On August 29, 2005, a day like any other in Iraq, National Guard Sgt. Joshua Heskett patrolled the streets northwest of Baghdad with his Bravo Company of the 115th Infantry Division.

In a Humvee, his unit was on a short patrol looking for suspicious vehicles on a list of possible car bombs. When the unit spotted a so-called “car bomb convoy” of three suspected car bombs traveling together, Heskett, a 1996 Paint Branch graduate, manned the .50 caliber machine gun, while the other soldiers moved to cordon off the vehicles. After securing the first two vehicles, the third exploded next to the Humvee, seriously injuring Heskett.

Heskett was temporarily blinded after the explosion. He regained sight in his right eye a few hours later, but his left eye did not open for four days. Heskett also chipped a tooth in the attack and had other shrapnel wounds. According to him, the car was lined with small pieces of metal designed to increase the amount of shrapnel and inflict more damage than just the explosion would alone. His Humvee did have armor plating, so the driver that stayed inside of the vehicle only had some “bumps and bruises.”

“I’ve seen the pictures and I’m surprised I lived.”

After being injured, Heskett was flown to a hospital in Baghdad. After a few days there, he was flown to Germany along with another soldier seriously injured in the explosion. A week after arriving in Germany, the two were flown to Fort Gordon in Georgia where Heskett stayed to rehabilitate from his injuries until Feb. 3.

So how does a PB grad go from Burtonsville to defending America on the frontlines in Iraq? In high school, Heskett played junior varsity football as an underclassman. As an upperclassman though, Heskett chose not to play any sports. “After (sophomore year) I was just into hanging out with friends,” he said.

After graduating in 1996, Heskett said, “I went to Montgomery College for about a year and a half and didn’t do too well. I had the party mentality and didn’t take it seriously.”

Heskett, now 27, first joined the Army Reserve in March of 1999. “I wasn’t going anywhere with my life. I dropped out of Montgomery College and was working a dead-end job. I needed some direction, some discipline.” Heskett was forced to move to the National Guard when the Army phased out his specialty, telecommunications operator and maintainer.

In 2005, after five months of refresher training at Fort Stewart in Georgia, Bravo Company deployed to Iraq in May. “When you first get there you think you can change the world, but after being there for a while you realize you can’t, but can do just one small part.”

Day-to-day, Heskett said the unit did varying tasks. “One day could be just driving around in the Humvees. All we would do is just drive, looking for anything that had to do with the bad guys. Or we could be just stopping and checking cars. We would give soccer balls out to the kids or food we had. We would walk around town and give that stuff out. Sometimes something would happen and we would have to go out looking for bad guys. Mortars would come in and we would have to go look for who was shooting at us.”

Although Heskett said that the unit was attacked with mortars or improvised explosive devices about once a week, he never thought he would be seriously injured. “I had a god like feeling, because no matter what they did to us, no one would get seriously hurt, but that feeling left on August 29.”

So far, Heskett has collected a Purple Heart and a Combat Infantry Badge. He expects to be decorated with more awards soon.

Despite his injuries, Heskett said in a March interview, before his Olney-based unit had returned from Iraq, that he still supported the war. “If I had a chance, I’d go back. I don’t think everything is going 100%, but I think they need more soldiers over there.”

Heskett said there is “no chance” that he will be deployed to Iraq again because his unit has returned from Iraq and his service time will be over soon.

Heskett now lives in Laurel. After returning from Iraq, he went back to work at a contracting job he held before deploying and plans to return to college part-time this fall. Heskett’s cousin is currently a Paint Branch sophomore. He now looks forward to getting married next summer to Kelly Hood, a Paint Branch class of 1998 graduate.