ST. GEORGE — Two years removed from the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Nate Jamieson finally found himself in uniform.

He had entertained thoughts of joining the military, motivated by the events of that day. At age 23, he was married with two children and had earned a college degree in Spanish.

He was working as a mechanic but unfortunately lost his job. The series of events that transpired, however, put him in the proximity of an Army recruiter, and before Jamieson knew it, he was donning the fatigues so many American military men and women have donned for so many years.

And now, some 20 years after first enlisting, Jamieson reflects on his life in and out of the Army, the challenges that have come with it and, ultimately, the good he says he and veterans before him have done in order to preserve the American way of life.

“I just have a lot of respect for those guys because anytime they come up to me and thank me for my service, I make sure I thank them for theirs because they paved the road for us,” said Jamieson during a recent sit-down interview with St. George News.

One veteran Jamieson said fit this bill is his Uncle Glenn.

“My uncle thanks me all the time for my service and I’m like, ‘Dude, you were in Vietnam,'” Jamieson said. “He doesn’t talk about it at all because it was that bad.

“I had never really talked to my uncle before, and then when I got back from Iraq and he found out that I was in the military, we had the connection all of a sudden that I was in the military.”

Jamieson, who now lives in St. George and works for SkyWest Airlines, was in the Army from 2003 through 2015. He served a 13-month tour in Iraq from April 2006 trough May 2007 as a key part of a key military convoy. His unit — 92 Foxtrot 88 Mike — “would transport fuel and we would also run the security for the convoys we transported.”

These convoys, he said, would encounter pockets of the Taliban who would fire on U.S. forces who “didn’t have their stuff together.” Jamieson said his unit, however, was organized — and ready.

“They would pay attention to bumper numbers because your company name was on your bumper, and we would also have flags that would represent our companies,” he said. “They knew who had their stuff together and who didn’t.”

Despite Jamieson’s company having a reputation as being prepared and alert, the Taliban did attack him and his fellow soldiers. Jamieson said whirring bullets striking armored vehicles produced sparks. This was the first sign they were under attack.

Seemingly seconds later, he said, “The whole place just shakes and I hear this really loud boom. We all slow down and start looking around to see what it was. I looked two or three vehicles behind me. An armored Humvee had gone up in flames.”

It took little time, perhaps just seconds, he said, for the convoy to locate the direction from which the enemy was firing before they returned fire, ending the conflict rather quickly.

The explosion was from an IED — an improvised explosive device — typically used in these situations. One soldier died and two were injured. Jamieson said the results could have been much worse were it not for the general organization of his unit — 325 soldiers in total — and how well-prepared they were.

“We had practiced this time and time again, so when we got there (Iraq), we would know what we were doing,” he said. “And I think those people who attacked us were like, ‘Nope, we’re not doing that again. Those guys knew what they were doing.'”

This incident perhaps is to blame for the night terrors Jamieson continues to experience. He said he dreams he’s at the head of a convoy and a young boy is in the middle of the road, a tactic the Taliban reportedly would use, sometimes hiding explosives inside the child’s clothing.

In his dream, Jamieson says he radios his commanding officer who tells him not to stop. So he continues to drive forward, and as he gets closer, he realizes: “The kid is my son.” And just as he’s about to hit the child, “That’s when I wake up in a  panic in a sweat, crying my eyes out.”

Jamieson said he doesn’t like to talk about this recurring dream and others actually even worse than this one, but he was willing to share this story in order to help people understand “what a lot of soldiers have to go through.”

When Jamieson left for his deployment, his two boys were young: Paul was 18 months and Ashton was 4 months.

He says being away from them was one of the most challenging aspects of that 13 months. Upon his return to Fort Lewis, Washington, however, he went through a two-week demobilization during which he had to check in his equipment and essentially “decompress” from having been where he was and experienced the physical and emotional challenges of all he endured.

Finally, he arrived back in Pocatello for the much-anticipated reunion. He said upon landing, he and his fellow soldiers were ushered to a hangar where all the families were waiting. And it was here, amid celebratory balloons, confetti and patriotic fanfare that he, at 6-foot-5, bent down and wrapped Paul and Ashton in his arms, picking them up — and smiling.

“It was the greatest feeling ever,” he said. “I can’t even describe how much joy it was to hold those boys.”

Jamieson experienced his share of challenges in the years that followed. He had injured his back, shoulder and knee both while deployed and during the first four years of his enlistment. He encountered PTSD, something with which he still copes. His first marriage ended, but in time, he met his current wife Tara at a church dance his brother suggested he attend rather than spend the night partying.

“The first time I saw her, I thought, ‘I have to meet her,'” Jamieson recalled.

That was New Year’s Eve 2012. He and Tara married the following September. She also had children from her first marriage, so between them, they now have a mixed family of eight children, including one of their own. Jamieson was discharged from the Army in 2015, having reached the rank of staff sergeant.

And as he reflects on the good, the bad and everything in between, he credits his time in the military for much of the good in his life.

“Yeah, it sucks that my knee hurts and my back hurts and my shoulder hurts, and then I have PTSD and tinnitus in my ear,” he said. “But I’ve got Disability that gives me quite a bit every month, and because of that I get to go and do fun stuff with my family.”

The Army also helped finance Jamieson’s education as he earned a teaching credential in Idaho so he could teach Spanish and history as well as coach football. He and Tara just bought a house in St. George, and they plan to stay here to raise their family. He says he’s humbled by those who thank him for his service, and he’s proud to have returned the favor — for his family, his fellow Americans and those who wore the uniform before him.

“There’s nothing that I go through that they didn’t go through 10 times as much.”

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