Some of you may have read my previous diaries about my son's tour of duty in Iraq.
The tour is over, with his arriving home on New Year's Eve. My wife and I were there to see him lead his company in to a rousing welcome from family members. He is about to start his 30 day leave, after 10 days of reintegration.
I didn't talk to him a lot over there, as I think he needs time to kick back, get to know his family better, and let things sink in, but I did ask a few broad questions and his thoughts are on the flip side.
One of the questions I asked him was what he thought the long term prospects were for Iraq. His response was short: "Civil war."
He expects major civil war to break out whenever we leave, be it tomorrow, in a year or 10 years.
I asked him about reports that the Kurds have infiltrated the Iraq Army with militia members who are ready to turn on their fellow Iraqi soldiers if given a green light form Kurdish leaders. His response was "that sounds about right."
While there, he received the Bronze Star, which he states just about every officer commanding a company received. After I read the citation I asked him where I should ut it. I won't give the exact response, but it did inidcate the low value he placed on it. He obviously did not feel he had really done anything deserving it.
Finally, the last thing I want to comment on came indirectly from him, through his wife. She, my wife and I were walking through the memorial park at the base where a tree and plaques has been placed for each fallen soldier from the Division. It was somewhat overwhelming, and there will be more planted in March, although the Division is mostly home. The first trees were planted with a lot of space between them. However, as it became more apparent what the number of casualties would be, in order to conserve space, the distance between trees has shrunk.
His wife mentioned how he and a fellow Captain and good friend disagree about what the value of these deaths have been. The other Captain, who is arriving back in the next couple of days, thinks they have all died in vain. My son says that they haven't, they died defending their fellow soldiers.
What is important is what neither one of them say, that they may have died defending our country.
Perhaps down the road, I will sit down with him and talk to him more about what he thinks about Iraq. It is obvious that he thinks on a personal level, we have done some good, but it appears he questions our overall mission in being there.
One final comment. We celebrated christmas on New Year's day. He gave each of his sons a Beanie Baby lamb. He then pointed out that initially soldiers would pass out Beanie Babies to Iraqi children. That practice stopped when they started being thrown at American troops with grenades in them.
I want to thank those who have expressed prayers and best wishes for him in previous diaries. Having him home was the best Christmas present we could have received, even if it was a week late.