Jack Gruber

Missions can be long. Specialist Don Ezera Cruz Plemons, a medic with the 2nd Regiment, 87th Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain
Division spends hours inside the confines of an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle currently deployed in Afghanistan. His role is to come to the aid of combat injured soldiers quickly via the MRAP. He may never step out of the vehicle on a mission if all goes well.

To pass the time on a mission with his platoon on the ground asking survey questions of local villagers, Plemons read Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” from his enclosed cabin seat.

Not typical soldier reading material.

Plemons, it turns out has a masters degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He along with a number of other enlisted soldiers in Comanche Company earned college degrees before joining the military. He sees more and more college educated soldiers due in part, he thinks, to the current down economy.

As well as reading classic literature, Plemons sketches and draws to pass the time while monitoring the company communications during missions some lasting an hour others an entire day.