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Seasoned Vet
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
The story of the war in Iraq can be read in America’s hometown papers
ABOUT ONCE a day the bell tolls and there’s an item on the screen that reads “DoD Identifies Army Casualty,” or “Army Casualties,” or “Navy Casualty” from the war in Iraq.
The news releases are cryptic: a name, a place, a unit, a home town and very, very briefly the cause of death. Thus “Spc. Rafael L. Navea, 34, of Pittsburgh, PA,” died on Aug. 27—just yesterday—in Fallujah when “an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle.” (Typically, an “improvised explosive device” is a couple of artillery shells that are wired together by the Iraqi guerrillas and set off with a remote detonator. The effect is devastating and direct.) Others killed in action have been picked off by snipers or drive-by shooters, grenades and rockets. Two were kidnapped and murdered.
More than half the casualties appear to be accident victims. There are a lot of Humvee and truck crashes. Some soldiers are killed by the ferocious Iraqi heat, and at least two have drowned while trying to cool off in lakes or rivers. Earlier this month, in the span of a week, three Americans in separate locations were reported by DoD to have died in their sleep: “A fellow soldier tried to wake [him] and noticed he was not breathing,” read the line used in all three dispatches. There are several deaths listed merely as “non-combat related” or the result of “a non-combat weapons discharge.” But we don’t know whether the trigger was pulled by mistake or not. None of the DoD press releases uses the word “suicide.” They just say “these incidents are under investigation.”
What’s clear is that as of yesterday, according to the Pentagon’s conservative figures, more American soldiers (140) have died in Iraq since May 1 than were killed in the war that went before (139). I count at least 60 of the 140 shot or killed by shrapnel. Other reporters put the figure closer to 70. The number of wounded, which the DoD does not publish in press releases, is much higher. From May 1 to Aug. 6, when I grilled a military briefer on the question in Baghdad, there were almost 400 Americans so badly wounded in action that they could not return to active duty.
But the statistics don’t really tell you what any of that means. It’s only when hometown reporters seek out the families of the dead that we start to learn something of what these people were like before they were reduced to collective numbers and cryptic press releases.
You find out that Spc. Eric R. Hull, 23, of Uniontown, Pa., who was killed in Baghdad on Aug. 18 while serving with a military police unit, had been married to his wife, Missy, for five years and had two kids: Mia Nicole, who will be 3 next month, and 1-year-old Dominic. Hull wasn’t a professional soldier, or even a cop. He was a cook. He worked as a chef at a Pennsylvania resort, and, according to his mother, “He made the best Alfredo you’ll ever taste.”
You also find out that National Guard units are losing more soldiers in combat than they ever did in Vietnam—because they didn’t have to fight in that draft-era war. Sgt. Bobby C. Franklin, an MP killed in Baghdad last week, was the first member of the North Carolina National Guard to die in action since the 1950s. He left behind a 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter.
Navy Lt. Kylan Jones-Huffman, 31, was born while his father was serving with the Army in Vietnam. He grew up in a bilingual household, speaking German as well as English, and went to the elite York School in Monterey, Calif., before attending the U.S. Naval Academy. He graduated from Annapolis in the class of ’94 and, in 2001, after seven years on active duty, he took a post there teaching courses on the history of the Greeks and the history of the Nazis. He had “an unquenchable curiosity,” his father told the L.A. Times. “He read everything he could get his hands on.” And teaching was his great passion.
After 9/11, Jones-Huffman reportedly started working in counterterrorism with the Navy’s Criminal Investigative Service. As the war with Iraq approached, he went to Bahrain where, among other duties, I’m told he was NAVCENT’s Force Protection Analyst. It was Jones-Huffman’s job to assess the threat against U.S. troops, and that is probably part of what took him to Hillah, south of Baghdad. It’s one of the most dangerous places the U.S. Marines are posted in Iraq. He was also reported to be helping civil-affairs officers try to set up some sort of functioning local government.
A week ago today, Jones-Huffman was riding in an SUV, apparently keeping a low profile, when he got stuck in a traffic jam. According to a military spokesman, a gunman walked up to the car and shot the bright young lieutenant, then fled into the crowd.
I suppose I’m so struck by this particular story because Jones-Huffman reminds me of other smart young officers I’ve known: all that intellectual curiosity and talent mixed with a great sense of patriotism and duty. And also because he’d taken to writing poetry. He started composing haiku while at sea during the 1990s “to counter the intellectual and artistic vacuum of the average Navy wardroom,” he once wrote. The best verse of his that I’ve seen appeared recently in an online journal called The Heron’s Nest:
gaunt children
selling old bayonets—
noonday sun
As I type this, the e-mail chimes on my computer again: “DoD Identifies Army Casualty … Sgt. Gregory A. Belanger, 24, of Narragansett, R.I., was killed on August 27 in Hallia, Iraq. Belanger was in a vehicle when an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle. Belanger died of his injuries.” Impossible not to think of what Wilfred Owen, in World War I, called “the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori.”
© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.
------------------------------------------------------------ Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. ------------------------------------------ 
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Regular Joe
 
Group: Past PNET Supporter
Last Login: 1/18/2006 3:55 PM
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I am deeply saddened to hear all this .....
I appreciate that you told a bit about each soldier's life, such I honor them by remembering who they were... At the same time I am pissed at the way the WAR is being "managed"...IMHO a lot of this could have been avoided with better military planning....The lack of proper post-war planning is a travesty....
Regards
Chris
"... First, were we truly men of courage.... Second, were we truly men of judgment. Third, were we truly men of integrity.... And finally were we truly men of dedication."
President John F. Kennedy
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Masters of Hard Knocks from the University of Gravity
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I say a prayer every day for the safe return of all of our service men and women.
However, I disagree that this war is being mismanaged. What did any of you expect when the majority of the Iraqi forces capitulated and walked away. Did anyone really believe that the 500,000 Bat'h party members would just fade away?
If our military and government had been overthrown here what would you be doing right now?
In all seriousness, the biggest dissapointment I've had in this who mess is that the Iraqi people are not stepping up and taking charge of their own country faster. I believe that for every bad guy out there there are 10 good ones that know who he is but won't do anything about it for fear of reprisal. When you have been cowered for so long it becomes a way of life even when not threatened.
"Si Vis Pacum Para Bellum"
If you want peace prepare for war!
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Trooper
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Once again, The Major is right on.
Its hard to think about it that way, but he is right, if some country came to town, and overthrew our govt, we would be doing the same things, sneak attacks, Guerilla warfare, because its the only way we could fight on semi even ground, they are attacking our weak spots. Sad but true (sorry had to throw in another Metallica song title in here). Its kinda like that Cheesy assed 80s movie Red Dawn, with Charlie sheen and some other 80s stars. The russians invaded and they fled into the woods and conducted sneak guerilla attacks. Movie sucked but the theme was all there.
Psalm 144:1Blessed be the LORD my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight
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Regular Joe
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Things aren't so cut and dry simple and the analogy doesn't apply here...The complexity of pre-war IRAQ and how that was handled is having a major effect right now... They needed the help of insiders like "Gen. Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Tai" ......Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani a former Iraqi general and a principal player in an unsuccessful C.I.A.-backed coup .....Abdul Karim Muhammadawi, a Shiite Muslim guerrilla leader from the south ......
First read up on what went down prior to the Iraq invasion...CIA had turned it back on insiders who were willing to help because war planners elected not to try to keep fomer Iraqi officials around after the war for the new interim govt....
Looking in hindsight, there would have been a smoother transition if some of these officals were worked with...
Regards
CM
"... First, were we truly men of courage.... Second, were we truly men of judgment. Third, were we truly men of integrity.... And finally were we truly men of dedication."
President John F. Kennedy
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Regular Joe
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quote:
Originally posted by merrec
... They needed the help of insiders like "Gen. Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Tai"
This is EXACTLY the SH#T I am refering to about how they could have handled thing better ahead of time instead of waiting till now....
Check this AP news story.....
MOSUL, Iraq - The commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division has promised to treat Saddam Hussein's fugitive defense minister with "utmost dignity and respect" if he surrenders.The offer, made in a letter dated Aug. 28 by Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, was in response to a request by Sultan Hashim Ahmed's family and tribal chiefs that Ahmed's name be removed from America's list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis in return for his surrender. Giving Ahmed special treatment could be an effort to defuse the continuing guerrilla-style attacks taking a heavy toll on American soldiers. Many attackers are thought to be former Iraqi soldiers who melted into the civilian population after Saddam was ousted. Seeing their former military leader treated well by the Americans, such thinking runs, could encourage them to lay down their arms. Also, there were reports before the American-led invasion that Ahmed was actually cooperating with the Americans. That was never confirmed.
"... First, were we truly men of courage.... Second, were we truly men of judgment. Third, were we truly men of integrity.... And finally were we truly men of dedication."
President John F. Kennedy
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