Students return from combat in Iraq

A junior kept lookout atop gun trucks at night in Baghdad for about nine months. The machine gunner, Evan Quaco, 21, left Chico about a year ago for training before deployment.

"It's so different. You go from being in a college town to Baghdad, Iraq, where there are dirt roads, pieces of buildings missing and you have the chance of dying almost every day," Quaco said.

Shooting at people didn't bother him, he said.

"If they shoot at me, I shoot at them," Quaco said. "When your life or your friend's life is in danger, you accept it. It's more excitement than fear."

Quaco and his Sigma Chi fraternity brother, sophomore Josh Pedigo, were deployed to Iraq in August 2007, he said. They were in the same platoon. They returned to Chico on May 3 to continue business management degrees.

It wasn't hard for Quaco to adjust when he returned to the United States because he has lived here longer than he was in Iraq, he said. But he has caught himself staring at the road looking for improvised explosive devices, one of his jobs in the Army.

When they got back to Chico, Pedigo, 23, thought it was odd that people walk around without a worry in the world, he said.

Pedigo enlisted in the Army in 2002 because of the military's request for more soldiers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said. He was first deployed to Iraq in 2004, which was more difficult and violent than his second tour because people weren't used to the soldiers' presence, Pedigo said.

He came home in November 2005 and decided to go on a second tour of Iraq to look after Quaco, he said.

"Pedigo just didn't want me going alone," Quaco said.

Pedigo, also a machine gunner, has shot guns since he was 12 and said shooting people in Iraq didn't have a big effect on him.

"I shot at people, but we didn't stick around to see if we hit anyone," he said.

They went on missions at night providing security for Hummer trucks and slept during the day. They traveled at night because there were fewer Iraqis out and less traffic, Pedigo said.

"It takes a toll on you, not seeing the sun," he said.

Everything was different in Iraq, Quaco said. There were some nice buildings, but bombs had taken out chunks of them.

Pedigo was scared, sometimes expecting attacks when he got into "shitty" neighborhoods, he said. No one in their company died.

Quaco and Pedigo's fraternity brothers have been throwing them parties since their return, said fraternity brother Mike Bordalampe, a junior.

He missed Quaco and Pedigo while they were gone, he said. Fraternity brothers sent the soldiers letters, porn, booze and candy and wrote messages on Facebook, Bordalampe said.

"Quaco is always a jokester," he said. "He would be all lighthearted about it, like, 'I shot a camel today by accident.' We haven't gotten to the war story bank yet."

Katy Sweeny can be reached at newseditor@theorion.com

Renee Calder can be reached at rcalder@theorion.com

Jozlynn Rush contributed to this article.

Image from CNN.com

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