Entertainment, Books - Air Force Times

Oral history of Iraq vets weaves tales of courage, sacrifice

Readers who want a firsthand look at what is happening in Iraq have been rewarded with a handful of memoirs by war fighters.

Now, more Iraq veterans’ stories are being told, thanks to interviews conducted and edited by Canadian journalist Trish Wood.

Collectively, the 40 first-person stories by 29 service members in “What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It” are a chronology of the war. Each voice is distinctive.

Together, the voices are both devastating and inspiring. Unwittingly, this band of oral historians shares a theme: Human beings are doing extraordinary things and learning life-changing truths.

The words are often provocative, occasionally harrowing, always understated and sometimes political. But as Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation founder Bobby Muller notes in his introduction, “this is not an antiwar book or a prowar book. It is a book of stories about people who have been in combat. We must have the courage to listen.”

Courage? Yes. Some readers might flinch at some of the vernacular of combat. These service members speak for themselves and in their language. After her preface, the author stays out of the way.

There is “heroism in telling the unvarnished truth about war, and if there were an award for that, I would bestow it on every person in this book,” Wood writes.

After reading these chilling, emotional, insightful accounts, you will want to help Wood award the medals.

Here are some of the veterans’ accounts:

• “I saw the crewmen who were on fire but still moving. They were hanging out of the hatches or maybe trying to climb out, and the men that were in the back were falling out, and they were on fire.” — Justin LeHew, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, March-June 2003.

• “I would have to rate my war experience as 10. I thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and I think about all the people that live day to day and never do anything significant.” — Mario “Mick” Mihaucich, tank gunner, “Crazy Horse” Troop, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, March-August 2003.

• “We are supposed to be training, but there are no guidelines about what kind of training we needed for the situation we were going into. ... So we made our own plan.” Jonathan Powers, 1st Armor Division, “Gunner Palace,” Baghdad, May 2003-July 2004.

• “The war wasn’t over by any means at this point, even though a few days after we got there President Bush said it was over — major combat operations anyway. On the day the president said that, we had our first major firefight.” — Powers.

• “I was on the other end of the radio when [Sgt. 1st Class Marvin Lee] Miller got hit. … Four kids, six months out from retirement. They had stop-lossed him.” — Joseph Hatcher, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, February 2004-March 2005.

• “I love it. I love the fight. … When it actually happens, for those few brief seconds, it’s — honest, it’s clean. There’s no politics involved when it actually happens, when it comes down to you having to exchange rounds with someone.

“There’s no lies there, there’s no propaganda, there’s no nonsense. It’s just the endorphins and the adrenaline and the knowledge that everything can change real quick if you don’t act immediately.” — Hatcher.

• “E-mail was weird. I don’t know if I was the only one who felt the burden of having to communicate on a daily basis when the same terrible s--t was just going to be going on again. ... It’s hard to maintain the exterior of being calm and collected while the entire time you’re just being torn apart.” — Hatcher.

• “At the end of the day you feel more like a murderer than a soldier. It’s almost like assassination. I don’t know what was going through that man’s mind other than a bullet.” — Garett Reppenhagen, 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor, 1st Infantry Division, Baquba, February 2004-February 2005.

• “In the end, pride and sense of accomplishment stick with us, but so does a real sense of anger over the dichotomy of the Iraqi people.” — Seth Moulton, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Najaf, May 2004-October 2005.

• “Once I pulled my left leg up I actually saw that my left foot had actually turned completely all the way around. It was facing the other direction. When I saw it I knew that I had already lost that foot.” — Adrian Jones, 2nd Marine Division, wounded in action, Ramadi.

• “I’ve been to Normandy. I’ve been to Flanders Fields. I’ve been to all these places. The soldiers are dead. They’re dead. But this is an injury war. This is not so much a death war. ... If people understood that it is a war about catastrophically wounded young people, then maybe they’ll appreciate what these kids really did for them and for their country.” — Earl T. Hecker, surgeon, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, May-October 2004.

What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It. By Trish Wood. Little, Brown and Co. 310 pages. $25.99.

J. Ford Huffman writes for USA Today.