Stories

Name: Cody Anderson

Age: 23

Hometown: Kaukauna, Wis., and Oshkosh, Wis. 


Military Rank/Unit: Sergeant, artilleryman, squad team leader, Charlie Battery 2/3 Field Artillery 1st Armored Division, U.S. Army/ second-year cadet ROTC program

Tours: 2003-2005 Giessen, Germany; 2005-2007, Rabiyah, Iraq and other cities in Iraq

CODY ANDERSON

by Lynnea Krajco and Grace Lim

Sheep Passing Through the Night

In 2003, Cody Anderson graduated high school, "barely," as he puts it. At that time, the Oshkosh, Wis., teen saw some of his friends speeding down a path to nowhere. He could easily follow them or take a different path. He chose to join the U.S. Army and was stationed in Giessen, Germany for three years. Then he was deployed for a 15-month tour in Iraq, which ended in February 2007. In Iraq, he was a member of the Joint Communications Center, which helped the Iraqi forces coordinate responses to attacks. In Iraq, he helped found a Iraqi Police Academy and train the Iraqi Border Patrol. And there, in the darkness of war, Anderson found some moments of light.

You can hear the gunfire, and we're just waiting for the report from the Iraqi Border Patrol to come up to us. The report said something like, "Enemies smuggling sheep. We expended 6,000 AK rounds and 4,000 RPK rounds…"

The rest of the story can be found in the book War: Through Their Eyes, which is sold at the University Books & More.