Remembering Corporal Jason Kessler

"Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name." - Hemingway

Corporal Jason M. Kessler - Killed in Action on July 30th, 2007 - Iraq

https://www.soc.mil/Memorial%20Wall/Bios/Kessler_Jason.pdf

Humor is the best medicine…

In my last deployment Sept ’06 – Jan ‘07, my platoon along with a sister platoon were the TF Strike Force based out of “Shark Base” in Ramadi, Iraq – with responsibility for the Al Anbar Province. We had another sister platoon attached with a Navy SMU operating out of Al-Asad Airbase. We spent many nights back-to-back flushing out High Value Targets (HVTs) in the cities like Ramadi, Habbaniyah, and Fallujah. We were busy. To get a sense of the environment at this time frame, we had a Joint Medical Augmentation Unit (JMAU) team attached to us, essentially a special operations surgical team.

No matter the environment, one thing is for sure, Ranger humor is abundant. I still recall a one-pound box of fruit cake being secretly hidden in Ranger kit. If you didn’t properly pre-combat inspect (PCI) your kit in the ready room, you may find yourself unknowingly carrying a one-pound box of fruit cake on an operation. I swear that was the most combat hardened box of fruit cake.

In our squad room, we had a large white board located above my bunk. The white board hosted relevant operational information like key task and times for our Operation Orders (OPORD), to include our infamous quotes. I started the trend with Kessler being our first addition to the board. We were in conversation amongst the squad as the guys sat around watching whatever season of some show, common for us during our downtime to either have a Madden/Halo tournament going, watching a boxed set season of DVDs or a movie. In mid-conversation, I caught something Kessler said… “I am pretty sure but not really”. I called out Kessler, ‘What? What did you just say?’ He looked at me in confusion and I repeated slowly… “I am pretty sure but not really”? Everyone started chuckling in the room, he had a grin on his face – slightly embarrassed but he also knew I wasn’t going to let this go as I teased him. I yelled out, “to the board!” I grabbed a dry-erase marker and wrote:

“I am pretty sure but not really” – Kessler

His name and quote was now up on the dry erase board for all to see his silly remark. During our deployment that board was filled with more and more quotes which became our version of “Kids say the Darndest Things”, now became “Rangers say the Darndest Things”. Every now and then we would have other platoon members stop in our room to hangout and they would take the time to read the quotes out loud, further embarrassing those on the board. ?I never got a clear photo of the white board as I looked back at old photos, one regret is not taking a photo of our masterpiece. I still think back and chuckle at Kessler’s quote: “I am pretty sure but not really”.

As I remember Kessler on this day, I will be having a peanut butter and honey sandwich. It was on this particular deployment that Kessler introduced me to this amazing combination. We walked into our chow hall, mid-day, I believe we were coming off a detail. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this was Kessler’s favorite go-to sandwich which has become one of mine as well. We were fortunate to have our own chow hall in our compound ran by Ranger cooks who kept us fed on our nighttime schedule. If I recall correctly the schedule was Breakfast at 6pm, Lunch at 12am, Dinner at 6am – our cooks would leave the chow hall open during the daytime for us so we could pull together a quick snack if we happen to be up and about.

Don’t forget to smile and laugh. Humor is truly the best medicine to get you through those intense days.

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One for the Airborne Ranger in the Sky! Never Forgotten. RLTW! <2>