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thedrifter
11-21-05, 06:00 AM
November 21, 2005
The Troops
Among Those at War, Morale Remains Strong, for Now
By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 - In the tumultuous debate over renewed calls for a withdrawal from Iraq, each side argues that it stands shoulder to shoulder with the troops in the field and that the other side's approach is undermining military morale.

Those who favor an early withdrawal say the endless deployments and the mounting casualties are wreaking havoc on the armed forces. Those who want to stay the course say that talking about pulling out undermines the people making sacrifices.

"Put yourself in the shoes of the American soldiers who are losing lives and losing limbs and believe that it is a noble cause - which it is - believe they are making progress, believe we will prevail," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday on the ABC program "This Week."

Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, the Democrat whose call for an early withdrawal sparked the debate, said his loyalty also lay with the troops.

"It breaks my heart when I go out there and see these kids," Mr. Murtha, a combat veteran, said on the NBC program "Meet the Press." "I see wives who can't look at their husbands because they've been so disfigured. I saw a young fellow that was paralyzed from the neck down, and his three children were standing there crying with his wife and his mother."

But in interviews conducted by The New York Times in recent months with more than 200 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines stationed around the world, the sense emerged that the war had not broken the military - but that civilian leaders should not think for a moment that that could not happen.

Cpl. Michael Meade is a member of a Marine Corps Reserve unit from Ohio that lost 14 members in a single day last August. Interviewed at the Al Asad airfield in western Iraq as his tour neared its end, Corporal Meade said: "I'm ready to leave Iraq. But that doesn't mean I've decided to leave the corps."

Maj. Adam R. McKeown, a Marine Corps reservist with the Sixth Communications Battalion deployed to Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, expressed his ambivalence with an allusion to Shakespeare, a subject he teaches at Adelphi University.

"The global war on terror is 'drinking deep' in terms of morale," Major McKeown said, referring to a line from "Henry IV, Part 1."

"Especially right now, I think the armed forces need good leaders who have served and continue to serve, and to step up and lead," he added. "But I can't forget that there are only so many times you can leave your civilian job and still have that job to return to."

While an overwhelming majority of those interviewed said their units had high morale and understood their mission, they expressed frustrations about long and repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those deployments present the most significant problem for these troops, who were interviewed during a military correspondent's travels in the war zone and around the world.

Even among those who have done tours in Iraq, most soldiers who were interviewed said they were willing to wait and see, at least through another yearlong rotation, before passing judgment. The December vote on a new Iraqi government and efforts to train local security forces offer at least the prospect of reductions in the American force by next summer.

But few wanted to talk about what would happen if, come next year or especially the year beyond, the military commitment to Iraq remained undiminished.

A growing percentage of ground troops are in Iraq or Afghanistan for a second or third tour. The Third Infantry Division, which led the drive to Baghdad in 2003, returned to Iraq this year with 65 percent of its troops having served previous tours.

Many of those returning to the combat zone said the latest tours were different. Bases in Iraq and Afghanistan show the money spent on infrastructure and recreation facilities. The hot food, air-conditioning, Internet facilities and giant gymnasium offered at major bases bolster morale in ways that may not be wholly understood by someone who has not just come off a dusty, dangerous patrol.

Staff Sgt. Joshua Wannemacher dropped into northern Iraq with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in the largest military parachute mission since World War II, and he is now in the combat zone in Afghanistan. He has been in the Army for 10 years, and plans to stay for his full 20.

"When I jumped into northern Iraq, it was wet and cold and we had nothing - nothing!" Sergeant Wannemacher said in an interview at the American base at Kandahar. "The best part here is how after a patrol, I can go to the phone center. Every soldier gets 15 minutes, free, to call home every day."

Soldiers and officers point out that stress on the force is hardly uniform overseas.

Military personnel based across Europe or in Japan, for example, said they enjoyed quality schools, medical services, child care and a standard of living that they could not maintain at home - all strong arguments for continued service.

Even among those assigned to duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to the chain of support bases strung across allied territory around the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, the stresses are uneven.

The Army requires yearlong assignments in the war zone - and many of those have been extended - and the Marine Corps deploys for seven months. In contrast, Air Force personnel serve 120-day tours in the region, and the Navy routinely sends its ships on six-month sea duty.

"The family can deal with my being gone four months," said Staff Sgt. Michael Marshall, on a rotation to Kuwait from Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. "It would be different if they knew I would be gone for a year out of every three, like the Army."

Men and women in uniform - hunting insurgents in the desolate reaches of western Iraq, standing watch near the demilitarized zone separating South from North Korea, patrolling Balkan villages, launching fighters off a sizzling carrier deck in the Persian Gulf - say they believe continued service is important.

"I spent 15 months in Iraq with the First Armored Division, but there was never any doubt that I would re-enlist," said Sgt. Shannan W. Muench, who has been in the Army for five years and now serves in military intelligence.

The secret to keeping experienced personnel, she said, is obvious: offer rewarding career opportunities.

For Sergeant Muench, the sting of having to stay in Baghdad for an extra three months on top of her yearlong deployment was removed when she was offered a position with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, where she can use her Russian skills.

"I'm 30, and I'm financially set up for life," she said. "And I enjoy what I do."

One indicator that military morale remains strong is the numbers of those who re-enlist while deployed.

"Our retention numbers are so high that it's almost bizarre," Rear Adm. Pete Daly, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11, said aboard the Nimitz while under way in the Persian Gulf.

Perhaps it is because, as many service members said, decisions about whether to continue with the military life are made not on the basis of what Congress or the president says, but out of the bond of loyalty they have come to share with their comrades in arms.

That does not help the military much when it comes to attracting new recruits. Troublesome questions about the cause in Iraq may be felt more severely among would-be troops than among those already in the military.

Many in uniform say it is the job of the nation's political leaders to communicate the importance of the mission and the need for national sacrifice to a new generation of soldiers.

Ellie