About this series
Six months into his second tour of Iraq, U.S. Army Capt. Raymond E. Nutter misses the things we take for granted.
They're simple, really: driving; sleeping in; running to Wal-Mart; throwing a steak on the grill for breakfast if the mood strikes him.
"Freedom to do what you want with your time," explained the 26-year-old Nutter, who grew up in Lake Zurich.
Nutter, a human resources officer with the famed 101st Airborne Division, contacted the Daily Herald via e-mail earlier this year because he wanted to share his wartime experiences with his childhood community.
At our request, he wrote a series of three articles, each on a different subject, and took the photographs accompanying the pieces. With his words and pictures, he describes life in the heart of the war, dealing with Iraqi civilians and military personnel, Army food and other topics both exciting and mundane.
They are a soldier's stories.