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Lieutenant
Colonel David Ward ’73 wrote a retrospective on his service in
Operation Iraqi Freedom (5/9/03):
I wanted to thank
everyone at IUP for your support and assistance. I am finally going home
after being here ten months.
When I arrived here in
August of 2002 there were less than 6,000 soldiers in Kuwait. I watched
the buildup and the indoctrination for war.
After being in the Army
nearly twenty years you never get use to seeing the faces of kids who
remind you of your twelve-year-old son or daughter back home. And as more
and more them came and matters began to take on seriousness, I thought of
my younger days and the indoctrination I had to go through as a young
soldier.
"This Group is the Third Army
(Patton's Own) Staff Judge Advocate Section.
Third Army ran the CFLCC (Coalition Forces Land Component Command)
and was the primary group for both Operation Enduring Freedom and
now Iraqi Freedom." —LTC David Ward (standing fourth from right) |
It mattered little
whether the cause was love of country, duty, war, or adventure; these kids
were here and they would eventually be driven forward.
It mattered little who
had seen action before or who was better trained, because in war everybody
is equal to die on the battlefield. They are fed, trained, and counseled
before. A lot got their first will or power of attorney to be given to
their girl friends, wives, or parents, not really knowing what incapacity
and death meant.
Some are married, some
have never even had a girlfriend. Some getting “dear johns” from their
girls or wives and having to be consoled. The end result is the same,
however; to suck it up and move forward with the mission.
Some kids pray before
each meal at chow and a lot don't. Some kids go to church and others
don't. Chaplains of all faiths turn their sermons to support the war. At
one service, a chaplain compared the troops riding into Baghdad with Jesus
entering the city on a donkey. Far stretch. No matter how many or few of
their bodies come back in the aftermath it always hits you.
When you are told or
see the conditions of some who did not die right away you wonder what this
boy or girl thought about as these horrible things happened to them. War
is always ugly and there are always those who get pleasure out of making
it more ugly. The smiling young faces of kids joking around would be
replaced with stares into space and thoughts of going home.
Some who looked forward
to the game like cowboys and Indians or playing soldier would come back
with the haunting reality that not everybody goes home.
Still others would go
through sirens and hear missiles fly overhead, roaring and thundering
through your body. You never forget laying there masked and feeling your
heart pound and hearing each breath while all this is going on.
When all is said and
done, what is remarkable is the will of each of those kids to go forward.
Regardless of personal feelings on the war, or whether the folks back home
believe the cause is just, they do their duty and go willingly into
battle. They come back changed both good and bad.
Some want to stay in
and others cannot wait to get out. Some will have joyous reunions and
others will return to empty homes and broken marriages and families. There
are always costs in war, no matter which side you are on.
History will have to
judge this war as my lone opinion matters little.
Will it ride on the
discovery of WMD? I don't know. A lot of nice people died here and
sometimes years down the road any justification that we use never seems
enough.
LTC David H. Ward
Chief, Administrative Law
Military Magistrate
CFLCC-SJA
Select for more news about LTC David Ward '73.
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