Tyler Jewkes, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by John C. Worsencroft, December 14, 2009: Saving the Legacy tape no. IA-26

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Tyler Jewke 14 m r 2009 ee that. But as far as coming home, I wasn't too vocal about everything becau e my focus was going on my mission, because that was kind of the next step. I got home from basic training in March of 2002. Then in May of 2002, that' when I started putting in my papers to be able to go on my mission. So I put in my papers. That went by about three months. Then in August is when I went on my mi ssion. I went to Santiago, Chile. That was an experience in and of itself for being a military person, because down there the conflict hadn't fully kicked off as far as the invasion into Iraq. That didn't happen until 2003. But I remember there was still a lot of tension that grew around what was happening, especially when it did happen in 2003, when we made the invasion on Iraq. There was a strong hatred towards Americans. People can recognize Americans when you're walking down the streets down there, especially, or especially the LDS missionaries, because you're dressed in your shirts and ties and suits. I would say daily I would have somebody come up and tell me that I was a baby killer or a lot of slander against President Bush, against the war efforts. There were billboards posted. Lots of murals painted on peoples' walls showing the destruction and calling Bush and the Americans baby killers and just really a lot of attack, a lot of persecution, just based off of that. Sometimes it helped. Sometimes we'd stop people and be talking to them and they would say, "Those people over there are killing people and you guys are from that country. You're not doing anything about it. Why don't you serve your country?" So for those people it was like, "Oh, I am. I'm in the National Guard. I'll probably be deployed at some point." But at the same time, you had a lot of people that because you're in the 14