So I suppose introductions are in order.

My name is Dustin Perry, I am 25 years old, and I am currently serving in Iraq as a photojournalist for the U.S. Army. I got my start in this line of work almost 12 years ago when I took Journalism as a freshman at Cooper High School. Need more of my ties to Abilene? I worked at H-E-B for two years and logged more than 900 hours as a junior volunteer at then-named Hendrick Medical Center.

I joined the Army after graduation (Class of ‘99!) and following a grueling nine weeks of basic training in Oklahoma, I was sent to the Defense Information School in Fort Meade, Md., to hone my craft as a news writer and photographer.

In May 2000, I arrived at my first duty station – Camp Zama, Japan – and subsequently fell in love with the place (seriously, ask anyone who knows me.) For three years I was a staff writer and part-time editor of the Torii. It is also here where I met my wife Noriko, to whom I’ve been married for five unbelievably amazing years. Our daughter Rachel was born there in 2003. In July of that same year, I received orders sending me to Fort Bliss in El Paso.

I served there as the sole public affairs specialist of the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade for a little more than a year. In September 2004, I had fulfilled my five-year enlistment contract and was honorably discharged from the military.

Right around that time, the Army’s Public Affairs Offices – more pertinently, their newspaper staffs – were in the middle of a branch-wide transition from soldiers to civilians. I jumped at the chance to land a job as editor of The Monitor, Fort Bliss’ official news publication. I got the job in December and had been enjoying it immensely for about 16 months – then, almost a year ago to the day, I got a sucker punch to the gut in the form of reactivation orders.

You see, a little-known stipulation to Army contracts is one that states no matter how long you initially enlist – be it three, four, five, six or however many years – you are actually obligated for eight years. After serving out your term, you have four typical options: reenlist, join the Reserve, join the National Guard, or join the Inactive Ready Reserve.

Everyone knows what the first three options mean, so I’ll break down that last one for the uninitiated. The Inactive Ready Reserve, or IRR, is a way to finish the rest of an eight-year contract without actually having to do the “one weekend a month, two weeks a year” gig. Those who join the IRR are still technically “soldiers,” they just don’t get paid for it and they never have to put on a uniform. This is the option I chose.

If at any time (say, during a war) the Army decides it further requires an IRR soldier’s services before their eight-year-free-and-clear date, an order can be sent to them reinstating them to active duty, most often for a deployment. I received these very orders in March 2006, a mere five months before I was to be free of my obligation.

And so, the journey began that eventually led me to being attached to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, a Minnesota National Guard unit based in Camp Adder near Nasiriyah.