Chapter 2

Time moved forward for the small Jensen family. Jon’s alcoholism grew worse. He was still able to hold onto his job at the dealership, but he was now no longer a supervisor but instead just a mechanic. Reyna had gotten a degree in business administration at the state college and now ran her own small clothing business. Through high school J.J. was able to focus on his own studies and his athletics. While Jon wasn’t making as much money as he had been, Reyna’s business had definitely made up the difference and then some that he’d lost. While they weren’t rich by any means, they were solidly middle-class. Going through high school J.J. kept with his football, track, and basketball. Football was the strongest of the three for him, with basketball just being a comparative side note. He ended up a two-year starter as a running back, all state sprinter, but just a valued reserve on the basketball team.

Academically J.J. had showed the same effort he put in on the football field, carrying a full A average for his high school career and posting very respectable ACT and SAT scores. The reason for that drive ended up coming in the mail a month before his high school graduation. Acceptance and a scholarship to go to out west to Stanford. While his academic scholarship didn’t pay his full tuition what it didn’t cover was picked up by the football and track teams combined scholarship and housing offers.

College was another one that went well for J.J. He was as dedicated there as he’d been in high school. He carried a high B average overall into his senior year academically. Athletically he played well enough at running back to be solidly in the three-man rotation the team had at the position. Unfortunately it wasn’t high enough for him to have set himself apart or to have drawn the attention of the NFL scouts which had been his dream, much like it was the same for any of his teammates. The unfortunate truth for the guys like him was that only a handful of the team would get to wear an NFL uniform and of that handful only a couple went in the first two rounds of that year’s draft.

J.J. was able to go with his backup plan though. Upon graduation and ‘retirement’ from track and football he enlisted into the Army as an engineer. The recruiter explained to him that as an engineer it would be working on the construction side of things, even though technically they could also be used as a combat engineer.

The first few years of his Army career were fairly uneventful. Though he had a combat engineer MOS he would also volunteer and pass the Air Assault and Airborne schools. It was at Airborne school that he found out he actually enjoyed jumping out of planes and started to pay his own money to go make jumps on his own in addition to his Army jumps. It was this hobby that led to him meeting his eventual wife, Jordan. He’d been captivated from the first time he saw the beautiful blonde receptionist and even if he hadn’t already planned on going back to jump again he would have just for her. In her case the attraction was definitely mutual. With years of football, track, and by now five years of Army behind him J.J. was definitely still in shape. The two dated for a little over a year before they would marry.

Married Army life sent them through several duty stations in the early years of marriage. They first started at Ft. Stewart followed by a two year stint in South Korea. J.J.’s work ethic and success still showed through with his Army career, by the time he re-enlisted for the first time he was already a Sergeant and would go on to pick up his Staff Sergeant promotion shortly before his second re-enlistment. The only person to find out his true motivation though was his wife. She’d asked him why he worked so hard to be told that he was trying to make up for the dishonor of his father. J.J. knew that alcoholism was hereditary and for him the easiest way to combat that temptation was to avoid it altogether by not drinking. He knew enough of his dad’s war experiences to know he’d been to Vietnam and in combat, but that was about it really. Jon never spoke of his experiences there, even after J.J. showed signs of making the Army a career. He did know that his dad had gotten out as a Sergeant, so he felt some measure of success that he’d gotten to a point where he outranked his Marine predecessor.

In early 2001 J.J. had been assigned to the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, serving as a platoon sergeant for an engineer platoon. At thirty-two he was one of the youngest E-7’s that the battalion and even brigade had, but everything he’d done had been successful and showed he was able to handle the leadership responsibilities that came with it.

The operations tempo would definitely be sped up in the next few months, though. 9/11 saw to that. Initially put on alert, the entire regiment began a long series of training in the months afterwards. PCS orders for anyone set to exit the unit were delayed as the unit roster was locked in. The only exception to that was the brigade Sergeant Major as he’d already been over due to retire. Ironically he was replaced by a Sergeant Major who was almost the same age and who in fact had 25 years of service in, though his bio read that there was a break in service after his second Vietnam tour.

J.J. and his soldiers couldn’t help but follow the drama going on politically. They all knew that after what had happened it wasn’t a question of if they would go to war, it was only a question of when and where. As a combat engineer platoon J.J. was placed in charge of what would be route clearance for the regiment. The thing he looked forward to the job would be that it would challenge him intellectually; after all they would be clearing the IED’s that intelligence predicted were going to be a common obstacle for the US and allied forces. He held no illusions though, he also knew his men would get used as infantry as well. Range time was frequent and with a variety of weapons for his platoon. Each member trained and qualified on the M-4, M-9, and at least familiar with the M-240 and M-249 machine guns.