Tuesday night in 180 PLC, a panel of seven young men, some of them University students, sat at the front of the lecture hall discussing current events, the U.S. president's strategies in international affairs and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few of them spoke quietly, heads cocked toward the floor. All seven were Iraq war veterans.
The University has hundreds of war veterans on campus. They're the men or women who sit in the corner, in the seat right by the door, the panelists said.
Amber Lippel, assistant director for the organization that hosted the event, the Veterans and Family Student Association (VFSA), asked the panel a series of questions.
When she asked the group of veterans how much interaction they'd had with civilians, the range of answers was vast.
"It was mostly Arabic people that didn't want us to be there. At least where I was staying," said veteran Mike Mason. "The Kurdish people loved us for being there because they couldn't own a house, couldn't own a business. If they did live in a house, an Arab family could walk in and say 'we want this house' and basically kick them out. And those people (Kurdish) loved us for it." He continued to describe how receptive the Kurdish people were.
"The ones who really didn't want me there were shooting at me," said Aaron Cochran, another veteran and founder of the VFSA, in a stern voice. "And I was shooting back at them."
Veteran Jeremy Coombs said the Kuwaitis "didn't like us much."
When talking about the children he encountered, he slowed down his commentary and a slight smile that revealed a hint of longing spread across his face. "The little kids, they were the neatest things on the earth. They'd follow you and look up to you. It depended on where you were, too," Coombs said. "If you were in a Shia neighborhood, they'd say, 'Yeah, good job.' If you were in a Sunni neighborhood they'd say, 'What the hell are you doing here?'"
After several more anecdotes, he concluded "I had a good experience with the civilians. Good and bad. Some shot at us and some brought us Pepsi."
Lippel proctored the discussion further. She asked the panel what kept their morale up the most. The answer was unanimous among the men: mail.
"The first letter I got was April eighth from my sister, (while I was) staying at a station in Baghdad. She sent it in December," said Coombs, chuckling.
He also said his unit's interpreter kept his morale up. "We called him "Chicago" because he knew three cities in the U.S. and he always talked about Chicago. He was pretty good for us."
Another significant question challenged the panelists to analyze why reintegrating themselves back into American society was so painful and difficult. The answers, given in softer voices with eyes searching around the room to find the right words, prompted some angry emotions as they recapped what went wrong.
"Reintegration was three hours a day and the rest of the day was done by drinking," Mike Mason remembered. Composing his thoughts, he added, "The hardest thing about reintegration in itself was not only getting out of the military but coming back to the United States. Everything was different."
Veteran Jake Courtright said "The big difference is that I wasn't the same person that everybody was used to. I used to be pretty funny and now I'm not very funny."
Coombs mirrored his fellow veterans' frustration, saying "I still don't think I'm reintegrated. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I was still there, with my unit." He continued, "I loved my job. I loved being in the infantry."
Back in the States, Coombs said: "Every time I started to feel something, I'd go into marine mode. Push it down, don't let it bother me, I don't feel anything." But he said this didn't always work. He then proceeded to tell the audience that a television commercial featuring something as simple as a child tying her shoe could make him cry.
He said it's hard talking with friends now because they ask a lot of the same, typical questions, such as, "How many people did you kill?" or, "Did you get to blow a lot of things up?" or even, "How was Baghdad?"
Veteran Kevin O'Neil said, "I have a lot of anger issues now, a lot of emotion I didn't have before I went to war." He said it's hard to admit there's something wrong. "I recently had a class on Shakespeare. And out of nowhere the teacher starts comparing Othello to Iraq… You're very sensitive to things like that now. It's a daily challenge."
In terms of coming back to school after fighting in the war, nearly all of the men agreed it was nearly impossible. These men had trouble following the orderly structure that was now so important in their daily lives. Finding the motivation to pull through a term, to find classes they considered worthwhile, to find reason in even acquiring a college degree proved ineffective.
When asked about the current situation in Iraq, nearly every man on the panel agreed that sending 20,000 more troops would not help. They also agreed that they had not voted for George W. Bush in the presidential election.
"No, (sending more troops) is not going to work," O'Neil said, "but Bush is going to do it anyway. He's just that type of president... And I think, personally, since he's going to do it anyway, I think the people of the United States should at least demand that two of those 20,000 be the Bush twins."
Kane Kim, the director of the VFSA, ended the night and thanked the panelists for openly sharing their views. He continued to state that the organization is open to anyone who wishes to support the veterans.
University sophomore Erin Grady attended the lecture. She was impressed with the hard-hitting issues the panel discussed.
"I loved it," she said, "I thought it was a really cool thing. I hope they keep doing it," Grady said she didn't understand the issues and situations that define the war in Iraq before the event, but the panelists "gave me a visual picture."
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