RICHARD NYE
Contributing Writer
Editor’s note: 21-year-old Richard Nye left Pepperdine after the 2006 school year. He served in the Army in Iraq from Oct. 3, 2006, until Sep. 26, 2007. He will return to Malibu later this month and start classes again in January as a student with a sophomore standing.
It turns out that the only thing I miss now is being in Iraq. I miss the fight. I miss the camaraderie. I miss the feeling that I was doing something important.
On Sept. 26, I was home for the first time in 408 days. During those days I was training for and then fighting a war in Iraq. Coming home was different than I thought it would be. I wasn’t overly excited to be back. I’m not really sure what I felt, but I know I wasn’t relaxed or happy. I wouldn’t say I was particularly sad, either, but I definitely wasn’t elated to see my family. Seeing my friends from high school felt the same as seeing my family. I should have been excited. I hadn’t seen these people in more than a year while I was dodging bullets. Trying to drive a real car instead of a HMMWV (Humvee) proved extremely difficult. Driving was as awkward as seeing my friends. I’m still trying to get it stuck in my head that I can’t drive more than 40 mph and that the trash on the side of the road isn’t covering up a bomb.
I was talking on the phone with a friend the day after I came home and I remember her saying: “now you’ll need to buy some new clothes so you can look good at the Malibu Inn.” I hadn’t bought new clothes or socks since I left. But that’s the thing. While she was putting on makeup to go the Inn, I was putting on body armor. While she was writing essays about some inconsequential subject she had virtually no interest in for the sake of a grade, I was writing Operations Orders and drawing logistical maps for the sake of safety and practicality, or filling out a casualty card for the soldier in my squad who got hit.
Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to trivialize college education or anyone’s life. And I’m certainly not trying to boast. I’m only trying to explain what it was like for me as a soldier coming home from war.
The real war in Iraq isn’t the one you see on television or read in the papers. There are no politics in the real war. Whether you’re Republican or Democrat or Independent, whether you’re liberal or conservative or moderate, you’re wrong.
For us it was about liberating these people and surviving. When I was taking cover, I never thought about who I was going to vote for in the next election. Or what the latest poll said concerning the American public’s views on the war while applying first aid to a buddy. I did get angry that the war spending bill was being held up in Congress so someone could make a point about bringing us home because he or she knows what’s best for the troops and for the Iraqi people. I asked myself everyday, before every mission “will all these soldiers be standing here with me again tomorrow?” Many days that answer was no.
We take our soldiers for granted in the United States. Supporting soldiers is a fad for many. Many people stopped me in the airport on my way home to thank me for my service and to tell me how much they support me. I was pleasant and thanked them, but I wanted to ask each of them how exactly it is they support the troops?
Do you put a sticker on your car? Do you just say it? That’s like saying you are a Christian but then never going to church and worshipping. How can you say you support the troops when you don’t even take time out to mourn them? When those students at Virginia Tech were tragically murdered I bet Pepperdine lowered its flags to half-mast to mourn them. When was the last time Pepperdine did that for a soldier? Even on post in Baghdad we lowered our flag for the murdered students. Guess what America did for the troops who died that same day? They were forgotten for a day.
I’m not trivializing these Virginia Tech students. The massacre certainly was a tragedy and my heart bled for the families of the victims. But put it into context for the soldiers overseas.
We see death and tragedy every day and the only thing that’s said is either bitching from the Democrats about pulling out because we were lied to, or the Republicans regurgitating about how we must stay the course and that “only” a few thousand troops have died — as if “only” a few thousand makes it ok.
I wish you all could experience war first hand, as perverse as that sounds. I wish you all knew what real life was like outside of your protective bubbles. I wish you all knew what it was really like to sacrifice because then maybe you’d all appreciate what you have a little more. Maybe then you’d appreciate the people around you a little more. Maybe then you could add a little more practicality to your lives. As of Oct. 2, 4,255 American service members have died for their country in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count Web site. What have you done lately?
10-04-2007