Through Veterans' Eyes
Page 4
With respect to racial/ethnic backgrounds, the casualties sustained in Afghanistan and Iraq were roughly proportionate to the make-up of U.S. forces globally. Of the casualties in both theaters through January 3, 2009, the elements are as follows: white, 76.9 percent; black, 8.3 percent; Hispanic, 6.8 percent; American Indian/Alaskan native, 1.1 percent; Asian/Pacific islands, 1.5 percent; and multiracial, 4.6 percent.35 All of these racial and ethnic groups are represented among the first-person accounts in the narrative.
As of late 2008, U.S. active-duty forces at the global level included some 35,000 non-U.S. citizens.36 Members of the armed forces are not required to be U.S. citizens, unless they are serving as officers. While there is no provision that non-citizens who serve will be granted citizenship, the citizenship process may be expedited to reflect their service. “U.S. immigration and nationality laws provide special rules for the naturalization of non-citizens who have served in the U.S. military.”37 The experiences of non-U.S. nationals are mentioned at various points in the narrative.
The views of soldiers are drawn from across the full timeframe of the conflicts shown in Figures 2, 3, and 4. With respect to the war in Iraq, for example, several of those interviewed were on hand in Kuwait even before the outset of hostilities. Many served during the peak casualty periods. Still others were on the ground in the area in 2007–2008. However, the interview materials utilized from the Veterans History Project and from the author’s own conversations with veterans contain heavier representation from the earlier years of each conflict. In the case of Iraq, a larger number of the voices heard were from soldiers deployed in 2004–2006 than in 2007–2009. As the casualty figures confirm, they were on the ground during the most lethal period. The passage of additional time, the return of veterans more recently deployed, and the processing of new interview material will eventually allow for the distilling of experiences more evenly across the full span of both conflicts.
In historical perspective, the demographic profile of those who are serving and have served in Afghanistan and Iraq differs significantly from that of their predecessors. The average age of a combat soldier in Vietnam was nineteen. The average age of an active-duty service member in Afghanistan or Iraq is twenty-seven, with members of the National Guard and Reserves averaging thirty-three. Most service members in previous wars were single; 60 percent of the men and women deployed in the two theaters today have family obligations. Ten percent of those deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq are women, an increase over their percentage of the troops in Vietnam by a factor on the order of a thousand. Of today’s women in the two theaters, 16,000 are single mothers.38 The voices of veterans heard in this book reflect this new demographic profile.
Many of the figures cited in this and later chapters are taken or adapted from the websites of DOD and veterans’ organizations and from news and journal articles. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs has provided some additional data. Some information requested by the author from DOD would not have been forthcoming in time for inclusion in this study had the necessary Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures been pursued.
PART II
The Experience
The stories that veterans share about Afghanistan and Iraq touch on many aspects of the experience. These include why soldiers enlisted in the military (Chapter 2), how they view politics and political issues (Chapter 3), how they have functioned in unfamiliar and violent surroundings (Chapter 4), and how they have come to terms with the carnage and their role in it (Chapter 5). Soldiers also express strong feelings about local populations (Chapter 6), private contractors (Chapter 7), and the media (Chapter 8). Part II offers a composite narrative weaving together the comments of veterans from interviews and their own writings on these themes. Part III describes the challenges they face in returning to the United States following their deployments overseas.
TWO
Enlistment and Patriotism
One of the initial questions suggested by the Veterans History Project field kit for interviews of veterans from America’s various wars concerns why a person joined the armed forces. Other questions inquire about why the interviewee chose a particular branch of the service and where he or she was on the day a given war was declared. Still other questions explore the training received, the responsibilities shouldered, the dangers experienced, the relationships formed, and the most memorable experiences. Finally, interviewees are asked to reflect upon how their experiences have contributed to their thinking about their country and military service.
The field kit is not always followed by interviewers, who ranged from middle school students to college professors, from mental health personnel to officials of veterans organizations, from members of congressional offices to officials of state historical associations. Yet the questions provide a useful framework for organizing and examining the experience of the veterans who served on the front lines of the Global War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. The interviews conducted by the author touched on similar issues.
ENLISTMENT
The fact that the United States has not drafted citizens into its armed forces since the end of conscription in 1973 means that all of the two million people who have served in the global war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq have entered the ranks of the military of their own volition. The principal reasons for enlisting are, first and foremost, economic and educational. A sense of duty to country is expressed less often as a motivating factor, a personal response to the events of 9/11 less frequently still.
Economic considerations figure prominently in enlistments into today’s military. “It’s one of the few places where if you’re born into poverty, you can actually get out of it,” said Sgt. E-5 Terrell Spencer, who enlisted in the Army in late 2003.1 “There are many reasons why I joined the Marine Corps,” recalled Sgt. Jeremy Lima, who served in Iraq with the Provisional Security Battalion of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing. “I wanted to go to college. I was poor. I wanted to set myself up for a career, not just a job. But most importantly, I wanted to be part of something I could be proud of. Pride is what I was really looking for. You don’t join the Marine Corps. You become a Marine.”2 That sentiment suffuses Lima’s photographs, one of which appears in Chapter 9.
Asked why he joined the Air Force, Col. William F. Andrews, whose twenty-five-year career included service in Germany during the Cold War and flying in Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, answered: “That was really simple. I wanted to fly, and when I was sixteen, I took some flying lessons. I ran out of money and wanted someone to teach me how to fly for free.”3
Ryan Maloney, who spent eleven months with the Vermont National Guard in Iraq in 2004, had enlisted because of economic need. He was also continuing a family tradition. As his mother, Nancy Brown of Waitsville, Vermont, explained, two of her brothers had enlisted in the National Guard and served in Vietnam (one is still struggling with resulting post-traumatic stress disorder).4 One of the attractions of the Guard over the years has been that members can improve their lot in life while staying connected with their families and communities. The Guard draws many enlistments from impoverished areas, particularly rural ones.
For some veterans, a combination of factors led to the decision to enlist. Asked what he hoped to gain by joining the Army, Capt. Andrew M. Wells, who entered by way of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program at Iowa State University, summarized his reasons as “adventure, patriotism, good leadership experience, and an overall life-rounding experience. I think it’s important for Americans to serve at some point in some capacity, either their local community or their country as a whole.”5
The educational benefits of serving in the military, both in developing skills and expanding opportunities, figured prominently in many enlistment decisions. Spec. Jennifer Schwab, who had signed up for the New Hampshire National Guard in May 2000 while still in high school to defray upcoming college expenses, used her combat bonus to underwrite college tuition costs. Wh
ile based in Afghanistan, she also took distance-learning courses and completed her degree upon returning. Building on her experience in the Guard, she moved into journalism and nonprofit organization work. Many others returned from Afghanistan and Iraq to further develop skills acquired overseas, avail themselves of educational benefits, move up the career ladder, and even explore new careers.
The importance of the military as a source of economic opportunity is confirmed by the impact of the 2008–2009 recession on recruitment. “As the number of jobs across the nation dwindles,” noted one reporter in January 2009, “more Americans are joining the military, lured by a steady paycheck, benefits and training.” Expanded educational benefits and incentives under the GI Bill, which took effect in August 2009, were a contributing factor. A reduction in violence in Iraq, Pentagon officials confirmed, also played a role in helping meet enrollment targets for the first time since 2004. In the interim, the military had sought to attract new recruits by “increasing signing bonuses and accepting a greater number of people who had medical and criminal histories, who scored low on entrance exams and who failed to graduate from high school.”6
Some veterans signed up for the military in search of a new lease on life. Marine Corps SSgt. Brandon M. Bass, a Colorado native who served in Iraq, told an interviewer that he enlisted “to get away and be on my own.”7 Sgt. Brian Coles sought out the Army in 1991 in response to pressure from his father, who served him with an ultimatum: attend college or go into the military.8 One recruit, who enlisted as part of a group decision arrived at with several friends, recalled his personal circumstances at the time. “I was living a little bit of a crazy lifestyle and wanted to get things together—basically, to get my head straight.”9 One veteran confided apologetically to his interviewer that he had forgotten why he enlisted.
Numerous veterans express appreciation for what they consider the positive aspects of their service. Initially aggravated at the disruption to his work, school, and family life, in the end Army Sgt. Matthew Sean Neely viewed his military experience in positive terms. “I put my life on pause for a year,” he said in words that ring true to the experience of many others, “maybe to help somebody for the rest of their life. I think it was worth it, certainly.” He describes his time in an infantry division in Iraq as “a life-changing experience for sure. I view life a lot more differently. I have a better handle on things.”10
Spec. Philip Wade Geiger of the Missouri National Guard assessed his own experience similarly. Military service “has made me a better person. It’s made me more respectful and more socially conscious. Before I enlisted, I didn’t care about any world events or news. This keeps my eyes open now because I’m interested in things that are evolving that could involve me or friends of mine.”11 Spec. Nicole Ferretti experienced an unexpected boon from her Army duty in Iraq. Rifts in her family began to heal as family members rallied around her at a time of peril.12
In a statement echoed by numerous other veterans, Lt. Ron Maloney, a home contractor who had joined the New York National Guard while in high school, noted that he had moved from “banging nails every day” to being “part of something bigger.”13 Marine LCpl. Brian Aria was forever thankful simply for having survived the war. “I appreciate things every day now.”14 However, such rewards, cited and recited, exist in tension with the negatives of the experience, including—in addition to the disruption of personal and family life—injury, loss of life, and regular confrontation with death and destruction. These will be examined in subsequent chapters.
PATRIOTISM
Judging from the interviews, a sense of duty to one’s country in its hour of need figured less prominently in enlistment decisions than did economic and educational factors. Of those interviewed who signed up after September 11, 2001, only a minority acted specifically in response to those events or expressed a particular interest in protecting the United States from future terrorist threats. However, their thinking was noteworthy nonetheless.
The 9/11 attacks spurred a number of people to enlist. Marine Cpl. Stephen Wilbanks wrote in his blog that on September 11, 2001, “when the news about the terrorist attacks in New York City came over the radio … I immediately drove to the recruiter’s office to inquire about reenlistment options.”15 “The only reason I joined the military,” recalled Army Spec. E-4 Basil Cofield, who enlisted shortly after 9/11, “is because we got attacked in New York. My country called and it’s my time to answer.”16 For Spec. Gregory James Schulte, “September 11 changed a lot of things. After September 11, I got tired of everybody talking—all talking and no show—so I tried to join.” In December 2001, halfway through his senior year in high school, he was accepted into the Missouri National Guard and served in Iraq as part of a helicopter detail.17 Lt. Col. Jude Ferran, who was already in the Army on 9/11—in fact, he was working in the Pentagon at the time of the attack—found it “startling” that such an event as 9/11 could happen.18
SSgt. Neal I. Mitchell, who by 9/11 had already served in the Marines, takes pride in having signed up for the New Hampshire National Guard after the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. He was following in the footsteps of his father, who had enlisted in the Navy in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor and had served as a navigator on PT boats. But Mitchell the younger was not looking for front line exposure. “You have to have a screw loose,” he said, to seek out combat, at the same time recalling that he “at the very least expected to be participating in some domestic security effort.”19 One Vermonter who enlisted in the Guard in 1987 expressed the view that following 9/11, the United States needed to assert itself overseas and draw the line against terrorists. He felt it was important to lend that effort his personal support.
Some who signed up specifically to defend their country from terrorism took particular satisfaction in their work. “Before 9/11,” recalled Spec. Dave Bischel, “I was doing wireless communication sales and always feeling that there was something missing in my life. But 9/11 changed a lot of people’s lives and how they viewed their lives, including me. After 9/11, I started re-evaluating my priorities. I wanted to be able to help if something bad happened on the west coast, so I joined the Guard.” Ten years out of the full-time Army, he reenlisted in the Guard and soon found himself in Iraq, where he served with a California Guard unit from March 2003 to April 2004.20
Sniper Duty
Blake Cole (AFC2001/001/62554), Photographs (PH 38), VHP, AFC, LOC.
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SSgt. Blake Cole served as a Marine scout sniper from 2002 to 2008. He worked his way up from an infantry rifleman to his position as chief scout sniper in the Third Battalion Fifth Marine Regiment and eventually instructed sniper students at Quantico, Virginia. During that time he was deployed to Southeast Asia and completed three combat tours, a total of 18 months, in Iraq, seeing action in Baghdad, Fallujah, and Ad Diwaniya. Wounded in action on November 12, 2004, he received a Purple Heart medal as well as other commendations.
His sniper team’s assistant leader took this photograph in April 2005 outside Fallujah, in a village along the Euphrates called Saqlawiyah. While taking photographs during missions, especially in daylight, is strictly forbidden, Cole was part of a Marine convoy that had stopped in non-hostile territory. “I remember wanting to take this picture,” he recalls, “because it was an area that looked like … a lot of places we were familiar with in the U.S.” He included a map of the location in his Veterans History Project collection.
Cole is carrying about eighty pounds, including body armor and ammunition, which is standard for a rural mission; for urban missions, the load would weigh about one hundred pounds. The picture, taken shortly after dawn, shows Cole wearing night-vision goggles.
As of 2009, Cole was enrolled in the Marine Corps Enlisted Commissioning Education Program at the University of Illinois Chicago, which leads to a college degree and a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant.
Ethan Carty, a seventh grader in the Ni River Middle School in Spottsylvania, V
irginia, interviewed Sergeant Cole as part of an annual project organized by Ethan’s teacher, Tracie Short, in which several dozen students conduct interviews of local Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The students hand deliver recordings of the interviews along with other relevant artifacts to the Veterans History Project in the Library of Congress, where they are archived. As Ms. Short believes, “It is important for young children to know what these people have done for us.”
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“I joined to wear the uniform,” said Sgt. Shawn E. Molloy, who was part of an Army medical company in Operation Iraqi Freedom. “Once I put this uniform on, I inherited all the respect and all the history that all these other veterans have fought for. I wanted to be part of something like that.”21 Sr. Amn. Patrick J. McGonigle III observed, “I wear my uniform proudly. I wear it every once and a while just to wear it and say, ‘Hey, I earned this!’” In his case, “September 11 hit home.” His family was from the New York City area. His parents had fortuitously decided against having lunch in the Twin Towers the previous week and his uncle happened not to have been at work in the Twin Towers that fateful day.22
Col. Mark Warnecke, an infantry battalion commander from the New York National Guard during Operation Iraqi Freedom, had a vivid memory of seeing “those smoking holes in the ground” where the Twin Towers used to be. Against that backdrop, “The first time you’re actually looking at an Al Qaeda guy in the eye made the whole year worthwhile.”23 Timothy Rieger, who had served in the Marine Corps’ Judge Advocate General’s unit in Afghanistan, noted: “There’s an old saying that the greatest warrior is one who does not need to kill. If you demonstrate that you’re prepared and willing and that you will sacrifice in order to defeat the enemy, that is a great deterrent. I think that we have to continue to demonstrate that, particularly to these radical organizations that will blow up the World Trade Center or the Pentagon or the stadium in which you or I are watching some baseball game.”24