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SUSAN ASCHOFFTwo veterans back from Iraq create a Web site so soldiers can share their experiences directly with the American public.
Every soldier has a story.
Infantry platoon leader Paul Rieckhoff volunteered for Iraq and sped across the desert to Baghdad in March 2003 with the 3rd Infantry Division.
He has stories. He can tell how he kicked down doors in raids and helped keep order in gas station lines. How it feels to be squatting over a latrine when the power cuts out. Again.
Army Capt. David Chasteen also arrived in Iraq with the invasion. A chemical and biological war specialist, his job was to analyze the potential threat from chemical weapons and train troops how to respond.
One of his stories is about another kind of weapon. His unit used cluster bombs, a missile that disburses hundreds of "bomblets," many of which fail to explode upon impact. The bomblets are the size of baseballs, shiny, with brightly colored tassels. He tells how his commander's face "went white" when he heard about Iraqi children losing limbs, and their lives, playing with the unexploded bombs. "His first child was born while we were in Iraq." The soldiers worked with clerics to paste posters warning of the danger.
When Rieckhoff and Chasteen returned home, they were surprised by how few soldiers were telling stories. No one was talking about the war - not about what it is like on the ground. There was more media coverage of Sen. John Kerry's swiftboat than Najaf.
So for a war in which many soldiers pack laptops, they launched a Web site on Aug. 24 called Operation Truth at www.optruth.org It invites soldiers to post stories and photographs, questions and complaints. Operation Truth is nonprofit and nonpartisan, its founders say. Its arrival during a presidential election will undoubtedly make it political, they agree.
"We want to see candidates address issues important to vets. We're not just going to take scraps from the political table," says Rieckhoff, 29, a former Army lieutenant and National Guardsman.
"I think most of the American public is shut out right now. You've seen a dramatic pullback of press in Iraq, and those that are left don't leave the compounds," he says.
"The only ones who know are the ones who were there."
One posting on the Web site is from a soldier bored with guard duty in a tower in Mosul. Multiple gunshots ring out, and he worries about an attack until he learns that elated Iraqis are firing into the air because their Olympic soccer team is up 1-0.
Another writes of being one of the few soldiers equipped with body armor when his company landed in May 2003. His mother, an elementary school art teacher, shipped the bulletproof ceramic plates from the United States.
Several attempt to discern friend from foe, finding them one and the same:
Today we drove around somewhere to do something. All of us in the back of the vehicle brought a book to read during this ride. I brought George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. Our combat medic brought a thick-a- book called the History of Western Philosophy and the other two brought a George Carlin book and a paperback vampire ghosts and goblins Anne Rice novel. . . . We were driving around slowly (in Mosul). And we were being followed by literally hundreds of little kids, they were hooting and hollering, clapping and saying stuff in Arabic. My AG (adjutant general) looks over at me and says, "Watch this." And then he starts chanting: "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!". . . . All these little kids started chanting U-S-A. Over and over again, each time a little louder. We were both laughing until I saw the reaction on the older people's faces. They didn't look too thrilled about that. I said, "Dude, that's not cool! Make them stop yelling that s--!" But it was too late. Next thing you know I saw an older lady wearing all black pick up a rock and throw it at us, which of course started a huge chain reaction of rock throwing. We got out of that neighborhood in a hurry after that. Lesson learned.
- CBFTW, who is stationed in Iraq
Rieckhoff enlisted in 1998 after college. He works in investment banking. He is taking a year off from Wall Street and using his own credit card to build Operation Truth. He has $5,000 seed money from a veterans group, loyal volunteers and an advisory board that includes former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.
He wants the presidential campaigns to drop the "pointless debate and posturing" about Vietnam and Purple Hearts and give their full attention to men and women in uniform today.
"I'd love for people to be talking about the VA closings, lack of funding for National Guard and reserves," he says.
During his year in Iraq, Rieckhoff and the three dozen soldiers assigned to his platoon repaired damaged school buildings but patrolled streets so littered with debris an explosive could hide anywhere, a "360-degree threat environment."
"Everybody who crosses the border is at risk, whether you're a cook or a truck driver or a medic."
My squad was called to a suspected IED (Improvised Explosive Device) that was spanning a bridge near the mosque that we called "the evil mosque." Turned out it was just some wires that were tied into the street lights so the Iraqi family or families could get electricity into their home. So we continued our patrol. The traffic was backed up due to four lanes turning to two lanes. We were stuck - like rush hour in NYC. People were looking at us and kids were waving. . . . A bomb went off in front of my M998. Blood sprayed my goggles and Kevlar helmet. At first I thought that my driver was hit and checked to see. To my surprise it was MY OWN blood! . . . Later, the guys from my squad said they had to hit two Iraqi vendor stands to get us back to our battalion compound.
- Spec. Zach Petersen, National Guard
The public needs to appreciate the price of war, says Chasteen, 26. "It's expensive in human capital and the pain suffered by Americans and by the Iraqis."
Chasteen, who is from Muncie, Ind., and lives in Washington, D.C., finished his Army service in May. He works as a financial adviser. He is a registered Republican who voted for Bush. He comes from a family of soldiers: His dad was in the Marines and his mother, a nurse, just volunteered for deployment with the Air Force Reserves.
He says he felt betrayed by the politics of the war before the invasion began.
"I saw the intelligence and all the analysis. I saw that Iraq almost certainly had some kind of WMD, probably chemical, but that they were not a threat to the United States," he says. "It was very frustrating for me to sit there with that knowledge, knowing some of us weren't coming back."
Chasteen was in Iraq almost six months.
"We were so sick of sand."
Some soldiers contend the troops should pull out because the Iraqi people are ungrateful, Chasteen says. Soldiers who've been there know better. There are many Iraqis who support the war but are "very, very frustrated" by the chaos and powerlessness of their lives.
He talks about the kids and the cluster bombs. "We care about those kids - there's a lot of fathers in the Army. Despite the very best that you do, you still kill thousands of people. It's war."
Some who post stories on the Web site say they want their experiences to help the public and elected officials make good decisions about this war, and wars in the future.
(I) am currently serving in Iraq for the third time. I was chosen from my unit in March of '03 as a casualty replacement. I was attached to 3rd Infantry three days before the ground war started. I went home . . . around July 7th and then on July 26th was alerted to go to Iraq for a year. On Sept. 10th we left for Iraq. About 30 days later I was sent home. I was home for almost three months when I was informed, about 20 days before my terminal leave date, that stop-loss was in effect and I was going to have to go back to Iraq. I have been here since the end of January. I am not . . . trying to undermine my chain of command. I am just telling my story.
- Spec. Hannegan
Stop-loss, instituted by the Pentagon during the war, prevents soldiers from leaving the service when their enlistment period ends and often means a return trip to the Middle East.
Many Iraqi vets are still on active duty.
"That's a lot of the reason the conversation is quiet," Chasteen says.
"We're trying to get active duty guys involved: Don't blast the administration, just tell what's going on on the ground."
This is from a letter I wrote to my girlfriend, spring of 2003. Today we are in a new camp . . . a huge motor-pool type compound sandwiched between a festering ship port and a looming oil refinery. The British have nicknamed it "Camp Cancer" due to all the chemicals that are saturating the air around us. Dozens and dozens of tanks, Bradleys, fuel trucks, ambulances, all shifting and shuffling on a putrid swath of desert. 110 degrees today. My guys are basically bodyguards for some really expensive missile systems. We are the only infantry unit around here. . . . They are timid around us - we lurk, growl, scratch and snort, like only grunts do. Miss you intensely. Hope you are finding beauty every day - I will promise you that I'll do the same here.
- Blue6
"The one thing people have to understand is that soldiers are doing their job. It's up to politicians to decide when and where, and the soldiers will do their job," says Rieckhoff.
"Their job is to get each other home alive."
But already many who have served say this war is like the one in Vietnam: an elusive enemy and an ill-defined goal, a public distanced from the hardships.
"I feel like a year from now," Chasteen says, "I'm going to be telling people I was in Iraq, and they're going to say, "What's that?'
"You know. The war."
- Susan Aschoff can be reached at 727 892-2293 or aschoff@sptimes.com