In today's Rocky Mountain News is story written by columnist Bill Johnson (excerpted below).
This poignant account of a soldier's repeated and extended deployments into the civil war zone and the continuing Amercan occupation of Iraq -- is why good people still gather every Saturday to support an end to this war.
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Link: Soldier Puts on Brave Face But Feels 'Used Up, Worn Out' | Bill Johnson/Rocky Mountain News
You could tell, just from the sound of her voice, that her heart was in a million pieces. For the fifth time, counting leave, she had just seen her boy off, on his way to Baghdad.
"He's doing fine," Judy Macy said of her son, Frank, 21, an Army specialist with the 2nd Infantry Division out of Fort Carson. "He's resigned to going back."
Her son did not have clearance from his commander to speak to someone from the press. So Judy Macy and I chatted for a while.
It is the thing of this war, more and more, that mothers, sisters and wives call, their frustration near the breaking point over their loved ones' repeated deployments overseas, how they step in for the soldiers who won't speak out. ...
... in August 2004, his unit first shipped out for Iraq.
He served in what then was the roughest, deadliest sector of the country, the insurgent-filled ground between Ramadi and Fallujah.
Assigned as a gunner atop a Humvee, Frank rotated home in July 2005. He never relayed stories of the war to his mother.
But he was different when he came home that first time, Judy Macy recalled, no longer the 18-year-old boy who had gone away a year earlier.
Still, he was proud of his service, glad he had served his country. Besides, he would be home for at least another 14 months, and with his enlistment scheduled to end shortly after that, well, maybe he would avoid a second deployment.
Six months ago, on schedule, the 2nd was redeployed to Iraq; Frank, his enlistment scheduled to run out last February, was stop-lossed, or denied departure from the Army.
Once again assigned to his Humvee turret, he now patrols the Doura district in Baghdad.
He had arrived home two weeks ago on leave. The thing she noticed this time, Judy Macy said, was the bitterness he carried. ...
... He was at home when the secretary of Defense announced that all soldiers currently deployed to Iraq would be extended to 15 months in country, rather than the customary year, as part of the military's "surge" in Iraq.
Rather than returning home in late September, Frank would not be coming home until January of next year.
"He was devastated and demoralized, in a nutshell," Judy Macy said of her son, who she said finally opened up to her.
"He told me how he and others in his unit feel exploited, that they are being used up and worn out." ...
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