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This Memorial Day, I, like most veterans of our recent conflicts, will spend time remembering and honoring my fallen brothers and sisters, people like my friend Kevin. In 2004, Kevin Jessen saved my life. Not once, but day in and day out, for six months.
When I met Staff Sgt. Jessen in Iraq in 2004, his explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team was assigned to Task Force Hunter, a National Guard unit from New York State. EOD was the “bomb squad.”
A tall, easygoing kid from Arkansas, Jessen fit in with our New York team. He was just a friendly, forthright southerner, with a ready smile. Everyone in the task force knew him and immediately respected his incredible professionalism.
My unit always had one team assigned as the quick reaction force. So, we regularly escorted EOD teams to the site of roadside bombs (improvised explosive devices, or IEDs), whether they were discovered or exploded. We spent a lot of time with Jessen, learned from him, and became friends.
He was an expert on explosives and IEDs, the bane of our existence in Iraq — the one thing we were all at least a little scared of. But Jessen could tame them. He defused dozens of them, after detection. He inspected the remains of dozens more…
