To an outsider, a fraternity is a place where people go to party, get drunk and act immature. However, one member of the UNH fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike) feels truly blessed to be reunited with such a strong brotherhood after a long and hazardous journey.

It was January 2005 when now 21-year-old Anthony Dineen made a life altering decision and joined the New Hampshire Army Reserves.

“I knew that I would have to go (to Iraq) sooner or later. I joined the service because I felt it was the right thing to do, and (I chose) the reserves because I wanted to finish my education,” he said.
A little over a year later, Dineen, along with the rest of First Battalion 25th Marines, landed in Iraq, about to embark on a seven-month mission in one of the country’s top three most dangerous cities, Fallujah.

For Dineen, the quick deployment was certainly no surprise, and after four months of training he was at war in a foreign land, with no turning back.

“It didn’t hit me that I was fighting a war for at least two weeks. Everyone around me was nervous in some kind of way. I didn’t get nervous for at least two weeks,” he said.

Dineen was not a smoker before he joined the Marines. That changed very quickly.

“I smoked a lot of cigarettes in Iraq. It was a social thing to keep you busy. Say you’re tired and hot and you just finished a patrol, your friend offers you a cigarette and you now have something to relax with and a little time to talk,” he said.

Besides the obvious challenge of trying to stay alive and completing daily missions of warfare, the heat was Dineen’s least favorite part of his seven-month wartime experience.

“An average day was 125 degrees, and then there were the hot days. I remember seeing the thermostat top out at 130 (degrees)—it didn’t read anything past that but we all knew it was much hotter,” he said.

To make matters worse, Dineen never had a full day off and spent many nights trying to fend off the scorpions that arrived as silent as the Middle Eastern night. There also was no TV or radio at his base camp. He was completely shut off from the United States, except for the occasional phone call or package from his family and friends.

Dineen admits he felt fear. “Everyone was (scared), but you don’t think about being scared when things start happening. You just do it. It’s like a blackout almost; you don’t even know what you’re doing until you’ve already done it. I never thought about what was going to get me to survive the deployment, only if I was going to survive.”

Twelve of Dineen’s fellow soldiers did not survive while serving their country in Iraq. For Dineen, it was like losing members of his family.

“I’ve made some of the best friends I have ever had over there. People I will always be close to for a lifetime,” he said.

Through everything Dineen experienced, he remains a loyal and proud United States soldier. Ask him what he thinks about the war and you’ll only get one answer: “I am a Marine, and I am ready and willing to carry out any order the president chooses to give to my battalion.”

Being a soldier makes sense to Dineen. “I felt like if I joined (the Marines), then my friends and family wouldn’t have to,” said Dineen.