5 Years In Iraq Faculty And Staff Reflect on Families’ Tours of Service on Anniversary
By Katie Kilkenny ’10
News Staff Reporter
The upcoming presidential election and the recent congressional update from David Petraeus, the commanding American officer in Iraq, have sustained the Iraq War as a topic of discussion and concern on campus. Although the actual war may be taking place thousands of miles away, repercussions are being felt across the globe, including at Choate. Several members of the faculty and staff have family who have served or are serving in Iraq. For these members of the Choate community, it is hard to escape the anxiety that accompanies having a loved one serve overseas.
“The media makes it hard,” said Carol Jones, a Sally Hart Lodge employee. “They’re always showing the violence.” Carol Jones has two family members in the Middle East: “I have a cousin in Iraq, and my brother, Michael Dixon, has served in Iraq, and he is currently serving in Afghanistan.”
Another member of the Choate community affected is biology teacher Ian Morris. “My son is a medical specialist with the 101st Airborne, and he’s in Afghanistan right now, having already done a year in Iraq,” said Morris. For Morris, the realization of the dangers in Iraq didn’t come immediately. “When he enlisted for four years, the victory had ‘already been won’ and we thought Iraq was not going to be an issue,” said Mr. Morris. “But this turned out not to be the case, and he was deployed for a year to western Baghdad. The feeling was of continued tension and worry for a whole year. Having a son in Baghdad was like living under the shadow of cancer. You hope everything’s going to be okay, but there’s still that shadow, that who-knows-what, so you never know.”
Reservists have been summoned to battle in record numbers during this conflict. Their use has put pressure on those who were not expecting family reservist members to be called up for duty, much less at the length of tours that have now become standard. “My cousin, John Di Crocco, was in the first war in Iraq, but also served from April to February 2003,” said French teacher Anne Armour. “At that point, he was a reservist and his tours of duty were shorter.” Mrs. Armour remembers how surprising her cousin’s first call to arms was: “We found out sort of suddenly, and there was a flurry of activity of trying to talk to him. [For this war] we weren’t as surprised, and we talked ourselves into thinking that it was less dangerous because he was in the reserve. But I remember watching the bombing of Baghdad in Nichols and being horrified.”
Mailroom worker John Zebora also has family ties to the war: “My son, David, is serving for his fourth time overseas, but his third time in Iraq. He’s been in the army for twenty-one years.”
Facilities Services Assistant Mary Vance’s son has served in multiple foreign countries: “My son—his name is master sergeant Mark Hennessey—has been to Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Germany,” she says. For families with members in the army over a long period of time, the inevitable tours of service are difficult. “When [my son] first went out of the country to Germany, I dropped him off at the airport and got really emotional because I remembered how my brother had died in combat in Vietnam,” said Mrs. Vance. “The only thing that kept me going was prayers and my faith.”
Despite all of the bad press and public opposition to the war, family members of soldiers say they have several reasons to be proud. Jones said that when she discovered her brother was deployed to Iraq, “I was terrified, absolutely terrified. But at the same time, I also felt very proud. I may not agree with the cause [of the war], but I know my brother’s purpose in joining the military was to protect and serve, and that’s what he’s doing in Iraq.”
Teenagers in an age of an all-volunteer force find it difficult to understand the horrors and complexity of war. Some members of the faculty believe that Choate students aren’t aware of how difficult life is as a soldier. Armour said, “I guess I feel like the Choate student body is like a lot of America in that they don’t know how horrible it is over there until you’re there, and I’m glad of that. Students either think it’s glorious to go to war as a soldier, or that it’s somebody else’s job.”
Mr. Morris believes students are for the most part uneducated about the war. “In general, students don’t watch the daily news. They either don’t have the opportunity or the interest. We tend to hang on to this little Choate community, isolated by classes, SATs, APs, dorms, and athletics, so that the rest of the world disappears into the background. Typically, teenagers are the center of the earth, but that’s normal.”
Some believe that unless a student has family at war in a foreign country, they are oblivious to how devastating war can be. Vance said, “I think to some extent, unless [students] have someone close to them that is [serving], they don’t understand the danger. If you are the family of a soldier, every time you listen to the news, you worry about those who are killed.” Mr. Zebora echoed these thoughts: “I don’t think students are extremely aware, [the war] doesn’t seem to affect them. It doesn’t affect most Americans.”
Consciousness of the war is the first step for students who wish to help. Vance said that for high school students to be of assistance, “I think that unless students are eighteen or over, they can only really be aware.” Some in the Choate community believe that programs should be incorporated into daily life to inform students about the war. Mr. Morris said, “I think programs in which the awareness is on a daily basis are more painful, but more valuable.” Mr. Zebora said, “To help, just be aware of how many casualties are coming out of Iraq, try to get us out of this thing.”
“I think that everyone should educate themselves as to what their government is doing, not just at home, but abroad,” said Jones. “Especially with the election coming up, new voters should educate themselves about this war.” Armour offered relatively easy suggestions for aiding American soldiers: “I think students should take the lesson Americans learned in the Vietnam War, sending care packages over there. I know my cousin asked for baby wipes, because it was the only way to get the sand off your body. Also, I don’t know if students could do anything about it, but know how hard it is for soldiers to come back to regular life after the pervasive effect of serving in the military. It’s always good to be thinking ‘maybe there’s a little something I could do.’”
“I try not to discuss the war, even with my family,” said Mrs. Jones. “Whether or not we agree as to why America is in Iraq, we are there. I don’t support the war, but I know my brother is making a difference in other people’s lives, and that makes me proud. A lot of people like to put this war in black and white terms, but it’s not.”
Soldiers stationed in Baghdad patrol during a tour of the city. Contributed PHOTO
