THE HOME FRONT: The daily grind

For three months, that meant seeing action as a Marine reservist in Iraq. Now it means struggling to regain a civilian routine while coping with painful injuries.

By Jakob Schiller
Tribune Reporter
July 5, 2005

Last week, Lucas Hall drove to pick up his girlfriend from work.

On the way, he passed a trash bag that had fallen in the middle of the road. He clammed up.

In Iraq, where Hall was stationed as a Marine reservist from March to June, trash bags were the perfect hiding places for bombs.

It wasn't the first time Hall, 25, had reacted to something that reminded him of Iraq. The week before, just days after getting back from Iraq, he dropped his girlfriend off at work and found himself speeding east on Paseo del Norte taking up two lanes.

In Iraq, Humvees on patrol take up the whole road and don't let another car within a 100 meters - the estimated reach of a suicide bomb.

"Every once in a while something will trigger some memories and my heart races; I sweat," Hall said. "I have to remind myself that I'm not there."

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