"Everything that’s portrayed on TV is the bad stuff. When’s the last time you heard on the news soldiers building a new school." – Tom Sauvageau
Posted on 09/09/2007 8:59:37 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie
Working on an air base in southern Iraq gave Tamara Heibel a new perspective on life and death.
Patrick Wiebe became more honest, even blunt, after his 16 months at Camp Taqaddum west of Baghdad. Tom Sauvageau returned with a new focus.
Two years ago, they were among a group of 2,600 Minnesota National Guard soldiers who made history from the start of their deployment.
They were the largest group of Minnesota Guard members to deploy at one time since World War II.
The soldiers, including several hundred from this area, spread around Iraq for what was to be a 12-month stint.
In January, when President Bush announced a troop surge in Iraq, they were extended another four months.
By the time they returned home last month, the soldiers, as part of the First Brigade Combat Team, had served the most consecutive months in Iraq of any military unit.
Now that they’re home, some have returned to their old lives. Others are forging new ones. All are different people than when they left home so long ago.
TOM SAUVAGEAU
“Everything that’s portrayed on TV is the bad stuff. When’s the last time you heard on the news soldiers building a new school, new water well for the community, setting up a field hospital so all the people in the village can get checked out by our doctors. … They don’t get those stories on the news, and that’s why there’s such a bias, or so many people are biased toward the war.”
– Tom Sauvageau, 23
What he did
Sauvageau worked six days a week as a paralegal at Camp Taqaddum, a Marine base west of Baghdad.
Part of his job involved legal work and investigations when soldiers used “escalation of force.”
“You use escalation of force when you engage an enemy,” Sauvageau said. “The investigation is to see if it was warranted.”
Mortars hit Camp Taqaddum three times the day Sauvageau arrived at the Marine base.
“Reality set in when that happened, the first day,” said Sauvageau, who was 21 at the time. “Then as time went by, it just became part of normal life.”
Sauvageau, who previously served in Bosnia, went to Iraq partly because his brother was going.
“But I saw him once when I was over there,” he said. “He was in Tallil, in southern Iraq. I ran into him in Baghdad, just happened to be in the same area one day. I did a double take. I couldn’t believe it was him. Then I went over and said hi. We hung out for about an hour and then he had to get going.”
What he’s doing now
Sauvageau lives in a south Fargo home. He bought it in May, a couple of months before he returned from Iraq.
He plans to plans to start school in the spring at Minnesota State University Moorhead.
Sauvageau originally planned a prelaw major in political science. Now he’s not sure.
“That’s the million dollar question,” Sauvageau said.
How he changed
Sauvageau said he’s more focused now. He also finds the little things don’t get to him like they used to.
“I dealt with people every day for two years straight, all their problems,” he said. “I was in charge of a couple guys and I had bosses. It takes a lot to anger me now. I don’t get excited very easily.”
TAMARA HEIBEL
“What we have done over there has really helped the country. And by no means are we trying to make it the United States of America, because there is only one USA. We have helped them with schools, roads, bridges, things they may not have been used to before. We’re helping them get themselves better as a country.”
– Tamara Heibel, 35
What she did
Heibel did administrative work at the battalion level at Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq.
The base was fired on about once a month while she was there. Before that, it hadn’t been attacked with mortars in two years, Heibel said.
“When they mortar you, they don’t aim; they just hope it hits something. It’s more of a rocket attack, it’s not even necessarily a mortar. … After a while, it becomes part of being there. You know it’s going to happen.”
Military members lived in trailers on the base.
They watched movies in the Memorial Auditorium, a tent with chairs and a screen. Celebrities – the Charlie Daniels Band, Carrie Underwood and Billy Blanks, who makes Tai bo exercise videos – visited.
Heibel went to one of Blanks’ sessions.
“And it kicked my butt,” she said with a smile.
What she’s doing now
Heibel found an apartment in West Fargo when she returned from Iraq. She’ll return to her job at Maintenance Engineering in Fargo late this year.
Heibel was warned that she might have a hard time adjusting to loud noises, such as the fireworks shows that came with the Pyrotechnics Guild International convention at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds in West Fargo last month.
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Heibel said. “I prepared myself.”
Her fellow Guard members feel like family now.
“We were close to begin with, but the deployment just made us stronger,” Heibel said. “You have a bond with them because no matter if you know them or not, you’re still comrades with them. You can tell we’re all starting to miss each other.”
How she changed
Heibel didn’t leave the base. She didn’t see tragedy.
But she returned last month with a new philosophy about life and death.
“I guess I look at it, if it’s your day to go, you’re going to go,” Heibel said.
Her view changed in part when she heard about people who died in Iraq, and when she heard of people who returned home and were killed.
“It’s like, if they were home at the time, if God wanted them, he would take them in a car accident, you know?” she said. “You just have to appreciate every day, because you don’t know when your day is going to be.”
PATRICK WIEBE
“I don’t know why there’s doubt in people’s minds if it’s worth it or not.”
– Patrick Wiebe, 25
What he did
Wiebe served at Camp Taqaddum, a Marine base west of Baghdad, as a radio communications specialist.
It was his second deployment. Wiebe was an active-duty military member the first time, with the 10th Special Forces Division several years ago.
Wiebe recalls that the area was already secured during his second flight in, something he didn’t have for his first deployment.
During his first deployment several years ago, the plane that took him to northern Iraq flew in darkness and landed on a road somewhere.
“No lights, no smoke, nothing,” he recalled recently. “What do you think? What are you supposed to think? We jump in the back of a truck with no lights, and we’re driving down a road. I was scared, I guess.”
Wiebe said he was also scared for his second deployment. But he considers his time in Iraq well-spent.
“My whole purpose in the military is to follow in my dad’s footsteps and do the hero thing. I like all that stuff. Not for college, not for bonuses, not for any of that stuff. I’ll go over as many times as I need to. Yeah, it’s worth it.”
What he’s doing now
Wiebe lives in a Fargo apartment. He plans to work at the Moorhead National Guard armory for a few months and then move to Denver. He’s not sure what he’ll do there.
“It doesn’t really matter, though,” Wiebe said. “Ever been to Denver? Denver’s awesome.”
How he’s different
After nearly two years away from Minnesota, Wiebe said it doesn’t feel like he’s back yet. He has become more honest and blunt.
“I just have a really short fuse,” he said.
Wiebe said his outspokenness has been a bit of a problem in his social life.
He has been socializing a lot and says he has a knack for meeting people – girls, especially – who oppose the war.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m badmouthing everybody that’s got their own opinion, but come on,” he said.
“Most of them support us, and support the troops. They just have another agenda with the command, I guess. I guess we got our share of the hippies. My dad had his, my grandpa had his.”
RICH EGGERT
“I firmly believe if we don’t fight the enemy overseas, we’ll fight them here.”
– Rich Eggert, 38
What he did
Master Sgt. Eggert was a senior non-commissioned officer. For the first year, he served at Camp Fallujah in Anbar Province. His company worked directly for the Marine Corps. At one point, Eggert led 250 soldiers, sailors and Marines.
He was a brigade safety officer at Talill Air Force Base for the remaining four months.“I guess it was fairly stressful, in retrospect,” Eggert said.
Eggert regularly left Camp Fallujah with soldiers who went on patrols.
Three soldiers in his company were killed. Several others were injured.
The deaths made Eggert angry, but he took comfort that no one died because a soldier made a mistake.
“We didn’t have anything happen because someone was stupid,” Eggert said.
Eggert believes that if U.S. troops weren’t fighting overseas, they would be fighting on U.S. soil.
“The insurgents – these people have nothing. They are not afraid to lose anything,” Eggert said. “But by the same token, they are some of the most cowardly people I have ever seen in my life.”
Eggert said it’s hard to tell who the enemies are because they’re not uniformed. He said he had his rifle sights on hundreds of people, but never fired a shot.
“They were probably insurgents. Some of them probably weren’t,” he said. “Didn’t fire a shot. Got shot at a bunch. Had bombs go off around me, rockets come down on me. Couldn’t identify. Wasn’t sure what I was shooting at, so I’m not going to shoot.”
What he’s doing now
A month after returning home to his wife, Lisa, and four children, Eggert is back at the job he’s held for 15 years as a Moorhead firefighter. He’s coaching football for his boys this fall.
Eggert, who’s been in the Guard for more than 18 years, thinks that puts him in a different spot than some of the younger soldiers he led in Iraq.
“I’m not coming back, trying to find a job,” he said. “I’m not trying to rebuild relationships. My wife’s a saint. I’ve got lots of good guys at work to talk to.”
He just wants to get back to normal.
How he’s different
“I don’t think I’ve changed a lot,” Eggert said one recent morning at the Fryn’ Pan restaurant in Fargo. He turned to son James, 7. “Have I changed a lot?” he asks.
“Huh-uh,” James said between bites of French toast.
When you consider a deployment to Bosnia in addition to Iraq, Eggert has been gone for nearly half of his son’s life.
“That’s why here he’s at breakfast with me,” Eggert said.
ADAM GILBERTSON
“Our country asked us to, so that in itself is reason enough for us to go.”
– Adam Gilbertson, 30
What he did
Capt. Gilbertson, who commands a Detroit Lakes, Minn.-based company, was responsible for planning operations and leading larger operations.
During a year at Camp Taqaddum, however, his main role evolved into negotiating with local mayors, tribal and police leaders on civil affairs projects.
He dealt with five towns ranging from about 200 to 2,000 people. Leaders ranged from Western-educated professionals who spoke English to rudimentary tribal leaders.
“The problem was you get one answer from one person and another answer from another,” Gilbertson said.
It took about three or four months to establish trust, but the military helped fix water and sewer systems, and other infrastructure in the towns.
National Guard members’ diverse backgrounds came in handy, Gilbertson said. There were carpenters, plumbers and electricians. Some were engineering students.
“We completely revamped water systems and sewer systems, opened a new school in one of our towns,” Gilbertson said.
During Gilbertson’s time at Taqaddum, attacks in the area dropped 60 percent to 70 percent. He sees several reasons why that happened, though he’ll never know for sure. Among them, tribal leaders began to actively fight Sunni extremists.
“They were ready to work with the coalition,” Gilbertson said. “They know exactly who to talk to, and they came to us.”
What he’s doing now
Gilbertson is getting used to being a married man. He and his wife, Sarah, were married in December 2005, a few months before the Minnesota Guard soldiers finished training at Camp Shelby, Miss., and left for Iraq.
After returning from Iraq, the Gilbertsons went on a honeymoon to Australia and New Zealand.
The Moorhead man plans to return to RDO Equipment in Fargo in mid-September.
How he changed
“I built a whole new spectrum of stress,” Gilbertson said. “Things don’t seem so stressful anymore that I used to think were very stressful.”
He appreciates his family more now, after the support they gave him while he served in Iraq.
“I hope I never take it for granted again because it’s pretty amazing to have that support,” Gilbertson said.
"Everything that’s portrayed on TV is the bad stuff. When’s the last time you heard on the news soldiers building a new school." – Tom Sauvageau
Adam Gilbertson
Rich Eggert
Patrick Wiebe
Tamara Heibel
.
MEL’s -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
http://www.Freerepublic.com/~aloharonnie/
http://www.Freerepublic.com/~anita1/
.
Wonderful article! What a pleasure to read about these fine people!
“Everything that’s portrayed on TV is the bad stuff. When’s the last time you heard on the news soldiers building a new school, new water well for the community, setting up a field hospital so all the people in the village can get checked out by our doctors. … They don’t get those stories on the news, and that’s why there’s such a bias, or so many people are biased toward the war.”
– Tom Sauvageau, 23
“What we have done over there has really helped the country. And by no means are we trying to make it the United States of America, because there is only one USA. We have helped them with schools, roads, bridges, things they may not have been used to before. We’re helping them get themselves better as a country.”
– Tamara Heibel, 35
“I don’t know why there’s doubt in people’s minds if it’s worth it or not.”
– Patrick Wiebe, 25
“I firmly believe if we don’t fight the enemy overseas, we’ll fight them here.”
– Rich Eggert, 38
“Our country asked us to, so that in itself is reason enough for us to go.”
– Adam Gilbertson, 30
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