A Marine Comes Home, Just in Time For Veteran’s Day
VETERANS DAY
The Norwalk Hour
Jamie Hammon
Boston University Washington News Service
11-09-06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 –Lance Corporal Jimmy Louis heard a shot ring out, saw a muzzle flash and sparks hit his jacket, and felt shrapnel hit his face.
When he looked down, he realized he’d been shot.
The young Marine had been caught off guard while cordoning off a portion of a street in Fallujah, Iraq. Distracted by an old man who was causing raucous with some members of Louis’ unit, his chest had become the target for the sniper positioned two buildings away.
Louis returned to his Norwalk home on October 25, healthy and walking tall at 6’4”. In his bags were the mementos of his eight-month term of service in Iraq: the bullet pierced jacket and body armor that had saved his life, and the shrapnel that had cut his face.
“To walk around and not answer to anybody, not to wonder if you’re going to live or die the next day – anything remotely civilized is what you miss,” Louis said.
He became a Marine on June 1, 2003, just a few months after the United States invaded Iraq, when he joined Charlie Company 1st Battalion 25th Marines Regiment. He told only his immediate family of his enrollment, and it wasn’t until the young recruit went off to boot camp that his friends realized the warm and polite “Jim Lou,” as they called him, would probably be deployed to Iraq.
“I was not happy about it,” said Chris Sacco, a friend of Louis’ since high school. “He’s like a brother to me, and I know everything that’s going on in Iraq. I was like, ‘dude – no.’”
Louis has returned just in time to be one of the millions of veterans honored internationally this weekend at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. It is the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I, known in the United States as Veteran’s Day.
With a theme of “Honor Our Veterans – Support Our Troops,” Norwalk’s Veteran’s Day activities will kick off at 9:30 a.m., with a concert at the Norwalk Concert Hall at City Hall. Ceremonies will begin at 10:30 with keynote speaker Mort Walker.
As is tradition around the world, a moment of silence will be observed at 11 a.m.; a time to reflect, with appreciation, pride, love and sadness, the sacrifices made by service men and women everywhere.
“They had their mixed emotions,” Louis said of his family’s reaction to the news that he would be sent to Iraq. They asked him questions like: Why are you going? Is it your choice? Is there a way you can get out of it?
“I was scared, really scared,” said Janine Andre, Louis’ mother. “I didn’t think he was going to go so soon.”
But Louis, a 2001 graduate of Brien McMahon High School, said he knew what he was getting into, that he desired the challenge, and wanted a “kick in the butt.”
Louis’ time in Fallujah was a “rollercoaster.” He experienced the chaos and terror on the streets of Fallujah, saw close friends die, and had his own close encounter with death on July 26.
Louis owes his life to the body armor all Marines are required to wear. The additional body armor was recently issued to the Marines, and though many complain that it is cumbersome – Louis estimated the plate and jacket totaled a combined 50 pounds – it is clearly effective.
“He showed me the bulletproof jacket he was wearing, and the hole that was there, it was – oh man – it was so deep it went down to the last layer of the steel plate and the Teflon underneath that,” said Sacco. “So thank God for that. Definitely thank God for that.”
The bullet was armor-piercing, Louis recalled.
“It went all the way down to the last sheet of metal,” he said. “I still came out with a cut about a centimeter away from my heart.”
Louis suffered only extensive bruising on his chest and about a week and a half in recovery. But the shot that would have otherwise killed him caused Louis more psychological than physical damage.
“My life flashed before my eyes,” Louis said. “I thought, ‘You’re alive – do you really want to keep doing this?’”
He did keep doing it, for another three months, but he had to avoid thinking about the things back home that he missed, or else he would lose concentration.
While there, he enjoyed hanging out with the other members of his unit, many of whom will now be lifelong friends. They listened to music, watched bootlegged American movies and television shows with Iraqi subtitles, and played basketball.
Louis also continued with a pastime he has enjoyed since kindergarten – art. He kept up a sketchbook while overseas, often sketching the members of his platoon, and plans on pursuing his artistic inclinations to graphic design by enrolling at Southern Connecticut University in the spring.
“He is warm, friendly, willing to take risks in his artwork,” said John Tate, who was Louis’ art teacher from kindergarten through high school.
Louis arrived back in Hartford with his unit on October 25.
“It was the most anticipated day of everyone’s life in the whole unit,” Louis said. “While we were going down the stairs we saw mobs of people – everyone cheering, yelling, screaming. The guys started to tear up, and some couldn’t even go out they were so nervous.”
“We stood in formation and then our [commanding officer] said, ‘Your tour in Iraq is over. You’re done.’”
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