Sgt. Gregory Opoien, a Bloomington, Minn., native and an information assurance officer with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, ollies, or jumps off of a ramp, in a parking lot Oct. 13 in Contingency Operating Base Basra.
Sgt. Gregory Opoien, a Bloomington, Minn., native and an information assurance officer with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, skates on a box Oct. 13 in Contingency Operating Base Basra. The box was given to him by a member of “Bikes Over Baghdad,” an extreme sports group that toured Iraq recently.
Sgt. Gregory Opoien, a Bloomington, Minn., native and an information assurance officer with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, grinds, or slides in a parking lot Oct. 13 in Contingency Operating Base Basra. The rail was a souvenir of Opoien’s time in Joint Airbase Balad, where he spent the first part of his deployment before extending with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division in COB Basra.
Sgt. Gregory Opoien, an information assurance officer with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, regroups after a jumping off a skateboard ramp Oct. 13 in Contingency Operating Base Basra. “Those jumps really take it out of you,” Opoien, a Bloomington, Minn., native says.
An image of skateboarding Sgt. Gregory Opoien, an information assurance officer with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, can be seen in the reflection of a military vehicle in a parking lot in Contingency Operating Base Basra Oct. 13. Opoien, a Bloomington, Minn., native, can often be seen skating with Staff Sgt. Ben Nikkel, an acquaintance who used to skate with Opoien with before drills back in Minnesota.
Sgt. Gregory Opoien, a Bloomington, Minn., native and an information assurance officer with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, carries his third skateboard in a parking lot Oct. 13 in Contingency Operating Base Basra. His two first two boards were wrecked, one in Joint Airbase Balad, where Opoien was with the 34th Combat Aviation Brigade, and one in Contingency Operating Base Basra, where Opoien was transferred after he extended his tour.
Sgt. Gregory Opoien can often be seen skating with Staff Sgt. Ben Nikkel, an acquaintance who used to skate with Opoien with before drills back in Minnesota. Opoien and Nikkel skate several times a week after work and Nikkel, battalion signal and communications manager with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, describes the best part of his deployment as “when your best friend’s your roommate and he likes to skate and you’re able to skate.”
