Fredonia graduate makes news with "Shade it Black," a memoir of retrieving and cataloging Marines KIA

Jessica Goodell was a non-traditional student at Fredonia until she graduated in 2010 with a psychology degree. The Iraq veteran had a story to tell, however, that would come as a surprise to many who knew her on campus. It was a story that she didn't talk about, but has since detailed in a book that is getting national publicity. 

In Iraq, Jessica's platoon was charged with the gruesome job of retrieving deceased Marines from battle zones, roadside bombing sites and other locations, and because of the nature of modern warfare, that was often a deeply disturbing task.  

In today’s combat, “clean” deaths have gone the way of the Kentucky Long Rifle, replaced by IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), discharged at a “safe” distance from their operator, leaving their victims with no warning or hope of survival.

And it was her job to gather those remains – scooping them up with her hazmat-covered hands, if necessary – and bring them back to the base. She was instructed to gather as much as possible, leaving nothing for the insurgents to claim as a trophy, and run through the streets with in victory, as they did to four American civilian contractors earlier in the war.

That was only half of her job. Once back at camp, her team had to catalog the deceased, which often meant trying to discern which remains went with which Marine if multiple deaths occurred. Each victim was chronicled on a form that included a human outline; they were instructed to shade in any parts that were missing, thus, the “inspiration” for the name of her book. And, as dreadful as the visuals were, the smells were even worse. They permeated her clothes. Eating became a terrible challenge, and other Marines usually kept their distance. It became a very lonely existence.

By the time her eight months in Iraq were complete, she lost track of how many bodies she processed. “We were just on survival mode. I’m not sure how many altogether. As many as eight in a day, then nothing for a day or a week, then six…”