Purple-hearted candor
Posted: Friday, September 28, 2007 1:22 PM by Sam Singal
Filed Under:
John Rutherford
By John Rutherford, NBC News producer, Washington
How much strain have extended troop deployments put on American soldiers in Iraq? I asked several Purple Heart recipients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and received a mix of opinions.
"You get a little too familiar with your surroundings, and 15 months to be over there is a long time for a person, and I wish they could come home sooner," Sgt. Jeffrey Wray, 29, of Chesapeake, Va., said. Wray was wounded by a roadside bomb in Tikrit.
Pfc. William Goodman, 23, of Concord, N.C., took a "grit and bear it" attitude to Army deployments being extended from 12 months to 15 months. (Marine deployments remain at seven months.)
"Everybody knows they have to do what they have to do, so you just have to tough it out," he said. "You gotta do your job, that's all." Goodman was injured in an ambush while on patrol in Baghdad.
First Lt. Juan Guerrero, 36, of Miami, who was wounded by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, felt the soldiers' families have had the toughest time with the longer tours.
"The families, because of the length of the deployment, the extended length, they tend to pay a higher price," Guerrero said.
Army Secretary Pete Geren acknowledged the problem but passed the buck to his field commanders.
"We moved from 12-month deployments to 15-month deployments," he told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, "to meet combatant commanders' needs in the field."
Geren made no mention of President Bush, whose decision to order a troop surge triggered the extended deployments in the first place.
Do you have an opinion? If so, we'd like to hear it. Send us your comments.
Video: Army 1st Lt. Juan Guerrero, accompanied by his 9-year-old son, Mark, speaks after being awarded a Purple Heart today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Washington Producer John Rutherford is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He posts a weekly tribute to service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
