by Larry Minear
The narrative also draws on an earlier study by the author, The U.S. Citizen-Soldier and the Global War on Terror: The National Guard Experience.3 That study highlighted the experience of veterans and institutions in New Hampshire and Vermont in particular and included interviews with members of veterans’ families, community leaders, mental health professionals, and the general public. The present book and the earlier study also draw on e-mails, letters, and commentary from newspapers, journals, and other publicly available sources. A bibliography lists publications in which the views of veterans are compiled.
All in all, this book draws on commentary from more than two hundred veterans and their families, communities, and institutions. The term “veterans” is used broadly to encompass not only those retired from service, but also those who continue in the ranks. Some have redeployed for additional tours in Afghanistan and Iraq or continue in National Guard and Reserve units. The narrative updates the traditional picture of veterans now that young people in their twenties bearing the scars of Afghanistan and Iraq are joining the ranks of the soldiers of earlier wars. The term “soldier” is used throughout in a broad sense to encompass members of all the service branches, not simply the members of the Army and Marines who fought on the ground as distinguished from their sea and air compatriots.
In fashioning this composite picture of the experience of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq, I have sought to present an account in which veterans tell their own stories in their own voices. Quotation marks are used to indicate their words; unquoted material represents the author’s paraphrase or explanation. For the most part, the commentary they provide needs little explanation. Such is the case, for example, when they describe their reasons for enlisting (Chapter 2), the violence encountered in Afghanistan and Iraq (Chapter 4), and the debilitating reality of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) (Chapter 9). At other points, however, more descriptive context is necessary: in situating their experience within the Global War on Terror (Chapter 1), in sketching the international legal and ethical framework for soldiering (Chapter 5), and in examining the response of U.S. institutions to their needs (Chapter 10). Focusing on the perceptions of veterans, the book does not attempt to provide a freestanding analysis of matters such as the Global War on Terror, the applicability of the Geneva Conventions, or the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing functions formerly performed by the military to private contractors.
Early on in my research, a counselor at a vet center whom I was interviewing injected a cautionary note. Whatever you do, she said, “don’t ‘spin’ the experience of veterans in the global war on terror into anything positive. There was nothing positive about the war. It would have been better for the veterans whom we see every day had it never happened.” Others provided the opposite counsel, believing that carnage and casualties should not be allowed to obscure the bravery and patriotism of the troops. Such conflicting instructions have reinforced my desire to make this a book in which veterans tell their own stories, with my own role limited to setting the stage and filling in a few of the blanks.
On what basis did I select the veterans whose experiences are recounted in this study? The accounts of several hundred soldiers out of a universe of two million offer a tiny selection indeed. I have made no attempt at assembling a scientific sample: taking, for example, every thousandth entry on a Pentagon roster or interviewing a precise cross-section of veterans mirroring the composition of the armed forces with respect to age, gender, racial/ethnic background, or service branch.
The veterans who appear in this study are chosen randomly from accounts available in the Veterans History Project collection, from published reflections in books and journal articles available in the public domain, and from my own contacts and interviews. My narrative does not offer a scientific poll of veterans’ attitudes toward this or that, although it does make reference to quantitative studies by government and private authorities. My narrative instead seeks to convey the texture of the experience as veterans themselves describe it. An index at the end of the book lists the pages on which each soldier’s quotations fall and provides details concerning the rank and affiliation of each.
Readers are encouraged to make their own judgments about the fidelity of the book’s narrative to the soldiers’ experiences. The materials on which much of the presentation is based are accessible to the general public at the Veterans History Project. Since some of the interviews are available in digitized form on the Internet, readers from the comfort of home or office can visit the Project online, download dossiers, and read in their entirety some of the interviews excerpted here. The published writings of veterans, listed in the Bibliography, are also available to those who wish to examine the data for themselves.
My expectation is that many readers will find that the composite narrative rings quite true to the experience of veterans with whom they may be acquainted or whose stories they may have heard. While some may be offended by the language veterans use to share their experience, I have not seen my role as that of censor or moralist. A more extended discussion of methodological issues in selecting and distilling veterans’ experiences is provided in my earlier study.4 A note on my background and earlier publications is contained at the end of the book.
The quotations this book weaves together are faithful to the interviews from which they are drawn, with only minor stylistic editing to improve their readability. I have omitted repetitive phrases and speech mannerisms (for example, throat-clearing) and have changed an occasional tense. I have not used brackets to signify alterations in punctuation or capitalization. In no instance have I altered the substantive thrust of interviewees’ commentary. Persons quoted are identified by name, unless they have requested not to be.
Veterans often comment on how little is known or understood by the general public about their experience. With that in mind, the primary audience of this volume is the general public, including veterans’ families and communities. The material will also interest health, educational, and other professionals and institutions seeking to respond to veterans’ needs and government officials charged with framing and managing government and private-sector programs. The rich oral history resources on which the narrative draws should also pique the interest of historians, teachers, and students. Veterans themselves may find resonance with their own experience and be encouraged to share their views and needs more fully with each other and beyond. What we all have to gain from listening to the voices of veterans is the subject of a concluding chapter.
For me, the three-year process of interviewing veterans and reading and listening to interviews conducted by others has been a riveting but sobering exercise. The process began with my drop-in visit in mid-2006 to a National Guard armory in the small town of Bradford, Vermont, where the duty officer didn’t quite know what to make of an inquiry from a curious citizen about how rural Vermonters assess the impacts of their National Guard unit’s recent deployment to Iraq. My interest stemmed in part from having done field research on the impacts of the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere on humanitarian assistance personnel. Thanks to that initial query, the experiences of the Vermont National Guard and those of its counterpart across the river in New Hampshire form an important part of this book. I hope that in satisfying my own curiosity, I am able to inform others as well.
The experience of fighting in the Global War on Terror on the front-lines in Afghanistan and Iraq has been fulfilling and satisfying for some veterans, searing and traumatic for many, daunting and unsettling for most. “The war is a very personal experience for everyone,” noted Marine Lt. Col. Robert D’Amico.5 “You change forever when you experience something like this,” observed Army SSgt. Shawn Stenberg, whether that change be for the better or the worse.6 Relying on the voices of veterans themselves, this book seeks to share that experience with a public that has remained largely unengaged in events in these two theaters.
Important in their own right, the
voices of veterans also identify issues that run well beyond the scope of this book. These include the assumptions and conduct of a global war on terror, the high costs—personal and social, direct and indirect, financial and institutional—of the approaches taken to tackling terrorism, the need for more energetic and long-range efforts to reintegrate returning veterans into American society, and the lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq for future U.S. foreign and military policy. As these topics begin to receive long-overdue attention, the experience of veterans will provide a useful guide and goad.
Larry Minear
Orleans, Massachusetts
March 2009
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
AFC
American Folklife Center
AK
AK-47, Kalashnikov automatic rifle (standard weapon of Soviet Union forces during the Cold War)
Amn.
Airman
AWOL
Absent without leave
CEO
Chief Executive Officer
CERP
Commander’s Emergency Response Program
CRS
Congressional Research Service
CTS
Contingency Tracking System (DOD)
DVA
Department of Veterans Affairs
DMDC
Defense Manpower Data Center (DOD)
DOD
Department of Defense
E-3
Private First Class (Army), Lance Corporal (Marines)
E-4
Specialist or Corporal (Army), Corporal (Marines)
E-5
Sergeant (Army and Marines)
E-6
Staff Sergeant (Army and Marines)
E-7
Sergeant First Class (Army) and Gunnery Sergeant (Marines)
EMT
Emergency medical technician
FOB
Forward Operating Base
FOIA
Freedom of Information Act
Humvee
High-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV)
GI
Government issue
IAVA
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
IED
Improvised explosive device
ISAF
International Security Assistance Force (Afghanistan)
IV
Intravenous feeding
IVAW
Iraq Veterans Against the War
JG
Junior Grade
KBR
Kellogg, Brown, and Root
KIA:
Killed in action
LCPL
Lance Corporal
LOC
Library of Congress
M16
Standard weapon of U.S. armed forces beginning in the mid-1960s
MBA
Master of Business Administration
MFSO
Military Families Speak Out
MIA
Missing in action
MP
Military Police
MRE
Meals Ready to Eat
MSgt
Master Sergeant
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
OEF
Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan)
OIF
Operation Iraqi Freedom
PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
PRT
Provincial Reconstruction Team
PT
Patrol torpedo (boat)
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder
PX
Post exchange
ROTC
Reserve Officers Training Corps
RPG
Rocket-propelled grenade
SOFA
Status of Forces Agreement
SSgt
Staff Sergeant
TBI
Traumatic brain injury
TCN
Third Country National
U.K.
United Kingdom
UN
United Nations
U.S.
United States
USA
U.S. Army
USAF
U.S. Air Force
USMC
U.S. Marine Corps
USN
U.S. Navy
VA
Veterans Administration
VFA
Veterans for America
VHP
Veterans History Project
WIA
Wounded in Action
PART I
The Setting
The experiences of veterans in Afghanistan and Iraq take place within the broader context of the Global War on Terror. Part I provides the backdrop against which veterans tell their stories. Part II describes their soldiering. Part III reflects upon the challenges of reentry and of coming to terms with what they have experienced.
ONE
The Global War on Terror
Through Veterans’ Eyes presents a composite view of the experiences of U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the Global War on Terror. Chapter 1 provides a snapshot of the men and women involved, outlines the historical context of the two conflicts, and provides basic information about the U.S. military forces of which veterans were a part.
TODAY’S VETERANS
The term “veteran” carries a lot of historical baggage. For many Americans, a veteran is a grizzled man now in his nineties who was drafted into the ranks and served in World War II. We imagine him catching his breath in a foxhole in France or storming an island in the Pacific. Following the end of the war in Europe and Japan, he was deposited by a troop ship on the east or west coast, welcomed home with parades in New York or San Francisco, and reconnected with his family, resumed his job, and perhaps went back to school under the GI bill.
The veterans whose mettle is being tested in Afghanistan and Iraq are different. They belong to an all-volunteer military. Many are “citizen-soldier” members of the National Guard, bringing a wide array of skills to their assignments. There is a large contingent of women who now play more extensive roles, including combat. Many of today’s veterans have been deployed to the two conflict theaters several times. About one in eight has been involuntarily retained in the service after having met his or her contractual obligations. Returning to the States, today’s veterans remain longer in the harness than their World War II predecessors, continuing in active-duty units, resuming National Guard training, or being assigned to the Reserves. Most veterans are twenty-somethings, with much to contribute to civil society or the military and decades remaining in which to do so.
The wars, too, are different. Today’s veterans have a better chance of surviving than their predecessors, particularly if they sustain battlefield injuries. Yet they are more likely to return with serious health problems associated with the “signature wounds” of Afghanistan and Iraq: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The two conflicts are proving longer lasting than U.S. involvement in World War II. As of 2009, the Afghanistan war and the broader Global War on Terror are in their eighth year, the Iraq war in its sixth. Veterans from today’s conflicts draw numerous comparisons between “their” wars and those of their predecessors, as noted in Chapter 11.
Veterans’ organizations are different as well. Responding to a different veteran with different interests and needs than those of the world war eras, a wider array of groups is stepping forward to take a fuller spectrum of positions on matters of war and peace and to perform a broader array of services on behalf of their members. The families of veterans are also better organized and more active and vocal. In short, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq give new meaning to the term “veteran.”
SEPTEMBER 11 AND ITS AFTERMATH
This book shares the experiences of veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters of the Global War on Terror. The Global War on Terror is the
name given by the administration of President George W. Bush to its response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on the United States. “In the smoky, chaotic hours after September 11’s stunning attacks, Bush put into motion a simple and direct policy: Terrorists were to be pursued relentlessly and given no safe haven; those who harbored or tolerated terrorists were also the enemy. Those orders spawned a flurry of diplomatic, intelligence and military activity, including the destruction … of Afghanistan’s Taliban government.”1
The events of September 11, said the president, represented “an attack that took place on American soil, but it was an attack on the heart and soul of the civilized world. And the world has come together to fight a new and different war … against all those who seek to export terror, and a war against governments that support or shelter them.”2 The resulting Global War on Terror, an American initiative joined to one extent or another at one time or another by more than four dozen countries, has had three principal theaters: Afghanistan, Iraq, and the home front.