The first time his vehicle was hit in a roadside bombing in Iraq, 46-year-old Ike Palacios thought that he would die. But he survived, and was thankful for it.<\/p>\n
The second time his vehicle convoy was attacked, he uttered, \u201cThis is the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
But no. He only got injured, hospitalized, and got back to his usual duties as roadside patrol personnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sustained neck injuries. I suffered from bad headache, and pain in the back. But I\u2019m alive,\u201d said Palacios, smiling, in a recent interview. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in a convoy. The car behind us and in front of us got hit. Although we\u2019re not directly hit, we all got injured in the truck,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The incident happened on a special date, Oct. 16, 2005, the birthday of his father.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really thought it\u2019s my end but I\u2019ve been lucky. I thank God for that and the prayers of many people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Palacios and other members of the Echo Company are back on Saipan after a year of duty in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Palacios is an Army Reservist who was called by the U.S. military last year to serve in the war-stricken country.<\/p>\n
Palacios said he experienced at least seven road bombings while patrolling villages in Iraq.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut after my two incidents, I lost my fear. I believe that if it\u2019s your time, it\u2019s your time. I realized that it\u2019s not my time yet,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Life in Iraq was quite hard, especially with his kind of assignment as truck patrol personnel. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard. Everyday, you\u2019re not sure if there\u2019s tomorrow. We\u2019re always on alert. We go out at dawn into the villages. We patrol 24 hours, protecting the civilians. We\u2019ve got to be careful since everyday the enemies are planting bombs everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the insurgents would hide improvised explosives behind a dead animal, trash, or broken vehicle.<\/p>\n
It was most difficult \u201cbecause we can\u2019t determine who are the real enemies\u201d since they look and act like ordinary civilians.<\/p>\n
Palacios said there was only a limited time to communicate with his family but whenever he had the chance, he would call his family to tell them he is doing good.<\/p>\n
He said soldiers have access to the Internet and telephone at the base.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call them when I get the chance. I e-mailed, too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite all the hardships, he said he feels proud and fulfilled over his Iraq assignment. \u201cWe are fighting for freedom,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Palacios\u2019 wife Cindy said she is happy and was speechless when he arrived late last month. \u201cI\u2019m just happy to see him back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Palacios said he would soon be back to work at the Marianas Public Lands Authority as a land inspector.<\/p>\n
Returning Army Reservists have a 90-day period to return to their work.<\/p>\n
The Echo Company was fielded to Iraq in February 2005. They completed their duty and proceeded to Kuwait on Jan. 1, 2006. They arrived on Saipan in batches since last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first time his vehicle was hit in a roadside bombing in Iraq, 46-year-old Ike Palacios thought that he would die. But he survived, and was thankful for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}