Introduction: 

Jacob Hebner is a participant in the ongoing Duquesne Veterans’ Oral History Project, and is a five year veteran of the US Army. He is a recent graduate of Duquesne University’s Master of History program. He is sharing some stories from his time in the service. We thank him for his service and contributions to this project

Early Life and Enlisting: 

Hebner was born in Colorado and earned his bachelor's degree at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He felt a pull to military service before college and felt it again afterwards, which caused him to enlist instead of entering as an officer since he had a college degree. This gave him an understanding of what enlisted life is like. There was also a family history of military service, going back through the country’s history. An uncle, who was unable to service actively, was also a big influence.

“He’s one of the reasons I’m a historian. He is a huge cornerstone of who I am and what I’ve done. So that is a pretty decent reason I joined up.”

Training: 

Hebner began his training at Fort Benning, Georgia as a regular infantryman. When he graduated from basic he entered parachutist school, also located at Fort Benning.  Following this, he entered into the special forces selection process. This training is meant to prepare candidates both physically and mentally. This meant a battery of paper tests, cardio, weightlifting, and other physical routines. He was not selected and was then sent back to complete his parachutist schooling. In May 2015, he joined the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Italy. 

“There’s an obstacle, which I found amazing, which it’s called a “confidence course” but it’s really an obstacle course. It’s just “how confident are you in what you’re doing?” I love obstacle courses, so I blazed through that. The only tricky, the one tricky part, was crawling through essentially a sewer pipe.”

Italy:

Hebner’s first overseas deployment was with the 173rd Airborne Brigade which was stationed in Italy at this time. Even though the unit was stationed in Italy, it would deploy across Europe and the Mediterranean on NATO missions and training exercises with allied nations. 

“We did- Like I said we did ten days in Israel, the first two days or so we did “culture days.” So, we went to, we went around in the area. We never went to Jerusalem or the holy sites but where we did go was we went to the Dead Sea and we were able to lay about in the Dead Sea”

Poland:

While stationed in Italy, the 173rd did a month-long exercise in Poland. This was a round the time of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and was meant to show NATO capabilities off to the Russians. It started off with a simulated parachute drop into a city. 

“We did this, later on, near the tail end of my time in Italy, we did a month-long operation in Poland. Which was a really cool thing, I jumped in to- we jumped into Poland as Operation Anaconda, where we would do this really intensive training operation going in this kind of training city. Where there were real buildings, but no one’s in them, so we’d go in house to house. They’re kinda dilapidated buildings. One side with American forces and Polish forces would be the defenders and we would be trying to take the city. “

Afghanistan: 

Hebner deployed to Afghanistan with the Second Brigade in 2018. Their mission was to defend the town of Maymana during the run up to the elections in that  year. 

“It was a small little town with an airstrip and our job was to maintain a static defense and hold the airstrip to keep it out of the insurgent hands, to ensure that the area is kept secure, while we, the UN, the United States, and Afghanistan can go one with these elections that would go on in October. So, it wasn’t as much of a constant mission of going out and confronting the enemy, it was more of a static defense, of searching the land, this big vast empty area, and maintaining a constant defense and often were there with other foreign services.”

Colorado: 

After his time in Afghanistan, Hebner ended his service as a sergeant stationed in his home state of Colorado. This meant a change in responsibilities and a change in living quarters. 

“And then when I was in Colorado, as an NCO, I had lot more responsibilities, a lot more paperwork to do. But because also my barracks not five feet away from work, the lower enlisted are just sitting downstairs”

Duquesne: 

Following his discharge in 2019, Hebner enrolled in Duquesne's Masters of History program. He recently graduated from the program at the time when he was interviewed. 

“And then I served out the remaining eight months, eight, nine months of my Army career and left on great terms, left doing most of what I wanted to do, and I felt like my time was up honestly and that’s one of the reasons, one of the many reasons I left, and I came to Duquesne and got a great education and met great people.”