title: The Soldier's Story: The Invisible Wounds from War
author: Jocephus J. Duckworth
description: Jocephus Josey Duckworth Facebook: Jocephus Duckworth Email: duckworthjoe@hotmail.com  Home Town : Oakland, California <br /> <br />  Meltzer Boys &amp; Girls Club 1984 to 1985. <br /> <br />  Attended Fairfield High school 1986-1990. <br /> <br />  Attended ClearfieldJob Corp 01/14/1992 to 12/15/1993 <br /> <br />  Residential Living: G Dorm. <br /> <br />  Trades Completed: (landscaping &amp; Floor Covering). <br /> <br />  Labor Contribution of Landscaping the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, Utah. <br /> <br /> Military History  Enlisted in The United States Army: November 1996. <br /> <br />  Duty Stations: Fort Wainwright Alaska, Fort Sill Oklahoma, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. <br /> <br />  Military Occupational Specialty: 12Hotel Construction Supervisor. <br /> <br />  Rank: Staff Sergeant (SSG) Retired E6. Construction Mission  4 Tours to Iraq (January 2003 to November 2009). <br /> <br />  2 Tours to Marshall Islands (Kwajalien) 1998 &amp; 2000. <br /> <br />  3 Tours to Thailand (1999 / 2007/2008) Cobra Gold. <br /> <br />  2 Tours to American Samoa (2011/ 2012). US Army Awards  1 Meritorious Service Medal. <br /> <br />  3 Army Commendation Medal. <br /> <br />  5 Army Achievement Medal. <br /> <br />  1 Combat Action Badge.
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  **In His Sights**
  
  
  _Jeffrey Thomas_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE OTHER YOUNG returnees kept looking at him, wondering what horrors were
  concealed by his mask. The mask looked like several layers of black plastic,
  vacuum-formed to his face, with openings for his eyes, nostrils, and mouth.
  From his eyes, with their epicanthic folds, they could at least tell that he
  was of Asian ancestry. But what wounding had he suffered? Had he been
  spattered with hot, corrosive plasma from a mortar round? Sprayed with acid or
  minced with shrapnel in some Ha Jiin booby trap? The other men—and there were
  some female soldiers too—felt pity for him. And also shame, at being relieved
  that it wasn’t them forced to wear the healing black mask.
  
  
  
  
  
  But he wasn’t healing. Because he wasn’t wounded, at least not in the ways
  they speculated on.
  
  
  
  
  
  He was simply hiding his face.
  
  
  
  
  
  Though he knew it would, his face shouldn’t have shocked the others in a
  purely physical sense. After all, this was Punktown. T