thedrifter
07-10-07, 04:45 AM
Returned Troops Warmly Received
By JESSE HAMILTON
Courant Staff Writer
July 10, 2007
It's the VIP reception, the pre-event for the World Affairs Council of Connecticut's annual dinner Monday night, and Marines, soldiers, airmen and sailors are sampling from the appetizer trays.
They are the honored guests.
Lance corporals and sergeants mingle with congressmen, sharing eggplant at the Hartford Marriott Downtown. When they are asked whether the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have eroded the public's support for those who fight, the answer is quick: No.
The American public may be tired of war, but these Connecticut troops still bask in a warmth hardly known by those who returned from Vietnam decades ago.
It's been a "huge change," says retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, the former U.S. Army chief of staff who was invited to speak at the dinner. It's not the soldiers who have changed, he says. They are the same kind of young people who were coming into the Army back when he got his commission in 1965. It's the culture around them that has changed, Shinseki says.
Those coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq are encountering people who "can't do enough for them." But, Shinseki adds, "There is always more to be done."
First Sgt. Ben Grainger, the chief noncommissioned officer for Plainville's Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, returned in late 2006 from Iraq. Since then, he has watched the people back home grow steadily tired of the war. "But they're still supporting the individual soldiers and Marines." He says it's like the separation of church and state, the way people are dividing their feelings about the military and its civilian leadership.
Even if people he meets in Connecticut seem to want to get out of the war in Iraq, "They aren't holding us responsible."
"People are awesome, supporting the soldiers," says Sgt. Patrick Montes from Glastonbury. He has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the Connecticut Army National Guard's 102nd Infantry, and he says he has seen steady support for the troops.
He just wishes people could see the good that is being done in the war zones, see the 50 miles of new road built where he was stationed in Afghanistan. "Americans are used to quick things," he says, and this is slow work, but work that he believes in.
Lt. Col. Eileen Gillan, from Glastonbury, was a flight surgeon in Iraq earlier this year. It was her second tour in Iraq, and the support that meant so much to her came from those who had to cover her pediatric oncology patients while she was gone. Unlike her first tour, this time she lost friends in a helicopter crash, so when she came home, she needed another kind of support: emotional.
"I think people really took an interest in how I was doing, how I was feeling," she says.
Home safe now, she thinks about those still in Iraq, so she pleads with the public: "Don't forget about them. Just don't forget about them, please."
The veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, numbering a few dozen, were invited as group recipients of the World Affairs Council's Luminary Award, for those who have "profoundly impacted global affairs with an emphasis on the overall betterment of the world." Gen. David Petraeus, commanding general of the forces in Iraq, sent a video message to the event, thanking Connecticut for honoring its troops, "our country's new Greatest Generation."
When the reception ends, and the guests enter the banquet room, those wearing the uniforms spread out among the tables, taking seats alongside their civilian hosts. Dignitaries say kind things about dedication and service. Shinseki, who served as chief of staff from 1999 to 2003, stands to call them "steadfast and loyal." He recalls for them the difficult lessons of Vietnam, witnessing the collapse of a nation into which America had poured so much.
Back then, he says, "Our surge did not work." So, he says, "My hope is that we don't repeat history."
He says of today's warriors: "They deserve our thanks." But he adds again, more can be done.
Thanks can be practical, points out Col. Richard Young, a doctor from Branford. It can be the lowering of flags to honor the fallen. It can be offering jobs to returning veterans, or, like his hospital employer, welcoming them home.
First Sgt. Grainger and a few of his Marines stand outside the banquet room, decked out in dress uniforms, keeping each other company in a knot apart from the dark suits and dresses. But a woman approaches and leans in through the chatter of the evening.
She shakes their hands. Then she says, "Thank you all for your service."
Contact Jesse Hamilton at jhamilton@courant.com.
Ellie
By JESSE HAMILTON
Courant Staff Writer
July 10, 2007
It's the VIP reception, the pre-event for the World Affairs Council of Connecticut's annual dinner Monday night, and Marines, soldiers, airmen and sailors are sampling from the appetizer trays.
They are the honored guests.
Lance corporals and sergeants mingle with congressmen, sharing eggplant at the Hartford Marriott Downtown. When they are asked whether the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have eroded the public's support for those who fight, the answer is quick: No.
The American public may be tired of war, but these Connecticut troops still bask in a warmth hardly known by those who returned from Vietnam decades ago.
It's been a "huge change," says retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, the former U.S. Army chief of staff who was invited to speak at the dinner. It's not the soldiers who have changed, he says. They are the same kind of young people who were coming into the Army back when he got his commission in 1965. It's the culture around them that has changed, Shinseki says.
Those coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq are encountering people who "can't do enough for them." But, Shinseki adds, "There is always more to be done."
First Sgt. Ben Grainger, the chief noncommissioned officer for Plainville's Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, returned in late 2006 from Iraq. Since then, he has watched the people back home grow steadily tired of the war. "But they're still supporting the individual soldiers and Marines." He says it's like the separation of church and state, the way people are dividing their feelings about the military and its civilian leadership.
Even if people he meets in Connecticut seem to want to get out of the war in Iraq, "They aren't holding us responsible."
"People are awesome, supporting the soldiers," says Sgt. Patrick Montes from Glastonbury. He has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the Connecticut Army National Guard's 102nd Infantry, and he says he has seen steady support for the troops.
He just wishes people could see the good that is being done in the war zones, see the 50 miles of new road built where he was stationed in Afghanistan. "Americans are used to quick things," he says, and this is slow work, but work that he believes in.
Lt. Col. Eileen Gillan, from Glastonbury, was a flight surgeon in Iraq earlier this year. It was her second tour in Iraq, and the support that meant so much to her came from those who had to cover her pediatric oncology patients while she was gone. Unlike her first tour, this time she lost friends in a helicopter crash, so when she came home, she needed another kind of support: emotional.
"I think people really took an interest in how I was doing, how I was feeling," she says.
Home safe now, she thinks about those still in Iraq, so she pleads with the public: "Don't forget about them. Just don't forget about them, please."
The veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, numbering a few dozen, were invited as group recipients of the World Affairs Council's Luminary Award, for those who have "profoundly impacted global affairs with an emphasis on the overall betterment of the world." Gen. David Petraeus, commanding general of the forces in Iraq, sent a video message to the event, thanking Connecticut for honoring its troops, "our country's new Greatest Generation."
When the reception ends, and the guests enter the banquet room, those wearing the uniforms spread out among the tables, taking seats alongside their civilian hosts. Dignitaries say kind things about dedication and service. Shinseki, who served as chief of staff from 1999 to 2003, stands to call them "steadfast and loyal." He recalls for them the difficult lessons of Vietnam, witnessing the collapse of a nation into which America had poured so much.
Back then, he says, "Our surge did not work." So, he says, "My hope is that we don't repeat history."
He says of today's warriors: "They deserve our thanks." But he adds again, more can be done.
Thanks can be practical, points out Col. Richard Young, a doctor from Branford. It can be the lowering of flags to honor the fallen. It can be offering jobs to returning veterans, or, like his hospital employer, welcoming them home.
First Sgt. Grainger and a few of his Marines stand outside the banquet room, decked out in dress uniforms, keeping each other company in a knot apart from the dark suits and dresses. But a woman approaches and leans in through the chatter of the evening.
She shakes their hands. Then she says, "Thank you all for your service."
Contact Jesse Hamilton at jhamilton@courant.com.
Ellie