Vic: <laughs> Proceed
Jason: Before my first combat tour in Afghanistan- my mom, who’s sort of, a bit of a lapsed Catholic but still semi-practicing, wanted to give me a St. Christopher medal. St. Christopher is the patron saint of travellers and soldiers, maybe, I don’t know. And she figured that two St. Christopher’s medals were probably better than one, and that three were probably better than two. By the time she had finished doing all that math, I had five St. Christopher’s medals on a little silver chain which was very uncomfortable to wear underneath body armour. A big bulky stack of metal pressing against your sternum while you got a plate carrier on, but I wore it through the whole deployment. Not because I thought- I’m not even a little bit Catholic, and I’m not very superstitious, but it was just a good reminder of my mom and the people back home. So I kept it on despite it not being particularly comfortable.
Vic: Do you feel like it helped, or is it just…
Jason: Yeah, it’s good to have those little reminders of people back home, that they care about you and they’re thinking about you when you’re overseas. It can be sort of lonely being deployed somewhere far away, even when you’re around your buddies and a unit that you’re close with. So yeah, it provided a certain amount of emotional comfort and physical discomfort.
Vic: <laughs> Is that kind of the Catholic self-flagellation a little bit?
Jason: <laughs> Yeah, maybe. It’s like the hair shirt.
Vic: Yeah. Do you have anything like that here in Ukraine with you?
Jason: My mom gave me a St. Ignatius medal. I don’t know why she went with Ignatius this time instead of St. Christopher, but…
Vic: Which one’s Ignatius?
Jason: I have no idea.
Vic: Ah.
Jason: But I guess he’s doing something.
Vic: Yeah.
<Another volunteer approached whilst we were talking and sat at our table>
Vic: So I’m doing a project where I’m collecting people’s stories of this sort of thing. I don’t suppose you’ve got any superstitions you’ve brought with you or any charms you’ve brought for good luck?
Eric: No, not really.
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