What's to Fear in Iraq
Next to death and serious injury few things frighten soldiers in Iraq more than Jody. Jody isn’t an insurgent or any one person in particular. Jody is the man who steals deployed soldiers’ wives or girlfriends.
Capt. Jesse Abreu explains Jody as the opposite of Santa Claus. Young soldiers scoff at the idea that Jody even exists, believing he’s just a myth, nothing to fear. But after a deployment or two everyone believes.
Jody could be anyone: a best friend, a fellow soldier, a complete stranger, a family member, or even a homeless veteran. Like the Iraqi insurgency usually no one sees Jody until he strikes and by then damage control is the only course of action available. He’s always out there watching, waiting for a soldier to make a mistake.
Undoubtedly Jody has taken part in every major American engagement since the Revolutionary War. In fact Jody has probably been present in every foreign war ever waged. Odysseus returned from the Trojan War only to find a houseful of Jodys chipping away at Penelope’s patience and virtue.
Modern communications, namely satellite phones and the internet, make Jody something special to soldiers in Iraq. For roughly four cents a minute they can call home to chat with their girlfriend, wife, or Jody. How might Odysseus have faired if he’d called home after outwitting the Cyclops and one of his wife’s suitors answered the phone?
Sometimes Jody’s just a male voice that a spouse or significant other refuses to acknowledge, but other times he’s much more brazen. One Joe, slang for a low-ranking enlisted soldier, called home and a strange man picked up the phone. The man readily admitted to having a sexual relationship and sharing the house with the Joe’s wife, but claimed he’d never known she was married. As the Joe clarified his wife’s relationship status, Jody challenged him to do something about it and hung up.
For those with joint-checking accounts there’s a lot more at stake than a relationship and pride. On his first full day home after his first tour in Iraq, Sergeant First Class Mike’s wife told him how she’d occupied herself during his absence. Aside from sleeping with multiple men, all of whom Mike knew personally, she’d spent nearly all of the money he’d made in Iraq and disposed of his $25,000 retirement fund.
Like anything that’s feared, a good Jody story circulates so much that it sounds both completely improbable and entirely believable. A guy’s been married for nigh seventeen years. When he first met his wife she had a problem with crack, but she managed to get off the rock and had three kids with her husband. Everything was fine, until her husband deployed to Iraq. She got back on the crack, started sleeping with her dealer, the dealer moved in, kicked out the kids, and they turned the house (which was on base) into a crystal meth lab.
Fear of Jody doesn’t necessarily translate to an aversion of infidelity. Many who dread Jody have had their own debauched forays, but according to them there’s a difference between a simple extramarital affair and a visit from Jody. If a soldier or his wife sleeps around while they share a house chances are the other will find out, or the adulterer has to work at keeping it secret. Whatever happens, an intervention is always possible. Jody’s tactics rely on cowardice. He doesn’t need stealth and he has all the time and space he needs to be as clumsy, brazen and stupid as he wants. Worst of all, Jody is untouchable.
A common theory among soldiers holds that wives and girlfriends don’t want to give their partners undue stress by airing relationship concerns or breaking up before they deploy to a war zone. Rather than addressing relationship problems before their partner deploys, they wait for him to depart. Once he’s gone she invites Jody over to keep her company while she’s in a weakened emotional state in desperate need of companionship.
Lt. Brad Rudy worries about his soldiers who married women they’d known for less than a year shortly before deploying. Predictably, Jody targets fresh marriages built on questionable foundations. Experienced soldiers warn the young Joes about surprising their wives when they go home on leave. All too often Jody surprises the Joe.
The battle against Jody requires unconventional fighters, like Specialist “Hollywood” Harold. After two demotions in his five-year career in the Army, Hollywood Harold doesn’t pretend to be a moral man. Even though he’s married, Hollywood Harold has never been in a committed relationship. Taking advantage of the Army’s pay scale, Hollywood Harold married a girl in the Army National Guard who deployed a year ahead of him. Married soldiers in Iraq receive an extra family separation bonus, so Harold and his wife collected extra pay for two years. Once he returns home they’ll get a divorce.
Perhaps Hollywood Harold didn’t exactly beat Jody. Really nothing but a stable, healthy relationship can ward off Jody. However, as Jody continues poaching significant others, Hollywood Harold seems to have one of the healthiest dysfunctional marriages in Iraq.
Next to death and serious injury few things frighten soldiers in Iraq more than Jody. Jody isn’t an insurgent or any one person in particular. Jody is the man who steals deployed soldiers’ wives or girlfriends.
Capt. Jesse Abreu explains Jody as the opposite of Santa Claus. Young soldiers scoff at the idea that Jody even exists, believing he’s just a myth, nothing to fear. But after a deployment or two everyone believes.
Jody could be anyone: a best friend, a fellow soldier, a complete stranger, a family member, or even a homeless veteran. Like the Iraqi insurgency usually no one sees Jody until he strikes and by then damage control is the only course of action available. He’s always out there watching, waiting for a soldier to make a mistake.
Undoubtedly Jody has taken part in every major American engagement since the Revolutionary War. In fact Jody has probably been present in every foreign war ever waged. Odysseus returned from the Trojan War only to find a houseful of Jodys chipping away at Penelope’s patience and virtue.
Modern communications, namely satellite phones and the internet, make Jody something special to soldiers in Iraq. For roughly four cents a minute they can call home to chat with their girlfriend, wife, or Jody. How might Odysseus have faired if he’d called home after outwitting the Cyclops and one of his wife’s suitors answered the phone?
Sometimes Jody’s just a male voice that a spouse or significant other refuses to acknowledge, but other times he’s much more brazen. One Joe, slang for a low-ranking enlisted soldier, called home and a strange man picked up the phone. The man readily admitted to having a sexual relationship and sharing the house with the Joe’s wife, but claimed he’d never known she was married. As the Joe clarified his wife’s relationship status, Jody challenged him to do something about it and hung up.
For those with joint-checking accounts there’s a lot more at stake than a relationship and pride. On his first full day home after his first tour in Iraq, Sergeant First Class Mike’s wife told him how she’d occupied herself during his absence. Aside from sleeping with multiple men, all of whom Mike knew personally, she’d spent nearly all of the money he’d made in Iraq and disposed of his $25,000 retirement fund.
Like anything that’s feared, a good Jody story circulates so much that it sounds both completely improbable and entirely believable. A guy’s been married for nigh seventeen years. When he first met his wife she had a problem with crack, but she managed to get off the rock and had three kids with her husband. Everything was fine, until her husband deployed to Iraq. She got back on the crack, started sleeping with her dealer, the dealer moved in, kicked out the kids, and they turned the house (which was on base) into a crystal meth lab.
Fear of Jody doesn’t necessarily translate to an aversion of infidelity. Many who dread Jody have had their own debauched forays, but according to them there’s a difference between a simple extramarital affair and a visit from Jody. If a soldier or his wife sleeps around while they share a house chances are the other will find out, or the adulterer has to work at keeping it secret. Whatever happens, an intervention is always possible. Jody’s tactics rely on cowardice. He doesn’t need stealth and he has all the time and space he needs to be as clumsy, brazen and stupid as he wants. Worst of all, Jody is untouchable.
A common theory among soldiers holds that wives and girlfriends don’t want to give their partners undue stress by airing relationship concerns or breaking up before they deploy to a war zone. Rather than addressing relationship problems before their partner deploys, they wait for him to depart. Once he’s gone she invites Jody over to keep her company while she’s in a weakened emotional state in desperate need of companionship.
Lt. Brad Rudy worries about his soldiers who married women they’d known for less than a year shortly before deploying. Predictably, Jody targets fresh marriages built on questionable foundations. Experienced soldiers warn the young Joes about surprising their wives when they go home on leave. All too often Jody surprises the Joe.
The battle against Jody requires unconventional fighters, like Specialist “Hollywood” Harold. After two demotions in his five-year career in the Army, Hollywood Harold doesn’t pretend to be a moral man. Even though he’s married, Hollywood Harold has never been in a committed relationship. Taking advantage of the Army’s pay scale, Hollywood Harold married a girl in the Army National Guard who deployed a year ahead of him. Married soldiers in Iraq receive an extra family separation bonus, so Harold and his wife collected extra pay for two years. Once he returns home they’ll get a divorce.
Perhaps Hollywood Harold didn’t exactly beat Jody. Really nothing but a stable, healthy relationship can ward off Jody. However, as Jody continues poaching significant others, Hollywood Harold seems to have one of the healthiest dysfunctional marriages in Iraq.
posted by Tom | 5:17 AM
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