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man I tell ya, my only regret is I am too damn old to enlist!

Wed, Sep. 29, 2004

Eagan soldier Joe Repya unwilling to just fade away

The prominent 58-year-old Army veteran is preparing for active duty in Iraq.

BY BILL SALISBURY

Pioneer Press

'I want to leave this world a better and safer place for my two daughters and their children.'

A lot of partisans give stirring speeches in support of President Bush and the war on terrorism, but Joe Repya takes the rhetoric seriously.

He is stepping down from the podium to go fight the battle he has championed.

Repya, a 58-year-old Vietnam and Persian Gulf war veteran, has been a warm-up act at each of the president's political rallies in Minnesota, firing up the faithful with stirring pro-war rhetoric. Today, he leaves for another stint in the Army and a return to combat in Iraq.

"I'm really proud of him," his wife, Deb Repya, said this week. "He doesn't just talk the talk; he walks it."

Some veterans think he's nuts. They believe combat is for younger warriors.

But Repya, who volunteered for duty, is excited about returning to military service and deeply committed to the cause.

"We can't afford to lose this war," he said over a soft drink at his home overlooking a bucolic pond in Eagan. "I am thoroughly convinced the terrorists want to bring down not only America but Western civilization. I will do whatever I can to stop them."

During a trip to Iraq as a free-lance journalist last fall, he met an Army sergeant who vividly reminded him of why U.S. troops are there. When he expressed sympathy for her being separated from her four young children, he said, "She told me, 'If I fail, my kids will be fighting the terrorists on the streets of Baltimore in 20 years.'

"I want to leave this world a better and safer place for my two daughters and their children," he said.

He volunteered the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But the Army didn't accept him until this month.

It's "fairly unusual" for a 58-year-old retired officer to be recalled to active duty, "but it's not completely out of the question," said Lt. Col. Gerard Healy, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. Army regulations allow a retired officer to volunteer if he has critically needed skills and passes a physical exam. But Healy said the Army accepts few of them.

How did Repya get back in? Some of his old Army buddies joke that "W must have pulled strings," he said. Although the president now knows him by name, Repya said, "This was strictly an Army decision."

Some of his comrades from Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm recommended him. One was Terry Ford, deputy to the Army's senior intelligence officer at the Pentagon who served with Repya in the first Iraq war.

"We give a lot of credibility to how young you are at heart," Ford quipped, and then added:

"He's a quick study, has a very positive attitude, and he's not afraid to jump in, roll up his sleeves and go to work. He brings a lot of skills and great attitude and experience to the table."

A LIFE IN THE MILITARY

A native of Gary, Ind., Repya joined the Army as a second lieutenant after graduating from Western Michigan University in 1969. He served in Vietnam as an infantry rifle platoon leader in 1970 and 1971. After his tour in combat, he returned home, became a helicopter pilot and commanded both infantry and aviation units. He left active duty in 1979 and spent the next 18 years in National Guard and Army Reserve assignments.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, he re-enlisted in the Army and flew combat helicopter missions in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. He was credited with one of the largest enemy intelligence finds of the war.

But Repya gives credit to an Iraqi army colonel who surrendered and disclosed the information during his interrogation. Three years later, Repya helped the colonel and his nephew get released from a prisoner of war camp and relocated in the Twin Cities. When Saddam Hussein found out they were in the United States, Repya said, the Iraqi president had the colonel's wife and son executed in front of her family.

That experience, he said, is what motivated him and his wife, Deb, a St. Paul attorney, to print and distribute some 30,000 "Liberate Iraq" signs last year. Frustrated by the "Say No to War with Iraq" signs that were popping up around town, the Repyas decided the best response was the liberation poster that also admonished people to "Support Our Troops."

The first 250 signs went fast, and soon they were printing more. Next Repya organized a rally that attracted 18,000 people to the state Capitol grounds to support the war. Soon he was appearing as a military analyst on KSTP Radio, KMSP-TV and Fox News, a gig that took him back to Iraq last fall as a reporter.

Earlier this year, Gov. Tim Pawlenty recruited Repya to serve as Minnesota co-chairman of Veterans for Bush-Cheney '04. He quickly became a national leader among veterans in the Bush campaign, and he played a prominent role at the Republican National Convention last month.

"He's one of the most visible and articulate spokesmen for the president's campaign here in Minnesota and on the national stage," said Peter Hong, Bush-Cheney Minnesota campaign spokesman. "He's the true embodiment of public service, whether it's been his service in the armed forces or what he's done on the campaign or just serving personally as a role model, a mentor and a friend to so many of us here at the campaign."

Repya, who has shut down his aircraft brokerage business, is scheduled to report to the 101st Airborne Division, his Vietnam War unit, at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Friday. He will train there for three to five months before being shipped to Iraq.

"I've been wearing out my treadmill, but that gives me time to get in better shape," he said.

He isn't sure what his assignment will be but thinks he probably will work in intelligence or assigning missions at the division or brigade level.

Although he would love to fly helicopters again, he considers his chances slim.

"You don't get to have fun as a lieutenant colonel," he said, "and flying is fun."

His wife said she and their two adult daughters support his decision to return to active duty.

"I'm a little bit worried," she acknowledged, "but I feel he's with the greatest military in the world. He's smart, and he's not going to take chances that aren't calculated. I have a strong sense of confidence in him and in our military."

Bill Salisbury can be reached at bsalisbury@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5538.