“People would go to a designated air-raid shelter, the sirens would sound — it was just like in the movies,” Miezwa said.
Soldiers crowded together, dashing to put on chemical gear in case an attack was made.
For Miezwa and the soldiers with him, they remained safe throughout the war. But what he remembers is how it began.
While they had been shipped to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, the soldiers still didn’t know whether they were going to war. Miezwa found out suddenly, and early.
“After my shift ended, the pilots asked me to hang around and drive them to the flight line,” Miezwa said. “I heard them say, ‘Baghdad’ and thought, ‘This is really happening.’”
Miezwa was already a career soldier within the Air National Guard. He joined when he was 29 in 1983.
He recalls replacing the vacuum tubes of old radios and then the transition to digital equipment. Both provided him with new challenges, the reason he joined the military.
He is now married to his wife, Laura, and works out of the Air National Guard base in Costa Mesa.
TIMELINE OF THE IRAQ WAR
March 2003: U.S. forces invade Iraq
May 2003: President Bush declares end of major combat operations in “Mission Accomplished” speech
December 2003: Saddam Hussein captured by U.S. forces
April 2004: U.S. soldiers accused of abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib scandal
January 2005: Iraqis elect transitional government
May 2006: Permanent Iraqi government takes power
June 2006: Insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed by U.S. forces
December 2006: Hussein executed
January 2007: Bush announces troop “surge” to quell violence throughout country
September 2007: Bush and Gen. David Petraeus back limited withdrawal of troops
MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com. DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.
