thedrifter
04-09-08, 05:38 AM
Bringing hope home: Sparta lieutenant colonel says Iraq violence is down
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
By SETH AUGENSTEIN
saugenstein@njherald.com
SPARTA — Ralph Dengler returned home from Iraq last week with hope in tow.
Dengler, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marines' 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiment, finished 10 months in Iraq as an adviser on a 15-person U.S. Marine Reserve team training the Iraqi army as it prepares to take over the security of the country. It was his second tour of Iraq since the 2003 invasion, but this latest trip was markedly different than his first.
The violent situation in Iraq has improved, and there is possibility in the future of the country, he said.
"It's not just looking through rose-colored sunglasses," Dengler said.
He said he "did the standard grunt thing" during the Persian Gulf War in 1990, clearing a path for tanks through Kuwaiti minefields. But fighting in the invasion-torn streets around Nazaria in 2003, there was even greater risk. This time around, walking hundreds of patrols, escorting constant convoys and conducting other operations was not easy — but the decreasing tribal and sectarian violence made the operations less hazardous, if not less challenging.
"It's a great relief coming back and accomplishing your mission," he said.
Dengler was embedded with the new Iraqi army, helping and training with routine patrols and convoys. He and the other Americans in the Military Transition Team were in Ramadi, a city about 70 miles west of Baghdad. The city is the capital of Al-Anbar province, located in the so-called Sunni Triangle of the country that was once a stronghold of former dictator Saddam Hussein. The province was a flashpoint for intense religious-based violence and one of the most active insurgency areas in the news until mid-2007.
Dengler said, however, that Al-Anbar and its capital were completely different in the last 10 months. Instead of dealing with improvised exploding devices and firefights, the troops networked with the people and dealt in diplomacy. The humanitarian cause was foremost, he said. He and the other Marines on the team oversaw care packages of toys, school supplies and other necessary items direct to Iraqis.
"We were trying to bring American common sense, American spirit, American goodwill," Dengler said.
It was a mostly Shi'a battalion in a predominantly Sunni area that the Americans were training and overseeing. However, he said there was real cooperation among civilians, the local ruling sheikhs and the populace.
"By sitting down with the sheikhs and listening to the people... we were really getting somewhere," he said.
Dengler said that the U.S. mission in the country may be drawing to a close as the Iraqi army and police take over security duties full time — as long as the Iraqi government keeps the progress from "unraveling" itself, and areas like Mosul can benefit from the hearts-and-minds strategy of Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq. Petraeus said in hearings Tuesday before the U.S. Senate that progress on the ground in Iraq is "fragile but reversible." Dengler agrees, but has hope nonetheless.
"I think we're getting there," he said.
But, despite the satisfaction of seeing progress, home was still a relief. At the end of it his 10 months he returned to the warm welcome of his wife Kelly and his kids, Matthew, Ryan, Krista and 10-month-old Sloane, who was born right before he left for the Middle East.
Dengler said his wife did a great job maintaining their family and their home on the shore of Lake Mohawk.
"She's been holding down the fort," he said.
Kelly Dengler said that she's relieved her husband came home safely, and that their children are as thrilled as she is to have him home.
"That was the hardest part —just worrying about them missing him," she said.
Dengler will have two months of personal and combat leave before he returns to his law firm, Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper and Scinto, in Manhattan, where he is an attorney specializing in intellectual property. He says his third trip to Iraq was likely to be his last. But whatever he does, he will continue to stay busy, his wife says.
"He's always doing something," she said. "He can't do enough of anything."
Ellie
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
By SETH AUGENSTEIN
saugenstein@njherald.com
SPARTA — Ralph Dengler returned home from Iraq last week with hope in tow.
Dengler, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marines' 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiment, finished 10 months in Iraq as an adviser on a 15-person U.S. Marine Reserve team training the Iraqi army as it prepares to take over the security of the country. It was his second tour of Iraq since the 2003 invasion, but this latest trip was markedly different than his first.
The violent situation in Iraq has improved, and there is possibility in the future of the country, he said.
"It's not just looking through rose-colored sunglasses," Dengler said.
He said he "did the standard grunt thing" during the Persian Gulf War in 1990, clearing a path for tanks through Kuwaiti minefields. But fighting in the invasion-torn streets around Nazaria in 2003, there was even greater risk. This time around, walking hundreds of patrols, escorting constant convoys and conducting other operations was not easy — but the decreasing tribal and sectarian violence made the operations less hazardous, if not less challenging.
"It's a great relief coming back and accomplishing your mission," he said.
Dengler was embedded with the new Iraqi army, helping and training with routine patrols and convoys. He and the other Americans in the Military Transition Team were in Ramadi, a city about 70 miles west of Baghdad. The city is the capital of Al-Anbar province, located in the so-called Sunni Triangle of the country that was once a stronghold of former dictator Saddam Hussein. The province was a flashpoint for intense religious-based violence and one of the most active insurgency areas in the news until mid-2007.
Dengler said, however, that Al-Anbar and its capital were completely different in the last 10 months. Instead of dealing with improvised exploding devices and firefights, the troops networked with the people and dealt in diplomacy. The humanitarian cause was foremost, he said. He and the other Marines on the team oversaw care packages of toys, school supplies and other necessary items direct to Iraqis.
"We were trying to bring American common sense, American spirit, American goodwill," Dengler said.
It was a mostly Shi'a battalion in a predominantly Sunni area that the Americans were training and overseeing. However, he said there was real cooperation among civilians, the local ruling sheikhs and the populace.
"By sitting down with the sheikhs and listening to the people... we were really getting somewhere," he said.
Dengler said that the U.S. mission in the country may be drawing to a close as the Iraqi army and police take over security duties full time — as long as the Iraqi government keeps the progress from "unraveling" itself, and areas like Mosul can benefit from the hearts-and-minds strategy of Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq. Petraeus said in hearings Tuesday before the U.S. Senate that progress on the ground in Iraq is "fragile but reversible." Dengler agrees, but has hope nonetheless.
"I think we're getting there," he said.
But, despite the satisfaction of seeing progress, home was still a relief. At the end of it his 10 months he returned to the warm welcome of his wife Kelly and his kids, Matthew, Ryan, Krista and 10-month-old Sloane, who was born right before he left for the Middle East.
Dengler said his wife did a great job maintaining their family and their home on the shore of Lake Mohawk.
"She's been holding down the fort," he said.
Kelly Dengler said that she's relieved her husband came home safely, and that their children are as thrilled as she is to have him home.
"That was the hardest part —just worrying about them missing him," she said.
Dengler will have two months of personal and combat leave before he returns to his law firm, Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper and Scinto, in Manhattan, where he is an attorney specializing in intellectual property. He says his third trip to Iraq was likely to be his last. But whatever he does, he will continue to stay busy, his wife says.
"He's always doing something," she said. "He can't do enough of anything."
Ellie