LESSONS FROM IRAQ

By his own admission, Mike Kubista was once a soft-spoken kid from Owatonna who didn’t really like where his life was headed. But after joining the U.S. Marines and serving a tour in Iraq, he quickly shed that image and came home a different person.

For starters, he has turned from Marine to author and creator. A survivor of a hail of bullets and mortars many times over, Kubista hopes others will learn about his journey through a book he has published, “Lessons From Iraq: Memoir of a Marine.”

Kubista was deployed in Iraq as a Marine machine gunner and prison guard for about 16 months in 2003 and 2004.

“It changed me,” Kubista said of his war experience. “There are a lot of ugly things that happened with the war.”

He shares intimate details of gunfights, brushes with prisoners of war, IED explosions and mortar attacks in Al Anbar province when the whole world seemed like it was on fire. His book is a collection of those experiences, along with historical context for people who want to know more than just the narratives they heard on TV.

His stories put you in place, let you walk along the chaos and feel the world through his eyes.

Part of this book is also about giving people context. There are a few common stories told about Iraq and what happened there, but never from people who were actually there. Kubista weaves in the history, politics, and decisions made that ultimately led to the destruction of so many lives even as Iraq was on the verge of electing its first non-sectarian government. This is the story about how it all fell apart.

After graduating from Owatonna, Kubista went to work at a local factory for about three months before he realized that wasn’t what he wanted with his life. “I got killed by guys in the factory,” he recalled. “I was a shy, timid kid who they made fun of. They picked on the new guy who couldn’t figure things out.”

By July 2001, Kubista joined the Marines just before the 9/11 attacks changed the world. He turned 19 in Kuwait and quickly found himself in for the lesson of a lifetime.

“It got real ugly real quick,” Kubista said. “I had to grow up quick,” he added.

Kubista shared how his weapon malfunctioned in his very first gun fight. “It was just a nightmare,” he said.

“I learned no one was going to come to save me,” said Kubista, who did not come from a military family and did not necessarily have strong patriotic feelings. “I saw a place where there were tough men that could teach me to have a backbone.”

While fighting in Iraq, it didn’t take long for Kubista to realize what he was about to face.

“There were dead bodies all over the place, and decomposing corpses all over,” he said.

The most dangerous point during Kubista’s combat came when he was caught in an ambush where they were pinned down from three directions. Mortars were being dropped on the U.S. soldiers, and Kubista thought his life would be over.

“I just accepted that I was going to die with the next mortar,” he said.

Somehow the next mortar ended up missing him, and he got out of there alive. “It’s some miracle I can't explain. The fighting came to a lull and stopped just long enough for us to reassemble,” he said, adding there were minimal casualties.

Kubista later received a Medal of Valor for his role in that particular attack. “For me being a timid kid, it was a validation of how much I changed in a short amount of time,” he said of earning the top honor.

During his time in Iraq, Kubista ran a “feeder prison” for about five months, which he considered to be some very dark moments of his service. The prison was a retrofitted office building with concrete slabs. With temperatures hovering around 125 degrees, there were up to eight men locked in tiny cells.

“Working at the prison was a dark feeling,” he admitted. “We couldn’t always get them water. I had guys begging me to help them, but I knew there was nothing I could do. It was just a brutal place.”

While Kubista has left the battle fields behind, he has faced an even greater battle back home—PTSD. “I went through crazy PTSD,” he admits. “It was traumatic beyond even what I understood.”

He said there have been many triggers of flash backs just from going about his daily life where he has experienced severe panic attacks. For example, watching a bug crawling in a tree trunk puts Kubista back in Iraq where bugs crawled on dead bodies.

Other veterans have reached out to Kubista to help him process his war experiences. Parents of soldiers who have died by suicide have also reached out to Kubista hoping to gain a greater understanding of what their child experienced.

A large portion at the end of his memoir deals with PTSD.

But Kubista found positive things with his experience as well. Among them are courage, commitment, tenacity and ability to endure. He also has learned how to be an educated warrior. “Some of the smartest people I have ever met are those who I have served with,” he said, adding he has tried to model himself after those guys.

The ex-marine has done extensive research on weapons of mass destruction since being discharged from the Marines, and he’s not convinced it was a war the U.S. should have been involved in. “I don’t think we belonged there,” Kubista said. “I feel betrayed as someone who went to serve in good faith,” he added.

Kubista’s attempt at writing hasn't come easy. He initially started writing a book after returning from Iraq. “This is crap, it’s garbage,” he said of his first effort. “I’m not going to be a writer.”

About 11 years ago Kubista took creative writing classes back in Minnesota. But it wasn’t until two years ago while polishing sunglasses in a store in Redmond, Wash., he started thinking about putting all his stories together again in a book. “It just started flowing,” he said.

Kubista, who currently works for Fed-Ex in the Milwaukee area, said he has not found many books on this particular topic. His parents, Mike and Sherry Kubista, live in Owatonna.  

In addition to being an author, Kubista hopes to do animations and short cartoons.

Perhaps most importantly Kubista has found he has changed into a different person. And he has never regretted the path he took to get there.

________________________________________________

Lessons from Iraq: Memoir of a Marine

Author: Mike Kubista, formerly of Owatonna

Cost: $13.99

Available: www.bookbaby.com; later this year he plans to relaunch through Amazon

________________________________________________