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Transcript of Oral History Interview with Lance Corporal Michael Nelson
March 10, 2011
Carrboro, NC
Julia Favorov: Okay. This is Julia Favorov interviewing Michael Nelson. It is March 10, 2011 , and
this interview is taking place in the Carolina Cafe and Laundromat in Carrboro, North Carolina. This
interview is for my American Military History class with Doctor Browning at Appalachian State
University. Okay. So, Michael, what war and branch of the military were you in?
Michael Nelson: I was in Operation Iraqi Freedom in the United States Marine Corps.
Favorov: Okay. What was your rank?
Nelson: Lance Corporal.
Favorov: And where and when did you serve?
Nelson: I served in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq, and it was in Ramadi Iraq. Ramadi was the name of
the city. And I monitored a ECP, which is ... let me look up the acronym. I can't remember. It was, it was
like an electronic collections point. And we monitored people going in and out of the city with about
thirty Iraqi police. We monitored them searching the vehicles, searching the people and then we did
that for the first month and then the next five months we did escorts, like escorting around high priority
personnel like generals, admirals, Senator Obama, at the time. And we did that and for a good while.
Escorting people, woman's rights rallies and such. And then the last month we monitored a gas station.
Favorov: A gas station?
Nelson: Yeah. It's the main gas station that all the truckers stop at to take gas to smaller gas stations
around the country.
Favorov: Alright. Interesting. What was your relations with the Iraqi citizens?
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�Nelson: The Iraqi people were pretty.. they were pretty cool most of the time. Iraqi police and Iraqi
army guys were awesome. And the civilians were alright, depending on where you were. When we
were in Fallujah, we didn't get a lot of good feedback.
Favorov: Yeah.
Nelson: But that's understandable.
Favorov: Yeah. But so you got to hang out with the Iraqi police people?
Nelson: Yeah. That first month and last month we were, when we were on those specific stations, we'd
hang out with the Iraqi police and the Iraqi army a lot, because they'd be living with us at the frrst post.
So, basically we would be sleeping in the same house really with Iraqis.
Favorov: Interesting. Okay, well, what made you join the military? And specifically the Marines?
Nelson: When I was three years old, my dad took me to a ... it was like a military show at the RDU
airport. It was with all of the troops getting back from the first Iraqi War. And we basically went up on
this big concrete hill with the sun in the background and everything. It was gorgeous. And we walk on
up an Apache, a huey, an Apache helicopter, a huey helicopter, and a couple of Humvees, and it was
just really cool. I was like three years old and I'm walking up here with my dad and my brother and this
dude just picks me up and says "You wanna see something cool?" Next thing I know I'm in the cock pit
of an Apache attack helicopter. And I just thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Favorov: Yeah. So, why did you pick the Marines?
Nelson: The best of the best.
Favorov: Well, what was boot camp like? I remember hearing some pretty funny stories from you and
Tako about boot camp.
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�Nelson: It was interesting. It was like being in jail. It was exactly like being in jail, except you get to
hold and shoot weapons. [Laughter] Yeah, it... I don't know. It was wild. You meet a lot of interesting
people. There were about ninety-two people in my platoon. Which is large for a platoon. Really large.
And a lot of interesting people.
Favorov: Yeah. How much of a shock was it to go from high school in Chapel Hill to boot camp?
Where did you go?
Nelson: I went to Parris Island, South Carolina. And it was intense. It was terrifying. It was absolutely
terrifying. Probably the scariest experience of my life. Scarier than going to Iraq.
Favorov: Really?
Nelson: Yeah. We trained for a year before we went to Iraq.
Favorov: I mean, was it fun in some ways?
Nelson: It was fun in some ways.
Favorov: And exciting?
Nelson: We had a lot of hilarious moments. Yeah. It was fun. I mean, you're with your boys and
everybody is just terrified as fuck. Just completely fucking terrified.
Favorov: Yeah. Do you have any funny stories that you'd want to share?
Nelson: When we went to the gas chamber to ..
Favorov: Gas chamber... ?
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�Nelson: Yeah. We'd have to don gas masks, go in there, and they would fill the entire place with CS
gas, which is like tear gas.
Favorov: Okay.
Nelson: And what it is is these tiny crystals, like microscopic crystals that will get in the pores of your
skin and it will explode. So it is like an extreme sun burn.
Favorov: That sounds like fun.
Nelson: Yeah. It was, it was pretty bad. I went through that like three, three to four times in the entire
Marine Corps. But, we are at this gas chamber, and there are a couple people .. we have to take off our
masks for ten seconds and then put it back on and clear the mask by blowing with your hand on a
button and then you're good to go but it still burns like crazy. And we had a couple of guys flip out and
one of them, B_ _~ flipped out to the point where he shat himself.
Favorov: Oh my god. [Laughter]
Nelson: So we're sitting out, after the gas chamber, all snot coming out of our noses and everything.
And we're just like "What's that smell? B
did you shit yourself?" And he's like "Uhh .. " He just
looks even more terrified, I think he started crying. The drill instructor nabbed him up, took him back
to the barracks and everything. And this a ... this is hilarious, we're going to the bathroom after the gas
chamber and everything, just going in there to clean up. And we hear this recruit yell out, we're all
called recruits, we hear this other recruit yell out, "Uh, sir, permission to speak to drill instructor
Sergeant Hemingway, sir." And this is all screaming. "What the fuck you want?" And he says, "Uh, sir,
there's a turd on the deck, sir." And you hear the drill instructor yell "B _ _ ! Come clean this shit up! "
It was pretty hilarious. That's one of many. I can't think of all of them off the top of my head. I went
through some pretty hard times too.
Favorov: Yeah?
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�Nelson: Just, we have this one thing, it's called the crucible. We're out for three or four days. And we
only have three meals. And we've got to hike to certain areas carrying a hundred pounds of gear. And
several miles we'd be doing all this for like twenty miles to and from everything. And I went during the
winter, because I thought it would suck going to boot camp in the summer. But in the winter the cold is
horrible. And it was raining for all three, I think like three of the four days or something, I can't
remember. But it's just like the most.. it'll beat you up pretty bad. You're outside 24/7.
Favorov: Yeah. Well, doing it in the winter doesn't really prepare you for Iraq.
Nelson: No, no. But we had plenty of training from boot camp to the time we went to Iraq. In hotter
climates.
Favorov: Okay. Well.
[loud sounds in the background]
Nelson: Sorry about that, I don't know what that is. Want to pause it?
Favorov: Yeah, maybe.
Okay. How often did you see combat in Iraq?
Nelson: Not very often. More stuff happened in Fallujah, outside of where we were. We went to
Fallujah probably maybe four times while we were there, maybe five. And it was, I mean, they lost a
lot of people in Fallujah. We lost two people in our battalion. While we had control of the AI Anbar
province. And one night, the first week, we... I was on that ECP post and I was going to bed for the
day, I had the night shift watching security cameras. And this ... I had just got into bed and the entire
building just shook so I look outside and we see this huge plume of smoke coming out. And it was a
thousand pounds of explosives that attacked one of our ECPs, one of our police stations on the other
side of the city. And it killed, well, one guy from my company, he got blown up with a guy from the
battalion that we were leaving, which was 28, and my battalion was 19. So, we lost two guys that day.
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�Favorov: Did you know them?
Nelson: I knew Harter, I'd seen him around, I didn't know him that well. I just... I went to SOl with
him, the school of infantry, I went there with him. And I had just seen him around. But it was wild.
Favorov: Yeah. Was it hard to deal with? Seeing that or having that happen?
Nelson: A little, but not really. I mean, you just don't worry about it really. You just... If it's your time,
it's your time. We had a bunch of people who got blown up but not killed.
Favorov: Yeah. But, what did you tell yourself to calm yourself down when you're in a dangerous
situation?
Nelson: There's nothing you can do.
Favorov: Yeah?
Nelson: Yeah. That's just what I told myself. It's just like there's nothing I can do. If something happens
or if we had to shoot back I'd do that, but I never really had to shoot back at anyone. You just tell
yourself that there's nothing you can do, otherwise you're going to be antsy and nervous and you're
going to get somebody killed.
Favorov: Yeah, yeah. That's intense. Well, I mean, do you have any stories you want to share from
being in Iraq? Like funny stories, or not funny stories.
Nelson: I can't think of any real funny stories. We didn't really, we didn't do much. All we really did
was just escort people, or we'd be out a lot of the time.
Favorov: Was it boring a lot?
Nelson: Yeah, it was boring all the time. Absolutely boring. Whenever we were on the base we'd be
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�watching That 70's Show or Califomication or..
Favorov: I like that show.
Nelson: Yeah. We'd just get any series. Like, all the Family Guys, we'd watch them, because they had
this hagie store off base. We called it the hagie store. And it was just this little, kind of a, one store flea
market that sold bootleg DVDs and Tiger energy drinks and Boom Boom energy drinks. These drinks
had caffeine in them so they weren't legal in the states, but they were, oh god they were great. We'd
survive off those things. And we'd just drink water everyday. Water, water, water, always drinking
water.
Favorov: Did you have any alcohol when you were there?
Nelson: No.
Favorov: Yeah, I bet they wouldn't want ...
Nelson: It's a dry country. If we were in .. if we weren't in a dry country then we'd be fme. But it's a dry
country so alcohol is illegal. We noticed a couple of the Iraqi police smoking marijuana or opium.
They'd get bootleg liquor, they'd get whiskey and stuff like that. But nothing .. we didn't really do
anything.
Favorov: Besides watching TV shows, what else did you guys do for entertainment?
Nelson: Download Nintendo 64 emulators and play them on our computers.
Favorov: Okay. Was it you that was telling me something about when you were in boot camp people
playing WoW? World of Warcraft.
Nelson: Not in boot camp.
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�Favorov: Okay, well, not in boot camp, but somewhere. Yeah, sorry, not in boot camp.
Nelson: Yeah, yeah. That's right. Back in the states, my room mate played WoW 24/7. Actually,
probably 21/7. He'd sleep for three hours and he'd get up and he'd play WoW again.
Favorov: That's pretty funny.
Nelson: He never left the room. He would order pizza and have it.. it'd just be delivered to the room
and he'd just eat and sit there and do nothing while we'd be going out to the bars and everything. Every
once in a while we'd be able to pry him away from his computer, but not much. I forgot to mention, in
Iraq, a couple of the guys passed time .. played Dungeons and Dragons.
Favorov: That's cool!
Nelson: Yeah. Yeah, me and a couple of my buddies were making fun of them because they were
playing Dungeons and Dragons, but they..
Favorov: No, Dungeons and Dragons is great!
Nelson: But yeah, they were excited. They were like, "it's something to do!"
Favorov: Did you ever do Dungeons and Dragons with them?
Nelson: No. I'd go and I'd watch and I'd ask what all the characters were, but ..
Favorov: You should have played. That game is fun. Role playing is fun.
Nelson: [Laughter]
Favorov: That's interesting. I never.. okay. So, then when you were in the United States and you're just
waiting .. so you're just waiting to be sent somewhere from your station?
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�Nelson: Pretty much.
Favorov: Where .. what different places were you stationed in the United States?
Nelson: I was only stationed in Camp Lejeune, but we'd go to training at forts all over the country.
Army forts all over the country. Twentynine Palms in California. It's in the Mojave Desert. And we'd
do a lot of desert training there. And that was pretty interesting. There's a lot of cool training there.
We'd .. we had this one mission when we were in the Mojave Desert, where .. I was with the mortars. I
was a mortar-man, when I wasn't in Iraq. So, we'd get this ... we'd get this cannon and basically drop
this bomb down a cannon and it'd fly five thousand meters to destroy a target. And it had a forty meter
kill radius. We'd be able to launch ... a good ten rounds within two minutes, and be able to destroy an
entire area. Anyway, that's what I did. So, in California, we got ordered to go to the top of this
mountain and we're going to be assaulting this city with tanks and artillery. So, artillery starts firing and
smoke over this town made out of Conex boxes, you know, those boxes that are on oil tankers? And arti
is smoking the hell out of this town, and we're on top of this mountain so we're just watching
everything, just like "whoa, this is awesome! " And we've got these three tanks, like picture you're on
top of this mountain and you've got three tanks coming down here, and arti is blasting this place with
smoke, so smoke is just covering this entire little town and the tanks fire and it looks like lasers just
destroying everything. And we would drop AG rounds, which are high explosives, and that was our
forty meter kill radius weapon. And we just obliterated this town with mortars and everything.
Favorov: Okay. Well, was it.. did you get to experience all these different cities all over the United
States? Awesome United States traveling?
Nelson: Not really outside of military bases. No. We'd go there on the weekends. We'd go to Florida.
We went to Daytona. We'd go everywhere. I went to Atlanta, Charlotte, Wilmington all the time,
because it is forty five minutes from Camp Lejeune. Just go to Wilmington a lot. Basically just binge
drink.
Favorov: Hah. Okay. Well ...
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�Nelson: Some training scenarios, we'd have Iraqi people who were role players. And they'd come out
there, and they'd have to speak all Arabic, they wouldn't be able to speak English. They wouldn't be
allowed. And they'd have AK-47 assault rifles with blanks and we'd have blanks as well and we'd be
role playing basically. One time, we patrolled, foot patrolled, with a MlAl Abrams and we'd just walk
beside it and they had this whole scenario set up. So, we turned a comer in this town and I've got the
tank right next to me and I've got an M4 and my squad leader is in front of me, and this little rocket
attached to a string just flies down and explodes. And this sniper guy just starts firing at us, and we've
got to fire back with all of our blanks. It's pretty intense. And the tanks fire with a 50 caliber machine
gun, just like .. intense. It's wild. It'll shake your whole chest.
Favorov: Yes. Well, so what were .. what was your favorite time serving in the military? Where .. yeah,
what was your favorite .. when you were where was your favorite time? Like, in Iraq?
Nelson: In Iraq, probably.
Favorov: Yeah?
Nelson: Yeah. You're just out with your boys and you're making mad money. Lots of money, because
we get combat pay, hazard pay, and no taxes. And it was great.
Favorov: Okay. So, after your service ended how has it been getting back to civilian life?
Nelson: It's been pretty difficult.
Favorov: Yeah?
Nelson: Yeah. When we got back from Iraq, apparently on the drive from where we got back to to the
beach house that my parents rented the traffic wasn't easy to cope with, because in Iraq everyone gets
out of your way and back here you're driving right next to people. So, apparently I was like doing this,
reaching for my shoulder all time. I was reaching for my gun. I don't remember doing that. My parents
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�told me about it. And that was after the fact. But getting back to civilian life just from being in the
Marine Corps, the profanity is probably the hardest. Cause I'd just be like, "Fucking, with this fucking
thing in the fucking .. " And that's seriously how we talked. Like, "fucking, fuck, fuck, fuck." Like it just
never stopped. Shit, damn, hell, all of that.
Favorov: And do your parents not appreciate that language?
Nelson: Not really, no. Well, I mean, saying it around other people isn't easy, either. Cause I got a
security job when I first got back, and like security we're supposed to help people get to where ever
they need to go if they can't find a place. So, it's really hard not to use profanity when you're saying,
"Yeah, go to the fucking end of the corridor there, and just fucking hang a right, and take another
fucking right and you'll be good to go. Just keep walking straight and it'll be right in front of you." It's
the worst. The worst.
Favorov: That's interesting. I guess that makes sense that that habit would get picked up in the
Marines.
Nelson: Yeah. Saying like, calling people yoohoos. "Hey yoohoo! "
Favorov: Yoohoo?
Nelson: Or like trying to stop from telling people to pick things up if they throw a piece of trash on the
ground. Because I've yelled at people for throwing a cigarette butt down.
Favorov: Well, so what have you been doing since you got out ofthe military?
Nelson: Not really much of anything. Just trying to pay back bills. And I was staying with my parents
for a good while, and I just moved into this little apartment with my girlfriend in December. And that's
been interesting. But not really much of anything. Just paying back bills and thinking about going to
college. Using the GI bill.
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�told me about it. And that was after the fact. But getting back to civilian life just from being in the
Marine Corps, the profanity is probably the hardest. Cause I'd just be like, "Fucking, with this fucking
thing in the fucking .. " And that's seriously how we talked. Like, "fucking, fuck, fuck, fuck." Like it just
never stopped. Shit, damn, hell, all of that.
Favorov: And do your parents not appreciate that language?
Nelson: Not really, no. Well, I mean, saying it around other people isn't easy, either. Cause I got a
security job when I first got back, and like security we're supposed to help people get to where ever
they need to go if they can't find a place. So, it's really hard not to use profanity when you're saying,
"Yeah, go to the fucking end of the corridor there, and just fucking hang a right, and take another
fucking right and you'll be good to go. Just keep walking straight and it'll be right in front of you." It's
the worst. The worst.
Favorov: That's interesting. I guess that makes sense that that habit would get picked up in the
Marines.
Nelson: Yeah. Saying like, calling people yoohoos. "Hey yoohoo! "
Favorov: Yoohoo?
Nelson: Or like trying to stop from telling people to pick things up if they throw a piece of trash on the
ground. Because I've yelled at people for throwing a cigarette butt down.
Favorov: Well, so what have you been doing since you got out of the military?
Nelson: Not really much of anything. Just trying to pay back bills. And I was staying with my parents
for a good while, and I just moved into this little apartment with my girlfriend in December. And that's
been interesting. But not really much of anything. Just paying back bills and thinking about going to
college. Using the GI bill.
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�Favorov: What would you go to college for? What were you thinking about?
Nelson: For a while I was looking at being a cop, but then I don't want to keep doing what I have been
doing. And then, I'm looking at logistics or anything. I don't really know what I want to do. Like data
management or logistics or something with like an associates degree or something along those lines.
Favorov: Okay. Well, do you have anything else that you want to share about the whole experience?
Nelson: It was a lot of fun. It was like ..being in the military is like fifty percent "Fuck I hate my life,"
and the other fifty percent is like "Oh, that's cool, I get to do that." Or "Yay, I get to hang out with my
buddies." Or stuff like that. The best part about the Marine Corps was probably the weekends. Just
going to random bars, getting in bar fights. Wild, wild weekends. It's like being a rock star. But with
not a lot of money. So you go to crappy bars. Yeah.
Favorov: Okay. Well, I don't think you said it before. What were the .. when did you .. when did your
service start and end. What were the dates?
Nelson: I went into the Marine Corps on September 11 , 2006. That was the day I arrived at Parris
Island. And I got out... they had a ninety day early program, because the Marine Corps was overflowing
when I was getting out. So, I got out ninety days early. You had to apply for it and everything. And it
was ... June 4, 2010 is when I got out. And I've been utilizing the VA benefits. I get free health coverage,
because I have 10% disability for having tinnitus. Because dropping bombs down a cannon, and your
head is right next to the cannon ..! can't really.. this ear is kind of messed up. And, yeah. That's pretty
much it. I just got an evaluation for PTSD last week. I'll see how that turns out. Hopefully... I don't
know.
Favorov: Do you feel like you have the symptoms for it?
Nelson: I don't know. I got nightmares for a while. Like a year after Iraq. Drinking usually made them
go away. Now I don't really get many nightmares, and I don't drink anymore ... as much. I probably
have like a drink every... a couple drinks every week. Rather than drinking like a case of beer a night,
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�•
which is what it was.
Favorov: Okay. Well, good luck with all that.
Nelson: Yeah.
Favorov: Okay. Well. I guess ... this interview is over. Unless there is anything else you want to say.
Nelson: I can't think of any.
Favorov: Well, thank you.
Nelson: You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
Favorov: Yes.
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�
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Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project
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Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers.
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Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC).
Oral History
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Interviewee
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Nelson, Michael
Interviewer
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Favorov, Julia
Interview Date
3/10/2011
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0:27:35
File name
2013_063_Nelson_Michael_interview
2013_063_Nelson_Michael_transcript
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Michael Nelson, 10 March 2011
Creator
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Favorov, Julia
Nelson, Michael
Source
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<a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a>
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Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used.
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14 pages
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English
English
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Sound
Subject
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Iraq War, 2003-2011
Veterans
Nelson, Michael
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Michael Nelson served in the Marine Corps as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He describes his experience in Iraq as quite boring, and his basic training as much more lively. His greatest challenges have been adjusting back to civilian life.
Al-Anbar
Camp Lejeune
gas station
GI Bill
hagie store
Lance Corporal
Marine Corps
Michael Nelson
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Parris Island