Payton Baggett Reporting
pbaggett@clarksvillenow.com

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – Sgt. Walter Lopez has accomplished much after only six years in the Army. Originally from Ventura, California, Fort Campbell is the second duty station that he has been assigned to.

Describing his job in the 1-33rd Calvary Squadron, Lopez said, “We are a light recognizance type of unit. My immediate job is a team leader in Charlie Company, which is an infantry company inside the battalion. I love my job. I get to lead soldiers into battle, which is awesome for the most part.”

The training of the soldiers in his company is something Sgt. Lopez does daily, preparing them not only for combat, but to take over his job if necessary. Conditions during training are kept intense, with Lopez and his peers yelling at each other while practicing actions to take while under fire, and how to handle such conditions on small amounts of sleep. Lopez tells those who have not actually experienced a combat situation to “remain calm, and when stuff starts happening, just keep cool and listen to your chain of command.”

Lopez was first deployed from 2007 to 2009. He was stationed in the largely populated city of Baghdad, making urban fighting the biggest part of his job during that time. His second deployment was also to Iraq, but in the southern port city of Basra. There were not many missions assigned to his group at the time, making the trip an unusually calm one.

Last month, Sgt. Lopez retuned from his third deployment. In his words, the time consisted mostly of “partnering with the Afghan police and just teaching them, coaching them, helping them secure their own cities. The fighting there was a lot different, it was up mountains, and most of the time you couldn’t see anyone because it was very mountainous with high elevations.” The company trained by Lopez was very successful during this deployment. One of his men received an early battlefield promotion, while another was given a medal for his valor while in combat.

Lopez is not without his personal achievements, earning the Army Commendation with Valor and the Bronze Star Medal with Valor for his actions in Afghanistan. The former was awarded after his platoon went on a mission in the mountains to provide security for the rest of their company as they searched for a particular Afghan fighter. Lopez reached the top of the mountain first, and was alerted by the medic with him that someone had started a fire at the summit and was waiting for them there. He then prepared his rifle, and was able to shoot first when he came face to face with an Afghan fighter pointing an AK-47 in his direction. “We found out later that day that he was actually that guy we were looking for,” Lopez said. “He was a top Afghan commander for the area. They were setting up an ambush for us, because there were fighters all over the mountains. After I took him out, the entire valley just lit up because they didn’t know what to do. He had a radio on him, and we could hear them trying to talk to him, trying to talk to each other, and then everyone just started shooting. They didn’t know what they were doing. None of us got hurt. We repelled the attack, we got the guy we were going after, and we all got out safely, which is a good thing.”

Despite the positive impact of his actions, Lopez did not feel as though they were extraordinary, saying, “I was just doing my job.”

Now back at Fort Campbell, Lopez is readjusting to life in the United States; a task that became easy after his first deployment. He has settled back into his daily routine, getting up early to continue training others. “Since we’ve only been back a month, there’s certain paperwork we have to do to get everything straightened out for training back here in the states,” Lopez said. “It’s pretty light work right now, just working out, doing some little training type of stuff, but other than that, right now the environment is pretty laid back and easy. “