soldiers-home

A Final Post

2008-12-15T13:45:57Z

As WWII entered its final days, the French writer Marguerite Duras, then a member of the resistance in Paris, waited to see if her husband had survived the German concentration camps and would be coming home. The notes she took of that time were subsequently published as , in which she relays her observations of a once occupied city expecting what seemed an immanent liberation and start of a new era. As she watched the quotidian life of Paris resume once again, Duras wrote:

Her words have always struck me in the way they apply to a vast number of aftermaths throughout my own lifetime and history; with peace does come forgetting, at least on a larger scale.

In our nation's current wars abroad peace certainly has not been totally achieved, but in some ways it seems the forgetting has already begun. I've noticed that among fellow veterans and vets of other wars there is a common theme often invoked: nobody out there really cares about what the troops went through, or, Americans just want to forget their messy wars. It's almost a natural instinct: to fuel a perpetual candle in the face of America so that it remembers what some Americans did far beyond the country's borders.

But there is also the view of those Americans unaffiliated with the military to consider. In those early days when I first came back from Iraq I was frustrated people weren't paying as close attention to the war as I expected them too. I thought them apathetic, lazy, and selfish. It took time for me to step back, calm my emotions, and realize some of my expectations were too critical and colored by the shock of coming home. In truth, there was certainly a very fertile middle ground.

It's this balance that I've tried to achieve with this blog: highlighting veterans and military issues that are important to understand, not because they are just important to veterans, but because they're important for every American. The enormous influx of war veterans back into American society since September 11 means a new and unique demographic is now firmly in place.

This is my last blog post here at Soldier's Home. When I began the blog last October I decided to name it after a semi-autobiographical Ernest Hemingway short story written about a WWI veteran returning to the quiet life of a Midwestern suburb. Nearly everything he wrote rang true almost a century later: the drifting, loneliness, and brooding. Using his story as a guide I hope I've been able to highlight both the daily news events in veterans affairs, while also taking note of those experiences that can transcend generations.

After writing this blog for more than year I can say that the most crucial stories are not those affecting just veterans, but the stories that reflect the country as a whole through its veterans. Marguerite Duras saw a new generation coming of age at the end of WWII on the cusp of forgetting the recent past. And even now, it's easy to see dialogue about the wars we fight diminishing as the years pass by. It used to be that it was largely up to America's veterans to carry on the memory of their fallen comrades. But if we can learn anything from history, it's that in order not forget we have to collectively want to remember.

I don't know if this is possible. We're still in the thick of it. But I hope the stories I've posted here helped bring the veteran experience to the civilian consciousness, and I thank you for letting me try.

Video: First Gurkha to Die in Afghanistan

2008-11-24T17:21:30Z

Braving withering fire from fortified Taliban positions, men from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, located the body of Rifleman Yubraj Rai and then carried it more than 100m across open ground.

New Ad Tells Vets They're Not Alone, Offers Social Networking

2008-11-24T16:52:42Z

Sometimes one needs to restate the obvious to point out what's right in front of us. That's what New York Times columnist Bob Herbert did recently when he wrote these words:

From LIFE Photo Archive: Soldiers in Action Through the Decades

2008-11-21T18:41:48Z

Recently Google announced it had digitized and uploaded images from the LIFE magazine photo archive, many of which have never been published before. At present Google says only 20 percent of LIFE's archive is online, but the end goal is to have 10 million images available. To do your own searches visit here.

U.S. Troops Attacked in Philippines

2008-11-20T17:23:10Z

The details are sketchy, but the Associated Press is reporting American troops riding in a convoy were fired upon by suspected Muslim militants in the Philippines earlier this week. Here's the report in full [via AP]:

Afghanistan Watch: A Story Compilation

2008-11-20T17:18:24Z

Though it's often cited as where the U.S. has to now focus its military, there's still little substantive news stories on the war in Afghanistan. To keep tabs on the latest developments involving U.S. and coalition troops in that conflict, here's the first installment in of an occasional series highlighting the latest about Afghanistan.

An Environmental Addendum

2008-11-20T14:01:09Z

Yesterday we took a look at a batch of new electric cars members of the Army, Air Force, and Navy will soon find ferrying them around bases. Environmental magazine Plenty recently gave a quick rundown on the good and the bad of military policies as they pertain to the environment. As one might expect, the piece notes the further away a particular environmental initiative is to accomplishing a tactical mission, the less the military is probably interested in it. Still, it looks like there are some good things (and not so good) going on according to Plenty [excerpts]:

The Army's New Electric Cars

2008-11-19T18:36:05Z

Starting in mid-December this year new electric cars purchased by the Army will start arriving at U.S. bases for on-site use, the Military Times reports. Joined by the Air Force and Navy, the Army is planning to receive 800 of these vehicles by next year with an ultimate goal of 10,000 overall. Paul Bollinger, deputy assistant Army secretary for energy and partnerships, told the paper:

In the News: Economy Hits Vets; 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'; and Obama's Promises

2008-11-18T17:51:56Z

Today's New York Times took a look at how some veterans (particularly wounded veterans) are faring in these troubled economic times. The life of a service member is somewhat prone to upheaval: there is the prospect of deployment; extended absences; transfers among bases; and, in some cases, living with injury. As the Times finds, such factors when combined with the economy, are making it difficult for veterans and active duty members to pay mortgages--or pay any bills at all:

New Online Videos Attempt to Show Soldiers' Iraq

2008-11-13T19:54:33Z

There have been two developments recently in the world of online video that aim to convey U.S. military life in Iraq back to the home front -- though for much different purposes. On Monday the New York Times ran a short feature on the redesign of the U.S. Army Website, where potential recruits can now view pared-down, YouTube-esque videos of soldiers in Iraq talking about life there. As the Times reports, the "Straight From Iraq Series," is intended to target the 17-24-year-old demographic using this more current technology. From the paper:

The Nuances of Celebrating Veterans Day

2008-11-11T16:37:00Z

American soldiers operating out of Joint Security Station Babil in Baghdad's Karadah neighborhood this summer lived a pretty good life for living at an outpost. The port-a-johns were a 30 second walk away, telephones and Internet accessible computers, and a steady stream of electricity flowing from generators on the outpost grounds.

Inside the sleeping quarters of second platoon you'd find surge protectors, video game consoles, and laptop computers to occupy their downtime when not on patrol in the relatively calm neighborhood. The room was crammed with bunk beds – bunk beds with actual mattresses no less. Refrigerators stocked with energy drinks, snacks, and popsicles, hummed along with the various air conditioning units poking out of the walls.

As a reporter embedded with the unit, I had the luxury of charging my Blackberry, digital camera, and computer. I wrote about the soldiers seated at a large rectangular table with an industrial fan blowing on me, and a fluorescent tube light illuminating my keyboard.

Just over five years earlier I was also in Iraq, as a Marine reservist entering the country on the tail end of the initial invasion force. I was living in a hole in the ground.

Of course, the dangers were different then too. There were no roadside bombs. The enemy was not a well-organized network of insurgents, but remnants of the Baath party and Saddam Hussein's paramilitary force, the Fedayeen. We carried suits to protect against a chemical attack. We rode around in open-topped humveees, and our body armor lacked side plates.

Talking to the soldiers last summer about my own experiences in the war, I felt like an old man boring a younger generation with stories of "way back when." Some of these soldiers were still in high school when the war started. A 24-year-old lieutenant, whose platoon had recently lost two vehicles to roadside bombs, told me of watching the war start in his grandparent's living room as a college sophomore. In the end, I left Iraq in August not feeling as though I'd revisited a war I'd been there for the beginning of, but one that was in essence an entirely different conflict.

Those soldiers of JSS Babil I met this summer not only face a different war than I did five years ago but they will come home to a different country. And this is important to remember as we observe Veterans Day today. It is important to remember that while the country celebrates its veterans, Americans should also recognize how much the dialogue has increased over what it means to be a veteran – a dialogue that had remained largely silent in the absence of sustained wars over the past few decades.

In Lighter News...A Veteran as Soap Star

2008-11-07T16:28:17Z

It's been a long exhausting week, and now that Friday's finally here we present a veteran's story of lighter fare. J.R. Martinez, a 25-year-old Iraq veteran who was severely injured when a 2003 landmine explosion trapped him inside a burning Humvee, will join the cast of the ABC soap All My Children in the role of an Iraq vet. The show actually put out a nation-wide casting call for Iraq veterans to play the part, citing a need to bring true-life accuracy to the performance. Here's a summary of the character, Brot Monroe, whom Martinez will play [via soapdom]:

Soldiers, Meet Your New Commander

2008-11-05T19:01:31Z

So, the presidential election is over. Headlines continue to thunder out the history president-elect Obama made, and thoughts are turning to the task of assembling a staff and facing a difficult future. In our homes and offices we watch TV, surf the Internet, and listen to the radio, but perhaps the president-elect summed up reality for the U.S. military last night during his victory speech:

11/11/1918, 10:59 A.M.: Henry Gunther is the Last Soldier Killed in WWI

2008-10-30T12:19:50Z

The BBC's Timewatch program provides a fascinating history lesson on the last moments of WWI, where new research has pinpointed who the last soldiers to die in combat were -- even though the armistice had already been signed by the higher-ups. The document was signed around 5 a.m. on the morning of November 11, 1918, but didn't go into effect until 11 a.m.. In fact, the BBC tells us that on the graves of French soldiers killed after the war's end, earlier dates were inscribed out of embarrassment for their avoidable deaths. And then there's these facts about the last day's casualties:

How You Could Spend Your Summer Vacation

2008-10-29T11:35:30Z

Violence in Iraq is down. U.S. and Iraqi officials are hammering out a security pact. And while U.S. commanders are expressing concern about recent attacks in the city of Mosul, you'll find a fair share of "how Iraq is getting better" stories out there in the news. But recently the New York Times travel section had a surprise of its own: a brief guide to visiting Iraq's Kurdish region in the north.

A $2000 roundtrip flight from New York's JFK airport via Austrian Airlines will take you to the city of Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan (tourist visas are available at the airport). Once there a California-based company offers 12-day cultural tours of the area starting at around $5,860 a person. According to U.S. troops I talked to in Iraq this summer, you might even run into American soldiers in the town of Dohuk where they sometimes make supply runs to local stores. Kurdish forces guard the soldiers' humvees as they mingle through the town and even get hotel rooms for the night. That's the kind of place Kurdistan is.

From the Times:

15 Percent of Veterans Report Sexual Trauma to the VA

2008-10-28T13:21:32Z

A study released today by the VA's National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder found that 15 percent of the Iraq/Afghanistan vets seeking treatment at VA facilities report experiencing some kind of sexual trauma while serving in the military. Additionally, these veterans are 1.5 times more likely require mental health care. These numbers are derived from the nearly 40 percent of recent war veterans who've sought general medical care since being discharged from the military. Screening all vets coming through VA medical facilities for sexual trauma is a standard practice.

Here are more statistics referenced in the report [via Reuters and USA Today]:|

Revisiting the Iraq-Syria Border

2008-10-27T16:18:54Z

It's hard to believe much of anything happens along most of Iraq's border with Syria. For hundreds of miles a modest sand berm that marks the dividing line between the two countries snakes through flat desert, with occasional villages or Iraqi Border Police forts providing the only human contact. When I traveled to the border in August to cover U.S. Army troops advising border police units, it seemed these soldiers had a thankless task. They lived at a small outpost with few creature comforts, executing a mission that often involved day-long humvee drives along the border that could be tedious, exhausting, and sometimes downright boring. The nearest city, Mosul, was a roughly 40-minute helicopter ride to the west. The Army combat outpost's close proximity to the border was underscored by the fact that helicopters had to immediately bank left upon takeoff; otherwise, in mere seconds, they would have crossed into Syrian airspace.

Two-Year Anniversary of the Only Missing Iraq War Soldier

2008-10-23T15:11:57Z

Two years ago today Army Specialist Ahmed Kousay al-Taie, a translator and native of Iraq, went missing as he visited his wife's family in Baghdad. He remains the only U.S. soldier still missing in action from the current war in Iraq. The Associated Press provides the latest information on the search for al-Taie:

Vets Compete For Congressional Seats

2008-10-21T17:04:30Z

Earlier this month I took a look at how veterans are getting involved in supporting both sides of the presidential campaign through TV advertisements. With so much attention focused on the national campaigns, it's easy to forget all the Congressional districts throughout the country holding elections. In some of these districts you'll find veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam running for office and, in same cases, against each other. The Associated Press recently took a look at Pennsylvania's eighth district where Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy (the only Iraq vet now serving in Congress) and retired Marine Col. Tom Manion who lost his Marine son in Iraq, are competing.

Manion opposes a specific timeline for troop withdrawal from Iraq, arguing they should be in the country as long as it takes to achieve stability. Murphy, on the other hand, supports drawing up a timetable.

Part of Manion's campaign features short videos profiling his fallen son, 1st Lt. Travis L. Manion. Here is an introductory video:

According to the AP, Manion has drawn some criticism for the videos:

In Campaign Ads, Vets Makes Cases for Both Sides

2008-10-10T14:05:22Z

In blog posts over the past few weeks I've made reference to various campaign ads featuring veterans who support either Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain. They contain powerful imagery and messages: veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, and past wars -- including some who are wounded -- talk about their frontline experiences and deride the opposing candidate for his platforms on Iraq and/or domestic veterans issues. No matter which candidate is being supported in an ad there are common threads that appear as the veterans speak of their service, yet at some point messages divide and the criticism begins.

According to Gallup polls, present and former members of the military historically vote along Republican lines. At the same time various pro-Obama groups are vocal over what they see as McCain's substandard record on veterans issues. Both candidates have count support among veterans. Remember that moment during the first debate when each candidate referenced a bracelet he wore to remember fallen soldiers. The important thing to note here is that while veterans can be seen as a group with a unique shared experience, their views are as widespread and nuanced as that of any American.

Below is a collection of eight video advertisements featuring veterans as they promote their chosen presidential candidate. Watching them all in succession gives an interesting look at how they draw in their combat service as they promote either McCain or Obama.

Pro-McCain/Anti-Obama

Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain

Pro-McCain/Anti-Obama

Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain

Pro-McCain/Anti-Obama

Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain

Pro-McCain/Anti-Obama

Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain