THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022 Page 5 ADVOCATE | FROM PAGE 4 tration has denied their claim or there isn’t enough money in the budget to help them. Nobody likes to deliver that bad news. As you get to know them and learn their circumstances, you hate to drop the bomb on them. It’s a tough thing to do, but you still have to try to fi nd somebody who can help them. Q: From your resume, it looks like you’ve seen some combat. A: Yes. One of my fi rst experiences in combat was watching an EOD [Explosive Ordnance Disposal] technician. He got blown up by an IUD [Improvised Explosive Device]. We had to run up there and I saw the aftereff ects of it. It was not a good thing. His name was Staff Sgt. Joseph E. Robsky, Jr. and he was killed on Sept. 10, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 759th Ordinance Company. He was a Marine from New York and was called in to neutralize an IUD. fi rst, but she kept encouraging me, and then, I continued to work at it at Emerson College. When I got my master’s degree, there was no guarantee that I was going to write the next “Harry Potter” book or make it as a writer. But I have written a children’s book, “Ten Days and a Wake Up,” which I hope to get published, and SERVING HIS COUNTRY: An offi cial military photo of Michael Saunders, who was a combat engineer with the U.S. Army’s 70th Engineer Battalion out of Fort Riley, Kansas, for more than three years. He recently became the town’s new Veterans Service Offi cer. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate) after seeing that. I became more cautious. In that situation, the bad guy wasn’t wearing a uniform. Q: And you’ve had other close encounters? I’m working on another book, “The Doctors Are Afraid Of Us.” That’s a coming of age, military-style story about my Sapper Platoon, and that’s a work in progress. Q: Anything else that you would like to share? A: I’m going to make my IN THE GUNNER’S HATCH: Michael Saunders as a U.S. Army combat engineer in Iraq in 2005. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate) He was only 26, and I think about that guy every day. Q: So, were you in harm’s way that day? A: Yes. It was just a horrendous event that took place. My convoy was just passing through. We decided we were going to use our vehicles to block the road to clear that site. Staff Sgt. Robsky returned to the site after the initial attempt to neutralize the IUD failed. But the IUD went off , and after the explosion, it was like everything was in slow motion as I saw his helmet hit the street. To this day, it’s one of the things that I struggle to deal with. I had to physically remove him from the site. Gunfi re broke out as I was carrying the guy. I had to get the guy to a safe place and myself to a safe place. I must have grown fi ve years A: Yes. I’ve seen and been through a lot. A guy in my battalion got hit with a car bomb and he died. I had a grenade thrown at me from off a bridge. I didn’t see it coming, but another guy tackled me to keep me from getting hit. Another time, my vehicle got hit by an IUD. I was driving this Humvee and I got my bell rung pretty good. There was one route that we called “The Thunderdome.” IUDs would go off on both sides of the road. Q: So, please tell me about your other career as a writer. A: When I fi rst began taking courses at Middlesex Community College, I had an excellent working relationship with a professor – Dr. Denise Marchionda. She would tell me all the time, “You’re a writer, Mike.” I didn’t believe her at rounds, get out there and talk to people in town. I want to make it known that there’s no shame in getting help if you need it. Veterans who have earned the benefi ts and who are entitled to them should be taking full advantage of them. So, I’m looking forward to speaking to and meeting people from all veterans’ groups in town. I’m looking forward to speaking to veterans who are already on the books and getting new veterans into my offi ce who have too much pride to take advantage of benefi ts that they’ve earned. Every era of veterans has had its challenges. The Vietnam War veterans got spit on when they came home. My generation of soldiers – we had people fi ghting to open the door for us. I hope to intertwine the Nam era veterans with my era veterans. We look to them [Vietnam veterans] as role models. They can nudge us in the right direction. We can look to them as mentors, and I want every veteran or veteran’s widow who reads this article to know that my door will always be open and we can discuss any personal issues. Gerry D’Ambrosio Attorney-at-Law Is Your Estate in Order? Do you have an update Will, Health Care Proxy or Power of Attorney? 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