Caleb Schaber
Special Report to
The Forest Lake Times

This Fourth of July Spec. Christopher Houle was on call as a tanker. He drives a M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank in the 4th Infantry Division, 1st Brigade, 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment at Forward Operating Base Camp Taji, 30 kilometers North of Baghdad.

Houle is very disappointed that he could not be home with his family for the holiday.

ìThe Fourth of July is a really big deal for Forest Lake,î said Houle, a 2003 graduate of Forest Lake High School. ìThey really go all out.î

Houle compares the Fourth of July to Christmas and Thanksgiving.

ìItís a time for families to be together,î he said.

Houle, who will turn 22 in August, enlisted in the Army in November 2003 after graduating high school here.

He was trained as tanker, but worked as a radio operator in the Tactical Operations Center for the past two years.

Has reenlisted

Recently, Houle reenlisted in the Army and used that reenlistment to leverage a job out of the TOC and into a tank. Three weeks ago he was transferred.

ìI work 24/7,î he said. ìI am on call. I will always be on call.î

Houle has a minimum of 30 minutes to report to his tank tand be ready to go.

In the short time that he has been working as a tank driver, he has hit a number of improvised explosive devices, commonly known as IEDs.

ìI got blown up twice,î he said. ìItís a scary experience at first.î

The armor of the tank protected him and the other three members of the tank crew. He said the bombs were ìa couple of small IEDs.î

ìHe doesnít have permission to die,î added his friend, Army Spec. Ross. Salwolke, 20, from North Carolina.

ìI wanted to be on a tank,î Houle said. ìI am loving it.î

The Abrams tanks are used as a Quick Reaction Force.

If something bad happens, they are called in to straighten things up. One of his main tasks is to hunt down insurgents.

Late last month, Houle mentioned that while he was out he had to chase a car and had his tank up to 55 miles per hour.

Houle reenlisted specifically to work outside the wire of Camp Taji as a tank driver.

While he misses his friends, family and the Forest Lake Fourth of July celebration, he thinks Iraq is OK.

ìItís not that bad,î he said. ìNothing really that bad has happened to me.î

Houle is confident that he will be OK throughout this deployment. He has five more months in Iraq, then he returns to Fort Hood, Texas.

Houle is the son of Robert and Elizabeth Houle of Forest Lake.

Caleb Schaber is a free-lance reporter and works for the Northern Nevada News Wire Service

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