Veterans Explain On Campuses Why They Serve

Veterans Explain On Campuses Why They Serve

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-05-whyweserve_N.htm

Servicemembers share experiences abroad, but critics say forums too limited

By Heather Collura, Special for USA Today

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The auditorium was packed and quiet as Marine Cpl. Sean Henry described how on his second tour of duty in Iraq, he met a family of 12 Iraqis in the city of Al Habbaniyah who were forbidden by local insurgents to leave their house.

They were not allowed to get food, go to school or even take an injured child to a hospital, Henry said.

By the end of his seven-month deployment, he said, the United States had gained control of the city and he could hear children running around and playing soccer.

"We really did make this place so much better when we came," Henry told a standing room only crowd of more than 500 students, staff, faculty and community members at Syracuse University last week. "Nothing can replace that."

Henry, 22, a third-year Marine, was one of three veterans who shared their experiences as part of a Department of Defense outreach program called "Why We Serve."

The program, which some critics say is too one-sided, began in 2006. It sends recently returned veterans across the country to share their decisions to join the military and their experiences abroad with the public. The program started with presentations to mostly small community groups but branched out this fall to college campuses.

Marine Maj. Chris Devine, the program's director, said the group has visited at least nine other campuses this fall, including the University of Cincinnati, Georgetown University and the University of Wyoming.

For 2008, there are plans to go to Clemson (S.C.), Villanova (Pa.), American (D.C.) and Stony Brook (N.Y.) universities, among others. "This is the future leadership of America," Devine said. "Why wouldn't you want to put our servicemembers in front of them so they can ask them direct questions and hopefully get direct answers?"

The program at Syracuse was the subject of some debate. Mark Rupert, chair of the Syracuse University political science department, declined the initial invitation to host it. "It seemed to me that it was intended to substitute an allegedly 'non-political' meet and greet with the troops for a direct and explicitly political discussion of the issues," Rupert said in an e-mail.

Professor William Coplin, who teaches the honors course on improving undergraduate education that stepped in to sponsor the event as a class project, and Katelyn Hancock, one of the student organizers, said it was not intended to be a debate on Iraq or U.S. foreign policy.

"It's a unique perspective," Hancock said. "We don't often get to hear from troops that have been recently over there. We (can) get in our own little bubble over here and not understand what is going on over there."

"Is it set up to sell the war in a backward, backdoor way? I don't know," Coplin said. "It is what it is."

The Syracuse Peace Council, a community anti-war group, proposed that three additional veterans with anti-war viewpoints join the discussion, but the offer was declined. "I admire you guys and what you are doing," Aly Wane, a member of the Syracuse Peace Council, said at the event. "I just wish this forum was open to a broader sort of experience of what the war is. . I have seen the war has many sides, and I would like to see all those sides represented."

As Wane expressed his discontent, without asking a question, all three veterans silently listened.

There were no such feelings expressed at an appearance at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, according to Tammy Johnson, staff adviser for the University of Wyoming College Republicans who hosted the program. "People asked plenty of questions. He (Maj. Cedric Burden) answered them. He was very forthright and honest."

Three other veterans spoke to University of Cincinnati history professor Thomas Lorman's three classes last week. Lorman said he had feared the event would take on political undertones. "I didn't feel there was any hostility in the room at all," he said.

Some audience members at Syracuse asked tough questions, including how the three servicemembers could speak so warmly of the job they are doing despite the high number of civilian casualties and the American unrest regarding the purpose of the war.

James Marcellino, a Syracuse sophomore, said any tension toward the veterans disgusted him. "It's just astounding to me to have people come at you in that way," he said to applause.

Henry and his two colleagues, Army Sgt. Jose Munoz and Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mark DeCorte, each addressed the program's title question of why they serve.

"I joined out of patriotism," said DeCorte, a 13-year veteran medic and father of four who enlisted in the 10th grade through the delayed enlistment program.

DeCorte is a 31-year-old whose wife is also active duty. His father, mother and uncle were also Air Force flight medics. "I could think of 200 reasons to get out," DeCorte said. "I could line them all up. But I just couldn't do it. I can't hang up my uniform in a closet and watch the news and know that my brothers and sisters are willing to risk their lives. And I want to be there to bring them home. So I re-enlisted for another six years - for them."

The program ended with a lengthy standing ovation from most of the crowd.

"I feel like there is another side that everyone needs to hear," said Samantha Wilder, a Syracuse freshman from Williamsburg, Va. "There are pictures we never see. There's a side we never see."