Bloomfield resident readies for 3rd tour of duty in Iraq

Sgt. Michael Black has been scarred by war. Twice he has been to the battlefields of Iraq and twice he has been to the battlefields of Afghanistan. Twice he has taken shrapnel from improvised explosive devices -- once in the back and once in the leg.\nFor many people that would be enough combat, but Black will ship out for Iraq again Friday.\n"It's the right thing to do," he said. "If we don't, who will?"\nBlack, a 23 year-old Bloomfield, Ind. resident, was in Bloomington Saturday and Sunday to get his sixth tattoo before heading to the Mideast, a tribal design on his left arm.\nOn the leg where he was injured by shrapnel, Black has a Chinese symbol for "phoenix" because he felt like he "rose from the ashes" after joining the army.\nHis right arm is adorned with the classic Superman "S" with a purple heart over it. The purple heart tattoo serves as a reminder of the first of two he's been awarded.\n"I got the Superman tattoo because I thought I was invincible, obviously that's not the case," he said.\nBlack, who joined the army just two weeks before 9/11, comes from a family with a strong military history. His father served for 20 years and he has an older brother who is a marine. Another brother is also enlisted in the army.\nSince the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime there has been less direct contact with the Iraqi insurgency, Black said.\n"It's mostly IEDs and landmines," he said. "They're scared of us. They're just trying to whittle us down now."\nHe said that in both Afghanistan and Iraq, few civilians are happy to have the U.S. military there. He said many shout profanities and tell the soldiers to go home.\nThough Black has been lucky enough to avoid serious injury in the line of duty, he said he's had about a dozen friends killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.\n"If you see your buddy messed up it's just surreal," he said. "You can train your whole life and you can't expect that. It never gets easy."\nStill, Black said he would recommend military service to those considering it.\n"If someone came to me and said they were thinking about joining I'd support them," he said. "I'd give them as much information as possible. One thing is, the movies are all wrong. It's not as bad as they make it out to be."\nWith only a few days left until he returns to Iraq, and a third tour of duty in Afghanistan scheduled for late 2007, Black is excited and confident he'll remain safe, a sentiment his girlfriend Amber Harrison shares.\n"Yeah, I worry, but he'll be fine," she said. "He knows what he's doing"