Marine back from Iraq
By KATHY GRESEY - kgresey@nwnewsgroup.com


LAKE IN THE HILLS – Jason Hertha of Lake in the Hills did just what his dad, Paul, told him to do when he joined the Marine Corps. He earned a blood stripe.

The blood stripe is a scarlet stripe that runs down each trouser leg of the dress blue uniform. Hertha, 22, earned the stripe in January when he became a corporal in the Marine Corps.

“The uniform is complete now with the red stripe,” Paul Hertha said, adding that his son had positively changed since joining the Marines in 2003. “He’s more confident, more sure of himself.”

Jason Hertha returned home last week after spending seven months stationed in Barwana, Iraq, as part of the 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines Lima Co. 3rd Platoon.

The deployment was his second to the Middle East. He also served in Afghanistan as an infantryman for eight months.

“My first thought on Iraq was there’s probably going to be more serious stuff going on,” he said. “I was concerned about improvised explosive devices. But I also felt more confident since I had some experience.”

While overseas, Jason Hertha conducted patrols and humanitarian missions, often delivering food and hygienic supplies to people in need.

He said it was difficult to be in the Middle East when nothing was happening because he was bored.

“The hardest part of the deployment is the boredom that goes on,” he said. “Most people think bombs are going off every day. It’s not like that at all.”

Jason Hertha’s mother, Teresa, is glad that her son returned from Afghanistan and Iraq unscathed.

She said she lit a candle for him every day that he was gone. Now she lights a candle for her 25-year-old nephew Hector Castellanos, who entered the Army last year.

“[Jason] inspired him,” she said. “Now the candles are for him.”

Ellie