Michael Mojonnier

Michael Mojonnier’s job didn’t change when he got to Iraq. He worked as a military policeman issuing citations for driving under the influence and trying to curb the high levels of physical and sexual assaults.
“I personally felt kind of like a rat. These guys are supposed to be on the same team, and I was out looking for them to get them in trouble. But our mission was to provide them with a safe environment.”
The only difference with that mission in Iraq versus stateside was dealing with the world outside of the walls.
“When you go home at the end of the day stateside for a job, you can relax, do whatever. In Iraq, it was like, ‘Oh man, is there going to be a mortar hitting my trailer tonight? Is there going to be rocket attack that I’m going to have to go to? Is a stray bullet going to hit me when I’m sleeping?’ You got those little things in the back of your mind that you’re
dealing with.”
For the soldiers Mojonnier was policing, it was the build up of stress that led them to take it out on each other. Mojonnier said just knowing that the mission was dangerous and that the people outside the walls wanted to kill you was too much for many of them.
“If you keep sending people to fight and kill people and blow things up and that’s their job, it’s going to mess them up in the head. Humans have an aversion to squaring off one-on-one and killing each other. It’s just the nature of war. It’s what happens. People get messed up from it. Some more than others. Some don’t get messed up at all.”