Second, Competing, Coherent
By Cori Dauber
I've made the argument before that one of the things unique about this war is that as soldiers return home, even if what they have to say isn't of interest to the national press, it certainly is of interest to their local papers. (via Greyhawk.)
What's different this go-round is that even the smallest weeklies have web sites, so it's possible for us to see that there's a second narrative out there that competes with that of the national press and that is just as coherent and compelling. Had this situation arisen during Desert Storm (one narrative in the national press, individual soldiers contesting that narrative in their local papers) the only way to have figured that out would have been literally to travel from regional library to regional library, and we would have gotten the results in an academic book five years later.
Surviving the test of war
Cliff Newell - 03/16/05 - Western Washington State
forestgrovenewstimes.com
Two Forest Grove natives are back from Iraq, healthy and believing in their cause
Soldiers from the war in Iraq are returning and telling their stories, and two of them have returned to their native Forest Grove in recent days.
Dave Farrin, a lance corporal in the Marines, and James Gibson, a staff sergeant in the Army, have returned much the same young men as when they left, for which their families are tremendously thankful. They have come through the fires of war with their physical health and spirits intact.
They share other important similarities. Both men believe the war has received unfair coverage in the American press. This disappoints them more than it angers them because they believe that the good things accomplished by the USA far outweigh the bad.
As far as the soldiers are concerned, they say the war has overwhelming support.
Kim Farrin, David’s mother, took a photo of him just before he left to serve in Iraq. When looking at it now, she shakes her head.
“He looks like a baby,” she said. “I can’t believe it.”
Farrin has changed from the boy who graduated from Forest Grove High School in 2002 and liked to paint roadsters as a member of the Motor Sports Club. For one thing, his arms are covered with so many tattoos that he looks like the illustrated man.
Yet Farrin came through nine months of combat in some of the Iraq war’s toughest battles, Fallujah and Najof. He seems not just calm but serene.
“David came home like the guy I sent there,” Kim said. “I feel blessed, very blessed.
“I asked him why and he said it was because of the way he was raised. God brought him home safely.”
As far as his own unit went, Farrin felt its mission was accomplished.
“We drove out the insurgents,” he said. “We surrounded the whole city (Fallujah), and they had nowhere to go. For us it went pretty smoothly. Just a few of us got shot and nobody died.”
As for his first time seeing heavy combat, Farrin said, “It was definitely difficult. I had to keep my head in the game and not think about home or anything else.”
Oddly enough, Farrin’s Marine unit was not even originally slated to see combat in Iraq.
But when El Salvador decided to pull out its troops two months early, Farrin’s unit was sent in.
Actually fighting in a war was something many young Americans were not figuring on when they enlisted for military service. That group did not include David Farrin.
“He knew war was possible,” Kim said. “We discussed it. I couldn’t tell him not to do it. But we made sure everything was on the table before he went.”
“I didn’t join just for the college tuition,” Farrin said. “To people like that I say, ‘Why did you join then?’ “
As for experiencing war for the first time, Farrin said, “I was not nervous. We had a lot of training before we left.” And anyway, “a lot of stuff doesn’t bother me.”
What did bother him was the picture of the war given to the American public.
“The people in Iraq love us,” Farrin said. “The people doing the fighting are from outside Iraq. Syria, Turkey, places like that.
“When we would go outside the gate, all the people would come running up to us and say, ‘Mister! Mister! Take my picture!’ They gave us peace signs and thumbs up. They tried to give us food.”
While “news travels real slow” in Iraq, Farrin did not like what he heard.
“They don’t see all the good stuff,” he said. “They just cover the fighting. It was kind of weird. It seemed like they were trying to screw up the military.”
When Farrin came home he got a tattoo. Then he went out for breakfast with his entire platoon, even the Marines who had been wounded and had come out early. He also got a chance to reflect on his countrymen.
“People in the U.S. take everything for granted,” Farrin said. “It’s amazing.”
Coming home has been sweet, but Farrin still faces more service in Iraq. He will likely return sometime between July and December. The prospect does not faze him.
“That’s what I signed up for,” Farrin said.
He figures on coming back for good.
“I’m going to have a lot of stories to tell my kids someday.”
James Gibson
James Gibson and his 3-year-old daughter Tabea have been inseparable during his visit to Forest Grove. Watching her progress in learning to tie her shoes has been fascinating, and he has been taking her to all kinds of interesting places.
“We’re going to the park, shopping and going to the park,” he said.
Gibson was deprived of Tabea’s company for over a year due to his service in Iraq, and a trip to the park certainly beats working in summer heat of 150 degrees. “I can’t explain how that feels in long sleeves” wearing body armor and carrying 55 pounds of ammunition.
Not to mention the bullets, artillery shells and bombs.
“You just soldier on,” Gibson said. “Your training and job overtakes the fear.”
One of the most frightening and fascinating things a human being can experience is encountering war for the first time. Gibson left Forest Grove 10 years ago to make the Army his career, and he has had two previous deployments in Bosnia and Kosovo. But Iraq was his first time in combat.
“Every time I was in a firing engagement it was surreal,” Gibson said. “You would think it was something else, then you would realize what it actually was. Then your training took over. You were reacting before you knew what you were doing. Our unit was very well trained.
“We dealt with a lot of roadside bombs. We were in the middle of the Sunni Triangle on Highway 1, which everyone has heard so much about. There was small arms fire and ambushes.”
But the primary mission for Gibson’s unit was rebuilding the country. It was such a gigantic task that he felt he was sometimes working a 24-hour day.
He said, “Our unit alone spent millions to build schools, irrigation facilities, city council halls, roads, and rebuilding the Iraqi army so they can take over the war. In over a year I didn’t expect them to make half the progress they did. It’s amazing how these guys came in and went about building a better Iraq.”
Gibson’s greatest moment was Jan. 30 – election day in Iraq.
“Watching thousands upon thousands of people coming to vote made it all worthwhile,” he said. “Seeing all those people lined up to vote was amazing.”
It was this day and other days of progress in Iraq that cause Gibson to take issue with coverage of the war.
“I don’t think people back home are getting the full picture,” Gibson said. “There has been a lot of focusing on negatives. We could do 500 missions with the Iraqi army and 499 of them could be successful, and the only thing covered would be the one that went bad.
“People don’t see the new schools opening, the two or three toy and supply drops every month, people getting clean water. This has been a very successful mission. One that 99 percent of the soldiers are supporting. It is being spun like everyone doesn’t want to be there.”
Gibson’s mission in Iraq is over. He has been promoted to platoon sergeant and “my job will be to prepare it for combat and whatever missions are down the pipeline.”
But Iraq will be very much in his thoughts.
“It will be a few more years before Iraq can stand on its feet,” Gibson said. “It’s going to be a slow process, but it’s going to work. Through Iraq, peace is going to spread.
We’re going to see people in the Middle East voting and having a voice.”
Soon Gibson will be returning to Germany to start training his platoon, but his homecoming has been a wonderful time.
“I get to fall in love with my wife (Katrin) again and I get to see my little girl.”
First on his agenda is another trip to the park.
“You really like the slide, don’t you?” he asks Tabea.
“The swing, too,” said Tabea. |
