A reversal of fortunes
By Nick Hytrek Journal staff writer

ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- Military references commonly creep into descriptions of athletic contests.

Coaches talk about going to war, how the day's game was a real battle.

Those descriptions don't apply when Tom Eaton steps on a wrestling mat.

Wrestling duals are not wars. A match isn't a battle.

At least not to someone who's looked out from rooftops in Iraq, his Marine sniper team prepared to engage insurgents trying to place roadside bombs.

That's war. That's battle.

Wrestling? That's something completely different.

It's a release for the emotions accumulated while serving in a combat zone.

It's an avenue for the discipline and focus enhanced by seven years of Marine training.

It's what has helped Eaton readjust to civilian life.

It's not war.

"I don't think I could ever use those emotions again when wrestling," the Northwestern College 174-pounder says. "When I wrestle, my mentality is determined to win, but I don't think I could ever draw on the emotions of the combat zone on the mat.

"I wrestled like that in high school. I was a little naive."

Lifelong dream

Eaton admits he was content to just get by in high school, graduating from Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1997 with a 1.9 grade-point average.

"Wrestling just really helped me get through high school," he said. "I never really thought highly of myself as going to college."

Besides, he had a lifelong dream to follow.

"My grandfather and my two uncles had been Marines. I wanted to be a Marine since I was 5 years old. I joined the Marine Corps with the intention of making it my career."

It was a career that suited him.

By December 1999, Eaton had graduated from scout sniper school, becoming a HOG, a Hunter of Gunmen. He was leading a four-man sniper team, training other Marines.

Upon completing his four-year commitment and a two-year extension in 2003, Eaton took his commanding officers' advice of furthering his education and enrolled at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif.

But shortly into his first semester, Marines from his old battalion came calling, telling him there was a shortage of trained snipers in Iraq. They were going.

"They wanted to know if I would go," said Eaton, who had remained on inactive ready reserve.

For three weeks, Eaton wrestled with his decision.

"Personally, I didn't want to make a decision based on the fact that I had a lot of friends that had gone to Iraq."

He prayed about it. His girlfriend, now wife, Bri, told him it would be OK.

Eaton volunteered and was deployed the following summer.

"I thought it was an opportunity to serve my country and help out Marines that were in need of my aid."

Engaging the enemy

Eaton's voice softens slightly as he discusses his combat experience. He talks a little slower, in a matter-of-fact tone.

During his seven-month deployment (he returned to the United States for about six weeks while his mother recovered from a heart attack), his sniper team perched on rooftops in and around Hit, north of Baghdad. Their eyes continually scanned the streets and roads, watching for insurgents planting improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

He speaks only in general terms, but the unspoken details are obvious. The Marine Corps doesn't train snipers to be casual observers.

"We were there to engage the enemy in sniper fire. As snipers, our job was to regulate IED activity."

If they spotted someone planting a bomb, "we would have to engage them."

Sniper teams were a show of force, Eaton says. Insurgents knew the snipers were out there and soon realized the cost of placing IEDs.

"We reduced the IED count by 80 percent," Eaton says proudly.

He downplays his role, saying that snipers aren't the ones who do great things. He sidesteps a question about the dangers he faced.

"I had some buddies that had a lot more action."

Need for focus

Eaton returned home in April 2005. Mentally, part of him remained in Iraq.

"As a sniper, your head is constantly on a swivel. While you're out, you're constantly observing. Coming back into a people environment, I was always looking around, taking details of things, noticing things. My wife would say 'Why are you noticing that?'

"I knew I needed to stay focused on something. It's kind of tough getting over a war. I needed something to get the emotions out."

He hadn't wrestled in seven years, but he wasn't concerned about wins and losses when joining the wrestling team at Santa Ana College, a community college in Santa Ana, Calif.

"It helped me manage some of the emotions from being in Iraq," he said. "Wrestling and academics helped me from getting trapped in my thoughts."

Eaton was a different wrestler than the one who twice qualified for state in high school. The Marines had instilled a discipline and focus he never had before.

That discipline helped Eaton become a two-time junior college all-American. He and Bri decided to use his wrestling talent and his new focus on academics (he accumulated a 3.35 grade-point average) to help pay for the next level of college.

With a desire to attend a Christian college, Eaton decided Northwestern College would be the perfect place to compete and obtain his political science degree.

Once practice began last fall, wrestling coach John Petty immediately saw the results of Eaton's years of military training. He saw a leader, a wrestler who expected the most of himself and his teammates.

"He's a Marine," Petty said. "As an ex-Army guy myself, I know you get focused on what you're doing. His leadership by example has stood out.

"He's at another level of discipline."

Petty hasn't asked Eaton to share his combat experiences. He knows without asking how they've made Eaton into more than a good wrestler who has already qualified for the national tournament.

"In Tom Eaton, you're getting a great young man who's got a sincere heart and served his country. In our program, we talk religion first, education second, wrestling third, and he has his priorities in order," Petty said.

At ease

More than two years after returning from combat, Eaton says he now feels at ease again. He's regained what he calls a normal situation awareness. A walk across campus is no longer a reconnaissance mission.

"I think what I experienced in the military is something that will always be etched in my mind, but the Lord's been able to help me move on.

"I'm growing in areas I never experienced before."

Eaton sees himself going into civil service, perhaps the FBI, CIA or police work. Maybe rejoining the Marines and becoming an officer.

"I'm still using college as a way to open my horizons and see what else is out there," he says.

He's seen the world. Now he welcomes the world of opportunities he's begun to discover.

Eaton has been to war.

Through wrestling and studying, he's found peace.

Nick Hytrek can be reached at 712-293-4226 or nickhytrek@siouxcityjournal.com.

Ellie