Sheehan, Joseph Elbert
Joseph Elbert Sheehan: Operation Enduring Freedom
Interviewed by Christine Angela Wall
Interview date: December 17, 2003
Q: Do you remember where you were on September 11, 2001?
A: Yes, I was in high school my senior year in government class.
Q: What were your feelings in regards to the nation’s reactions of September 11, 2001 attack?
A: I think the nation came together as one and showed a lot of patriotism.
Q: Did the US decision for operation Enduring Freedom come as a complete surprise?
A: No, it really didn’t come as a surprise to me. I was expecting it.
Q: Where were you in your military career at that time?
A: I had just enlisted into the Air National Guard.
Q: Why did you decide to enlist?
A: I enlisted because I’ve always wanted to be a part of the military, and, ah, serve my country.
Q: What branch of service did you serve in?
A: I served in the United States Air Force.
Q: What was your career field in the service and what were your primary duties?
A: My career field in the service is security forces. My primary duties was to protect our personnel and resources on an air force installation where I’m assigned to.
Q: Where did you take basic training?
A: My basic training was at San Antonio, Texas, at Lackland Air Force Base.
Q: Explain your experiences and impressions of basic training and tech school.
A: Basic training and tech school was very fun and entertaining and up-and-down roller-coaster experience, but, ah, I wouldn’t go there again, but I enjoyed it.
Q: After basic training and tech school, where did the military send you?
A: Ah, they sent – I came back to my national guard base at Will Rogers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Q: How long were you on active duty orders before you found out about your deployment orders?
A: When I got back from basic training and tech school they put me on orders for a full year, and I was about into about – I’d say two to three months when I found out I was going to deploy.
Q: What were your personal feelings about getting deployed?
A: Part of me wanted to go and another part of me was scared to go over there.
Q: What were the feelings of your friends and family about your deployment?
A: My friends and family didn’t want me to leave because they knew something was going to go down and they were scared and worried about me.
Q: What was the overall view of the people in your squadron when they found out about their deployment?
A: Some of the people wanted to go, but other people, they didn’t want to go. There was two teams that went over there – two thirteen-man teams.
Q: Which team were you on?
A: I was on the second team. The first team left out right before Christmas, and the second team left out March 1.
Q: Where were you deployed to?
A: I was deployed to, ah, Bahrain at, ah, Shaikh Isa Air Base, at Site 41.
Q: What was your rank, duty, and such at your deployment?
A: My rank and my responsibilities and my duties were, I was an airman first class at the time, and, ah, my responsibilities was were, I was mostly the 60-gunner on a fire team and rode around in a turret on top of a Humvee.
Q: What kind of conditions did you live and work in?
A: Conditions over there were – it varied from at nighttime it would be cold to daytime it was extremely hot. We had sand storms about once a week or so.
Q: Did you have much interaction with the people of host nation?
A: Ah, we had most – I mean, people at the search pits had most interaction, but, yes, we did have some interaction with the local security there for the air base for Bahrain.
Q: How do you think that people of the host nation felt about US troops being there?
A: The majority of the people really didn’t mind it, but there are some of the extremists that we did get some resistance from – people throwing Molotov cocktails and people shooting at cars and Humvees.
Q: Did you have any combat experiences?
A: Yes, I did.
Q: What were they?
A: Ah, did a couple up in Iraq that I was flying Raven missions for – back and forth – security for aircraft that were landing in Iraq during the war. And, ah, just –ah, whenever we got on the ground a couple of times it wasn’t pretty.
Q: What kind of contact did you have with people back home and what kind of correspondence did the military permit?
A: Ah, we had, ah, we could e-mail. They had stations for computers setup, ah, so we could e-mail back home. They had about six phones that had DSL on them. Right, DSN, sorry. Ah, so we could call back home and get in touch with our loved ones.
Q: How long was your deployment altogether?
A: Altogether it lasted from March 1to, I believe, June – the middle of June, so about three or three and half months or so.
Q: What kind of reception did you receive when you got back home to the states?
A: Ah, there was a lot of people waiting in the airport for us when we got back to Oklahoma City. Had some news crews, radio stations, and everything.
Q: Do you still keep in touch with some of the people you served with?
A: Ah, yes, I do. Actually, a few people I still talk to.
Q: What kind of general observations and conclusions to do you have Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom?
A: Overall, it was quite a success. I mean, ah, we handled – Enduring Freedom fairly well. We went over to Afghanistan and took care of business there and then we went – as you can tell, we went into Iraq and liberated that country within three months, so obviously it went well – or overall we have handled the situation very well.
