Photo courtesy Trevor Rapp
Trevor Rapp, a military-deferred senior from Idaho Falls, poses for a picture to send home at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, his second team base.

BYU-I soldier will serve his country, Iraqi people

by Becky Boushley BOU02002@BYUI.EDU Religion Editor

Trevor Rapp lies in his bed at night trying to push out the thoughts of war. Not battle memories of the past, but what is to come.

Rapp, a senior and military deferred BYU-Idaho student from Idaho Falls, joined the National Guard as a medic on June 5, 2003. The “War in Iraq” had already begun but no National Guard units had been called to service, he said.

“I don’t believe that [paying for my] education was the full purpose [for enlisting],” Rapp said. “I like to think there was some patriotism in there, and I thought it would be cool to be a soldier.”

He had planned to go to the initial training and then come back to BYU-I for a year or two and then most likely, by that time, go to war “but it just didn’t work out like that,” Rapp said.

Now Rapp is home for about a two-week period before he will rejoin his unit to deploy to Kuwait, and then on to Iraq. He is part of the Idaho National Guard 116th Brigade Team that recently completed their five-month training at Ft. Bliss, in Texas, and Ft. Polk, in Louisiana.

Once Rapp has deployed to Iraq he will be coming in contact with different types of situations and opportunities. Some of these opportunities will include service to others.

“I definitely think there’s some definite missionary opportunities,” Rapp said. “There will be some LDS people over there, rusty Mormons, and they will be so overwhelmed by the war and being away from family,” it will be positive if they can be befriended by a strong Mormon soldier.

“I’m not going over there to proselyte, but if we see the opportunity to serve and talk to the [Iraqi’s], if we’re good ambassadors” to them, then they will be much more receptive when there comes a time for them to learn more about the gospel, Rapp said.

Other than this opportunity to serve his country and the Iraqi people, “anticipation” and “intrigue” are the words Rapp used to best describe his feelings about deployment.

“I try not to think about it too much while I’m here. I don’t want to psych myself out,” Rapp said.

But it is hard to push the war from mind since for the past five months Rapp has endured training that has given him a taste of what real combat in Iraq should be like. As close as they could without actually shooting people, he said.

However with the training often being referred to as “a game,” one might wonder how prepared you can be for the real thing.

“I wonder,” Rapp said. “I don’t know if I’m gonna be the guy who will run into the crowd fighting or cowering in a foxhole. I know who I’ll wanna be, but until it happens, I don’t know.”