By Abby LaForest

Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — Marquette native Andrew Herriman has been serving in the Michigan Army National Guard since the early 2000s.

Herriman, 36, entered the National Guard back in March 2005, and is still currently serving, marking his time in the military at 19 years and seven months. Throughout his service, Herriman has been part of Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2007 to 2009, which overthrew former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s government and ended in December of 2011.

Throughout the years, Herriman’s MOS has changed with time. Originally enlisting as a 63B Light-Wheeled vehicle mechanic back in 2005, Herriman had found himself as a 91B All-Wheeled vehicle mechanic and a 92G cook as the years passed.

He was also a crucial element when it came to the National Guard’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan, including participation in the C2CRE. C2CRE refers to the Command and Control Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Response Element, which is a specialized unit in charge of managing and directing the overall military response to large-scale CBRN disasters.

“I was…a part of the National Guard’s response to COVID in Michigan,” Herriman recalled. “I [was] essentially was in charge of the State of Michigan’s call center in Lansing and then also was in charge of the northern vaccination clinics for military and Department of Defense personnel. I’ve also been a part of the C2CRE or chemical response enterprise for the United States.”

Reflecting on some of the more difficult parts of his service, Herriman detailed how the physical effects on the body have been a challenge to deal with.

“As soon as I started to notice that my body was starting to hurt. Let’s face it, military service is not the easiest on a person, but they’ve come a long way since I’ve joined at making it easier on your body. I’m like a lot of other veterans where your body starts to hurt, things start to let go because we put some miles on. That’s up there for bad times. Most of what I’ve done in the service, I don’t regret. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve done…”

In addition to handling physical challenges, Herriman expresses gratitude to his family for their sacrifices made when it comes to supporting his military journey.

“Everything that I’ve done, my greatest sacrifice has been my family, and it’s been their sacrifice too…that’s been their greatest sacrifice and I will always, always respect my family because of that sacrifice, and be[ing] thankful for their sacrifice and supporting me in what I’ve done in my adventures to be where I am today.”

Herriman discussed how his experience with military friendships may differ from friendships formed in civilian group environments, as well as his feelings towards his military service over the years.

“As of every other veteran, it’s a brotherhood or sisterhood that you’re not going to get anywhere else. You could join a college fraternity, it’s not the same. You could join different groups, humanitarian groups and it’s not the same. I’m not trying to take away from those groups because those groups are good, and you do get camaraderie out of that, you do make lifelong friends. Going through different life experiences with people keeps your cohesion there and like I said, you essentially become brother-sister and you know that they’ve got your back…if I was to die tomorrow, I’d be happy knowing that I served my country, I did it with honor and integrity and selfless service. I’ve sacrificed a lot, my family’s sacrificed a lot, and I would be content with where I’m at.”

During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2008, Herriman was stationed at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, where his company fixed vehicles and ran supply missions back and forth to Iraq.

“When we got over to Kuwait before we started doing our missions, we had a week where we had to be in northern Kuwait doing some train-up. We were sleeping in maybe 30 by 30 barns, the whole company. I think we had 100 people or 90 people or something like that, I don’t remember how many people we had,” Andrew explained. “It was pretty big, and we had one 30 by 30 barn [where] everybody was sleeping on top of each other, basically. But I found one night, I think it was two or three days in, we had what we’d call turtleback Humvees, they have a big slanted back on them [and] “guntruck” was the short name that we had for them and I knew that if I dropped the tailgate and put my sleeping bag in the back and closed the hatch, my feet were hanging out but I slept like a baby…I think that’s attributed to the hard work that we did over there. We didn’t stop.”

Andrew’s experiences while being deployed abroad focused on the everyday details that aren’t always covered in more grandiose accounts of military life.

“I can say that the movies aren’t realistic. The communications side of it is big, [a] huge difference, and obviously the uniforms, the physical uniforms that movies have compared to what we have is not right, but they can’t depict us, right? They’re not supposed to…the communications side is huge like I said, the way that we talk compared to the way that the movies talk. Some movies are accurate-ish, they get a military advisor in there and they know their left and right limits of what they can and can’t do, and those are the better ones.”

In recounting his experiences at Camp Arifjan, Herriman detailed some comforts from the States present on the base that may come as a surprise to civilians.

“…it was our day off and we were going to [the] Kentucky Fried Chicken that we had on base or Green Beans Coffee. We had a Baskin Robbins on base. It’s built up, it’s not like in the movies where you’re on the front line and in a tent,” Herriman confirmed. “Those days [were] in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Afghanistan, from what I understand, and I’ve never [gone] to Afghanistan, they were a little more remote than we were, but they still had four operating bases like we did. It was built up, it was like a small city inside of a city, lots of people in some of them…but we had some amenities. We had a post exchange, kind of like a mini-Walmart where we could go and get food or we could go and buy movies or whatever. [The] internet was very spotty when we were over there, [it was] 2008 right before the big technological boom. Cell phones were not smartphones, we had the Nokia Bricks…it was an austere environment but it wasn’t an austere environment. During that time, we didn’t stay in tents on the front line like you see in Rambo or We Were Soldiers [or] Saving Private Ryan. Maybe they had that in the surge, at the beginning of the war when we pushed into Iraq, I don’t know. I wasn’t in when that happened.”

When asked if he would go back and enlist again, Herriman was straightforward and confident about his answer.

“Would I do it again? Yes I would. I think anybody who’s thinking about joining the military should for the life experience. You don’t have to be a career, as we call it ‘lifer.’ You don’t have to do 20 years if you don’t want [to.] Even if you join the active service, [you can do] whatever interests you and you only do three years. I think everybody should do it for their sacrifice,” Herriman said. “Now, I’m not saying that it needs to be mandated. I don’t think it should be because there are some that probably shouldn’t be in the military. But, if you are honestly thinking about it, do it. Would I do it again? Absolutely. I don’t know if I’d join the Michigan Army National Guard. Looking back at it, I probably would’ve joined the Coast Guard. I actually tried to join the Coast Guard and it came down to when they could get me out to basic training, and the National Guard could get me out prior. Like I said, the lifelong friends that I’ve got, they’d do anything for me and I would do anything for them. I’ve had people call me in the middle of the night and I answer, and they would do the same for me.”

Andrew also joked a bit about how food on base was a good morale booster for the troops when they were having a difficult time, specifically the Air Force dining facility.

“When we were feeling down on our morale, where would we go to boost our morale? We would go to the Air Force dining facility because they had the real plates, they had the real silverware, they had the real cups, they had the real food. Not saying that Zone Six where I was in the Army didn’t have good food, we had surf and turf night!”