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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Then welcome back to Coast to Coast. George Nori with you.

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Speaker 2: Joseph Soul with us in Iraq War combat veteran author.

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Speaker 2: The name of his book is The Broken Mirror of

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Speaker 2: Memory and current Worshipful Master of the Olympia at Lodge

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Speaker 2: Number one, the oldest Masonic lodge in the state of Washington.

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Speaker 2: He's the author of the book I just mentioned, The

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Speaker 2: Broken Mirror of Memory, Iraq and Other Tales, which is

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Speaker 2: a powerful fusion of poetry and reflection, chronicalizing the psychological

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Speaker 2: wounds of war, addiction, and the struggle for redemption. Joe,

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the program.

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Speaker 3: George is a thrill and an honor. Thank you so

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Speaker 3: much for having me.

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Speaker 2: And Tom tells me you're going to be at our

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Speaker 2: live event in every Washington the end of June.

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Speaker 3: I sure am looking forward to it.

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Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to that and thank you for your service.

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Speaker 3: Joe, thank you for yours.

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Speaker 2: When you went to Iraq, that was gul four number two, right,

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Speaker 2: I almost went to number one, which was in the

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Speaker 2: early nineties.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that was that was Golf War number two for me,

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Speaker 3: it was two thousand and eight.

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Speaker 2: What was it like for you?

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Speaker 3: It was an interesting experience there. There was, of course,

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Speaker 3: many attacks and a long periods of boredom sort of

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Speaker 3: punctuated by sheer terror. And really what impressed me most

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Speaker 3: was getting to know the Iraqi people and just learning

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Speaker 3: that I didn't have a particular quarrel with them whatsoever,

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Speaker 3: and it changed my perspective and really sent me on

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Speaker 3: a spiritual journey.

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Speaker 2: During Gulf Wur one, I think we had to do

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Speaker 2: something because Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait with his excuse of

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Speaker 2: slanted oil drilling. They claimed me that Kuwait was stealing

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Speaker 2: the Iraqi oil. But we had to do something there.

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Speaker 2: With Golf War number two, Joe, I'm not so sure

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Speaker 2: that was justified. They talked about weapons of mass destruction.

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Speaker 2: It never really found anything. What do you think of that?

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Speaker 3: Well, I never really found him, and it's I think

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Speaker 3: it was a shame. I think it was a distraction

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Speaker 3: from the war in Afghanistan where the attacks from nine

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Speaker 3: to eleven originated, and I did not support it before

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Speaker 3: I was deployed, and did not support it while I

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Speaker 3: was deployed. But I did my duty anyway, because that's

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Speaker 3: what a soldier does. But I was opposed to it

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Speaker 3: from the start.

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Speaker 2: Was this a ploy to get Saddam Hussein? You think?

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Speaker 3: I think it was. I think it was George W.

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Speaker 3: Bush's revenge for Saddam trying to kill his father in Kuwait,

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Speaker 3: and I think it was a personal vendetta.

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Speaker 2: Didn't various committees report that the Iraq had nothing to

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Speaker 2: do with it.

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Speaker 3: Various committees had reported that, and even the nine to

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Speaker 3: eleven Commission found no link between Saddam Hussein and the

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Speaker 3: nine to eleven attacks. The WMD investigation by Congress found

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Speaker 3: that there had not been a substantial weapons program since

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Speaker 3: the since the First Golf War, and that Saddam was

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Speaker 3: merely making it look like he had weapons to intimidate

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Speaker 3: the West when in fact there were none, and that strategy,

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Speaker 3: unfortunately for him, backfired.

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Speaker 2: Tell me about the title of your book, the Broken

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Speaker 2: Mirror of Memory.

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Speaker 3: The Broken Mirror of Memory is really my attempt to

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Speaker 3: put everything in order, because when you go to war,

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Speaker 3: things get jumbled around, at least they did for me.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes Iraq feels like one long day, and sometimes it

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Speaker 3: feels like broken up pictures that you can't quite put together.

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Speaker 3: Some of them are very terrifying, some of them are

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Speaker 3: quite happy, and you can't quite put them on A timeline.

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Speaker 3: Therapist calls it traumatic memory, and for me, writing the

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Speaker 3: book was an attempt at healing and an attempt to

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Speaker 3: put everything in order, so hence the title the Broken

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Speaker 3: Mirror of Memory.

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Speaker 2: Did the healing work for you.

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Speaker 3: I'm still healing. I believe healing is a process, George,

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Speaker 3: and it's something I'll be doing the rest of my life,

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Speaker 3: as so many other veterans of so many conflicts will

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Speaker 3: be doing for the rest of their lives. You don't

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Speaker 3: come home from a combat zone unchanged. No one does,

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Speaker 3: and we all have to find our own ways to

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Speaker 3: deal with that, whatever that may be.

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Speaker 2: May seventeenth, two thousand and eight, the night of the

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Speaker 2: attack on the base of that or what happened.

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Speaker 3: We were hit with five rockets that night. One hit

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Speaker 3: one hundred and ninety eight meters from our position. We

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Speaker 3: were in living quarters a friend of mine were preparing

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Speaker 3: to onto a night guard shift. We were already geared up. So,

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Speaker 3: and I take this all from statements for my commanders

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Speaker 3: and my first sergeant. I have very little memory of

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Speaker 3: the event, myself only four little snippets. We were hit

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Speaker 3: with five rockets. One came in first, landed one hundred

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Speaker 3: and ninety eight meters from our position, and we immediately

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Speaker 3: went into action, and eight or nine folks from the

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Speaker 3: nine to sixty second went out to try to get

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Speaker 3: accountability of three missing soldiers from our unit, and they

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Speaker 3: were found, thankfully alive, at the restaurant known as six

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Speaker 3: Pozzi on cobadd that was hit by I believe it

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Speaker 3: was one hundred and twenty millimeter mortar. It could have

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Speaker 3: been a rocket. I don't really remember the details on that.

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Speaker 3: I'd have to look at the documents. But the blast

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Speaker 3: wall collapsed on the restaurant. There was a lot of fire,

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Speaker 3: a lot of smoke. What I personally remember is a

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Speaker 3: lot of screaming for combat life savers, a lot of chaos.

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Speaker 3: I remember running with a combat lifesaver bag, and I

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Speaker 3: remember yelling in bunkers in various areas of the base.

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Speaker 3: You know where is Sergeant Taylor. I'll use a synonym

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Speaker 3: because I know that the person I'm speaking about likes

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Speaker 3: as privacy. But thankfully we found the soldiers, and many

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Speaker 3: soldiers in the unit were retroactively awarded the Combat Action Badge,

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Speaker 3: which I was in twenty twenty four after we got

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Speaker 3: our Congress people to fight with the army for it.

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Speaker 3: So we're very proud that we were able to basically

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Speaker 3: achieve full accountability and not have any fatalities in that attack,

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Speaker 3: because it was very close and we could have lost

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Speaker 3: three good people that night.

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Speaker 2: You dedicate the book to Corporal Michael Thompson of Red

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Speaker 2: River forty four, where I believe seven member died in

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Speaker 2: that unit.

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Speaker 3: Yes, they did. That was September seventeenth, two thousand and eight.

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Speaker 3: I dedicated to Corporal Michael Thompson because he was the

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Speaker 3: closest to me in age at the time. Let me

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Speaker 3: tell you, George, once you go to a dignified transfer

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Speaker 3: ceremony in a combat zone, although I imagine they are

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Speaker 3: very similar everywhere, but when you're in a combat zone,

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Speaker 3: when you're in that situation and you know that you

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Speaker 3: could be next, a dignified transfer becomes something extremely sacred, terrifying,

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Speaker 3: and beautiful and horrifying all at the same time. We

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Speaker 3: stood there saluting as seven flag draped coffins came off

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Speaker 3: of trucks and went on to a c. Seventeen to

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Speaker 3: return to Dover Air Force Base. And I write in

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Speaker 3: the book that I feel stuck in my boots and

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Speaker 3: I want out that that should be me in that box,

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Speaker 3: and I know it. I can't live it down. I

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Speaker 3: can't move, So I'll just stand there saluting on this

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Speaker 3: tarmac in the middle of the night for the rest

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Speaker 3: of my life. And I've never really left that moment

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Speaker 3: knowing that they had died and I had survived. There

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Speaker 3: is a great amount of kilt in that and while

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Speaker 3: it has gotten slightly easier over time, it has never

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Speaker 3: gone away. And there who I remember on Memorial Day

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Speaker 3: and every day.

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Speaker 2: We're talking with Joe Soul, who's written a book called

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Speaker 2: The Broken Mirror of Memory. Iraq and other Tales. The

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Speaker 2: Second Gulf War was around two thousand and three to

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Speaker 2: two thousand and eleven, if I can recall, is that right, Joe, yes,

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Speaker 2: Georgia was What did they train you for?

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Speaker 3: They trained us for munitions handling. We were a munitions unit.

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Speaker 3: Our job was to issue out all of the bombs

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Speaker 3: and bullets for Multinational Core Iraqs South and we were

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Speaker 3: involved in the Battle of Bosra issuing out bombs, healthfire

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Speaker 3: missiles bullets to go to both the Iraqi Army and

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Speaker 3: to close air support for them in the Siege of Bospra,

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Speaker 3: which took place about less than a month after we

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Speaker 3: got there. It would have been probably the twenty fourth,

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Speaker 3: and we would have gotten there on the fifth, I believe,

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Speaker 3: of March. So we ended up supporting that major engagement

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Speaker 3: with lots of fires and ammunition. And that's when I

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Speaker 3: started to develop a distaste for war and killing because

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Speaker 3: in most especially in an urban area, there is never

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Speaker 3: the real chance that you're going to avoid all possible

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Speaker 3: collateral damage, although the military does try. I find that

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Speaker 3: warfare is a horrible thing we visit upon our fellow

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Speaker 3: human beings.

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Speaker 2: No question about it. I mean, we've got to get

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Speaker 2: the above this In Vietnam, which was a horrible situation,

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Speaker 2: the mistake that the protesters made they attacked the troops

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Speaker 2: coming home. Rather than protest the actual war, they went

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Speaker 2: after the troops as well, and I think that was wrong.

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Speaker 3: Joe, Yes, my dad told me stories about that. He's

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Speaker 3: a Vietnam veteran, and he's the reason I joined the army.

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Speaker 3: He's the reason I am the man I am today.

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Speaker 3: He took care of my mother through twenty years of sickness,

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Speaker 3: and he served as country honorably in Vietnam, and he

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Speaker 3: told me he was spit on when he came home,

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Speaker 3: and oh, I find that reprehensible.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I agree. They did not do that to you, folks,

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Speaker 2: So did they?

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Speaker 3: They did not. They Everyone was very supportive of the

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Speaker 3: troops and what we went through, And although the VA

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Speaker 3: took a while to catch up in realizing what a

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Speaker 3: large problem had been created by the global War on terrorism,

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Speaker 3: the society at large was very supportive, and I'm thankful

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Speaker 3: for that. I'm thankful for the American people. Even though

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Speaker 3: I didn't support the specific war in Iraq, I was

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Speaker 3: proud to volunteer after nine to eleven to try to

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Speaker 3: respond to those attacks. I was proud to serve my country.

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Speaker 3: And I'm proud of every American who supports the troops,

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Speaker 3: because they are the Americans worth fighting for.

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Speaker 2: You think the punishment of hanging Saddam Hussein after he

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Speaker 2: was finally captured was justified.

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Speaker 3: I don't particularly like the death penalty, but I can

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Speaker 3: see where it was justified. There were a lot of

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Speaker 3: mass graves in that country, and sometimes you got to

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Speaker 3: wonder what else you can do with someone like that.

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Speaker 3: He was quite monsters.

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Speaker 2: He was not a good guy.

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Speaker 1: Was he Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every

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Speaker 1: weeknight at one am Eastern and go to Coast to

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Speaker 1: coastam dot com for more