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Drew B.
![[Our daily routine] always changed; being Infantry, we were prepared [for anything]. My battalion was split up through Baghdad. My company was broken down even further than that; I was fortunate in a way. I try to [focus on] the last three and a half months that I was in-country, because I worked with [Iraqi] juveniles. It was very sad, but very rewarding; to try and get them to understand that we weren’t bad. It was more a “hearts and minds” mission.](img/vets/vet_drewb_troops_plane.jpg)
![This is one of the blast walls [in Iraq]. Soldiers got permission to [paint] these walls, to leave our mark… because [we were] a New Jersey unit.](img/vets/vet_drewb_graffiti.jpg)
![I’m still coping, and I’ll always [be coping] with the war. But I’m coping with [it] so much different now [than when I first came back]. What I learned from the Addiction Recovery Unit [at the VA] was that with alcohol, I would cope for that day, but I would never be able to get closure. There may never be full closure, but it seems like it’s a lot easier to deal with [when I’m] not drinking every day. It is what it is, so I‘ve got to learn to live life on life’s terms.](img/vets/vet_drewb_bombed_tanker.jpg)
![I wouldn’t change anything, because we’re safe, I’m home, and that’s the way the mission works. I wouldn’t volunteer to go back, but if my unit went, I would definitely go with them. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened [and] I thought maybe I could [have] helped. We train to fight, so we constantly train for deployment.](img/vets/vet_drewb_reservejob.jpg)
Drew grew up in Camden, NJ. He was Active Duty in the Army for 2 years (1984-86) and served one year in the Army Reserves (1986-87). He reenlisted in the Army after 9/11, and still serves as a Staff Sergeant with the U.S. Army National Guard. Drew deployed as an Infantryman to Iraq; after returning from his last deployment, he was medically retired from his job at the U.S. Postal Service. Drew returned to school at the University of Pennsylvania through the Veterans Upward Bound program, and was a finalist for a scholarship to Vassar College through the Posse Foundation. His long-term goal is to teach math to inner city students.
