A young girl in an orange headscarf sheepishly avoids the camera’s lens while an adolescent boy in sand-colored garb hovers over a smiling U.S. soldier. This scene captured in a single photograph one morning in April 2007 greets senior Brandon Lee each time he picks up his cell phone.
The familiar faces from a far away place quickly draw him back to the desert back to the war back to Iraq – where Sergeant Lee served 13 months as an Army combat medic before attending Pepperdine.
Lee28 transferred to Pepperdine in January and will graduate in December 2009.
On Tuesday the country honored the service of Lee and other U.S. military personnel with Veterans Day observances nationwide.
Senior Ryan Sawtelle president of College Republicans spoke at a Veterans Day ceremony at Malibu City Hall.
“There are a lot of people from our generation who really do honor our military more than is portrayed in the media and we are willing to stand for those who stand for us Sawtelle told a room of at least 140 people at the ceremony. Junior Christopher Garcia, vice president of College Republicans, also spoke at the program.
The Malibu ceremony featured musical tributes from students at Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church and speeches by Mayor Pamela Conley-Ulich and officers from several military branches.
At Pepperdine, although the university held classes, the athletics department offered a halftime tribute to Pepperdine’s veterans at the men’s basketball game against San Diego Christian. Along with the basketball game, the College Republicans observed the holiday by placing mini American flags in every student’s mailbox. Attached to the flags was a message that sparked controversy among some students.
Sophomore Sarah Chevallier said she felt the note taped to the flags attacked her personal beliefs as a pacifist. The note quoted John Stuart Mill, saying that a person who will fight for nothing is a miserable creature.”
“I feel that [College Republicans] was suggesting because I [am a pacifist] I for some reason am not as dedicated to the principles that America stands for and that I am an inherently selfish person Chevallier said. I thought they really should be using the money [they spent on the flags] to donate to a veterans’ fund … rather than broadcasting such a potentially sensitive opinion.”
Of course this day was not about College Republicans or mini flags in student mailboxes. It was about veterans and active-duty military men and women and it holds a special significance to the soldiers on Pepperdine’s campus.
Sergeant Richard Nye a Pepperdine senior took the day off from his classes Tuesday to attend a Veterans Day ceremony with his unit in Westwood. Nye returned from Iraq in September 2007 after serving there for more than a year with the 678th Military Police Battalion.
Nye left Pepperdine to enlist in the service in 2006 but while he was abroad he enrolled in directed studies courses with several Pepperdine professors so he could continue to work toward his political science degree.
The university and the professors were extremely flexible with his situation Nye said.
“I got extensions on all my classes just because it was hard to find time while I was over there to get everything done he said. Pepperdine helped him with more than just classes, though. The university from a morale standpoint was really supportive of me Nye said. Dr. Benton – he and his wife sent me care packages and Dr. Caldwell wrote me every week or two at least an e-mail just to make sure I was okay.”
However Lee said his transition was often made harder by Pepperdine officials who did not have veteran-specific programs in place to help.
“There is nothing for veterans here he said. It’s okay we get treated the same as other students but my situation is happening a lot nowadays because we are in war.”
Lee said he thinks Pepperdine is not ready for an influx of veterans returning from the war zone.
Today Lee spends his time studying sports medicine and training with his ROTC unit each morning at UCLA. But his days at Pepperdine are numbered; when he graduates next December he is contracted to return to the Army as a second lieutenant. His road to the military and to Pepperdine has been rocky but always fueled by love of country and a desire to serve in the medical field.
“I started considering after Sept. 11 joining the military Lee said.
Instead he tried college first, but when several doors appeared to close, he enlisted as an Army medical specialist in 2005. His unit deployed to Iraq about nine months after he joined.
[In Iraq] I was taking care of detainees’ healthcare … working clinic level so I was providing coalition force healthcare and immunizations Lee said.
However, his day-to-day job was never that simple. Some days he traveled with the convoys on missions and others he spent in surgery. Some days he would rather not remember.
One bad day we got a rocket in Chow Hall (the cafeteria) and it was 200 to 300 casualties he said.
It was his day off, so Lee was up watching movies and about to go to bed and then there were sounds like ‘Boom boom!’ And the sirens started ringing ‘All medical personnel'” he said. “At the hospital – everywhere filled with blood – 300 patients. Some people died – craziest day.”
Upon returning to the states last December Lee said his transition from the combat zone to the Pepperdine bubble wasn’t exactly smooth.
“Last semester I was lonely I was depressed he said. Even though I was dreaming Malibu Pepperdinethe entire year in Iraq I was crossing out the dates – 300 days to go to Pepperdine 200 days 100 days 50 days … But a few months later I was thinking ‘I don’t think I belong at Pepperdine I think I made the wrong choice.’ I even missed Iraq. I hated Iraq when I was there and I was starting to miss my battle buddies my unit.”
Though he said he is happier at Pepperdine this fall he said he was shocked to find that the university held classes on Veterans Day.
“I’m very disappointed that we don’t even observe the Veterans Day or at least have a [University] ceremony he said.