in heavy equipment, Jay became a turret gunner in Iraq. “If an IED explodes, we make sure all of the ordnance has been exploded. If we find one that has not exploded, we call in a special team that wires it and sets it off,” he said.
While stationed in Alasahd, Jay has lived in what he describes as wooden shacks. “There are also cans,” he said, referring to prefabricated living quarters, “which are nicer, but I haven’t lived in those. We’re pretty much on the move all the time with the Humvee. We are a security reaction team and something is always going on.”
Linda said she sends a lot of packages and phone cards and does a lot of praying. Recently, Jay accompanied her to her job at the Western Maryland Health System and said hello to many of her co-workers.
“This area is really good in supporting us,” Jay said. “People here are very patriotic for the most part.”
“I wasn’t worried about him over there,” said his grandfather. “I just had a good feeling about how things would turn out for him.”
Michael A. Sawyers can be reached at msawyers@times-news.com.
Ellie