Humans of NGU: Jason Watson
T.J. Dunaway, Contributing writer
“We were walking down the road then… boom!”
Jason Watson, a 40-year-old student at North Greenville University, grew up the town of Enoree, S.C. He attended Laurens High School but quit early so that he could join the United States Army.
Infantry was Watsons job, but don’t let that fool you, during his time in the military he attended over seven different schools, two of which were Ranger and HALO(High Altitude Low Opening) school. Watson said that he was deployed six times overseas, three to Afghanistan and three to Iraq.
“We had it rough over there”, Watson stated as he was telling me times there. He said that it was constant firing back and forth and bombs were exploding everywhere.
In the midst of him telling me some of the more horrific details of his tours, he began to tell me about the best moment he while deployed. He said that while he was in Iraq his wife called and told him that she was pregnant.
Watson explained that his whole platoon had her on the phone for two hours that night asking her questions and talking. He said that it felt as if they were all family.
Next came the story of when he lost friend. “We were walking down the road then… boom!”, he stated, as Watson began the story. That day he stepped on an I.E.D and his friend, Stephen Packer, took a big hit. One which he did not recover from.
From there, Watson went for medical attention in Germany. In December 2011 he was medically retired.
In October 2017 Watson and his wife lost their son, Baker, after having him for just one day. Watson began saying that he wanted answers on how this could happen. He said that one night he decided to pick up his bible and find those answers.
“I feel in love with God”, he said, “and I began seeing my son’s death as a blessing not a tragedy because it got me to this moment, where I am following Christ.”
