By Jim Keithley
Sentry staff

    Army Spec. Jason Swiger walked down the hallway of South Portland High School standing tall and dressed in full military uniform.
    It was a far cry from four years ago when Swiger was a senior at the same school.
    “I’d be dressed in full black, with a trench coat and long hair,” he said.
    The military has changed Jason Swiger and, as he admits, for the better. A self-described “punk,” this South Portland native has lived and seen war. He just returned from his second tour of Iraq. Swiger was invited to speak to students about his military service and his experiences in Iraq.
    During a spring morning last week he visited the same class he had taken in 2000. With plenty of war stories to tell, he walked into John Chapin’s “America in Conflict” class. Chapin said he can still remember the seat Swiger used to sit in.
    Chapin and his students had been corresponding with Swiger during his two tours of duty. He asked the Army Scout to explain a question they had about one of his letters.
    “In one of your letters you told us that somebody was touching your truck and you said you have to go, we never heard what happened,” Chapin said.
    “A kid, 12 or 13 years old, pushed his hand into our truck and wouldn’t retreat, so I whacked his hand with a stick and broke every bone in his hand,” Swiger told the class.
    “You have to be careful of the kids,” he said. “They’re kinda cute in a way, but on the other hand they’ll steal stuff out of your truck. They tried to steal a gas can once, but it was too heavy for them.”
    One student asked why Swiger joined the Army. Swiger said as a young boy he remembered the war stories told by his uncle in Pennsylvania. Near his uncle’s house, Swiger said there was a field and he said skydivers would often land there.
    Swiger told the students, “I said, I’m going to do that someday.”
    The former “punk” kid from South Portland High School is now a trained jumper for 82nd Airborne.
    Chapin was impressed with that and asked his former student how many “jumps” he has made.
    “I’ve jumped 31 times,” he said. Swiger’s jumping has been limited to training missions, however. “I haven’t done a combat jump yet.”
    Swiger said it is quite a feeling jumping from an airplane that is 800 feet off the ground.
    “I’m scared every time I jump,” he said. “I’ve hit a tree and a building and I’ve landed on a truck, landed on other guys and I’ve landed on my equipment,” he said. “In all of those times, I’ve never been hurt,” he said proudly.
    Swiger spend three-and-a-half months in Iraq during his first tour last year. He recently returned from his second tour of eight months in the war zone. During his last mission, Swiger’s unit was stationed at an air base west of Felluja. Swiger said that area is hotbed for violence because many of Saddam Hussein’s loyalists live there.
    “Felluja is really, really bad,” he said. “You can feel the bad karma. You can cut it with a knife. There are military vehicles blown up on the side of the road everywhere there.”
    Swiger said his unit’s job is to secure the roads before military convoys make their way in to a particular area. He said his unit has taken prisoners.
    “We captured two guys who had ammunition and pipes in their car. It was 18 guys in my platoon against the two of them, so they just gave up.”
    They’ve fired at enemies. He recalled one such event where they caught a sheep farmer setting up a road-side bomb.
    “We fired and didn’t catch the guy, but we ran over two of his sheeps and burned down his field.”
    Swiger also told the class about some of the atrocities he has witnessed. Swiger said Iraqis are fighting each other in the streets.
    “And there’s nothing we can do,” he said. “We’re not allowed to intervene.”
    “I’ve seen people get quartered. I’ve seen people hung, just for stealing a cupcake,” he said. “It’s pretty gruesome over there.”
    The students questioned Swiger about a scar on his face. He joked that it wasn’t from combat, technically. He said his Humvee was moving out of position and he lost his balance and smacked into a piece of metal.
    “I slipped and did a face-plant on the side of my Humvee,” he said.
    Swiger said he was quite proud of the scar, caused by the ten stitches to his cheek.
    Swiger will return to his home base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina by week’s end.
    He brought along his girlfriend during his visit home to Maine. She sat in the classroom and listened to the war stories along with the teenage students.
    Alanna Regan, 20, said she and Swiger met at a coffee shop. She’s a college student in Fayetteville.
    Swiger has given her the tour of South Portland.
    “He has taken me to Bug Light, Spring Point and the Portland Head Light,” she said.
    Regan said the visit back to the high school, was a special event for Swiger.
    “To come back to his high school and be somebody special. To come back and have everybody say, wow, you turned out so well.”
    Swiger himself admitted that the military, and certainly the war, have changed him for the better.
    He pointed to a conduct badge on his uniform and said, “I’ve been a good solider.”