A reunion for the National Guard road warriors
The average age of soldiers in this National Guard company that got sent to the first phase of the Iraq War nearly 20 years ago, was 38. The average age of regular Army soldiers is somewhere around 20-something and they are 20 to 50 pounds lighter.
About one-third of the 1498th California National Guard Transportation Co. was from the Antelope Valley and they originally came from the 756th Co.
The other two-thirds of the soldiers were drawn from National Guard companies in Sacramento and Riverside counties.
These soldiers, some verging on Social Security eligibility, were drawn into the Iraq War, more or less willingly and some were, more or less, well, a bit frightened.
They were misinformed and told they would land in a combat zone fraught with chemical weapons. They trained to get their gas masks on in 12 seconds lest the poison gas issued by Saddam Hussein form droplets that would kill them on contact.
Instead, along with a couple million other American troops, they encountered roadside bombs, improvised explosive devices, IEDs. They also faced small arms ambushes, mortar attacks and relentless heat, often above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. They inhaled the sickening odors and smoke of burn pits filled with a mix of toxic waste, including body parts from IED detonations, plastics, toxic metal and other stuff.
Doing your job when you are scared, but doing it anyway, is what defines courage. These soldiers, a mix of all races and genders, spent 14 months in the combat zone and showed plenty of it. I spent six months as an embedded journalist with these soldiers, two months in Iraq and Kuwait. We are bonded for life.
Forty or so of the Guard road warriors gathered recently for a reunion barbecue at the home of Sgt. Peter Mavropoulos, a grizzled, retired career sergeant that forms the glue that holds an outfit together long after returning from the war.
The only smoke in the air was from the BBQ smoker overseen by master chef J.W. Hayes, who has what looks like a nuclear choo-choo for bringing out the best flavor in generous servings of beef, chicken and pork. The troops brought their own beer and always bring enough.
They brought their own entertainment, so there was no need for a band or comedians. Music was unnecessary and they brought their own comedy. Laughs are also the glue that keeps the troops together. And the stories were funny, strange, frightening sometimes and sometimes weird.
Retired Staff Sgt. Jay Kallsen recalled a family gathering where he met a younger relative of his extended family. The younger man was also in the Army and in Iraq and described the IED that blasted a hole through his Bradley Fighting Vehicle, an armored troop carrier. Only two of eight soldiers in the Bradley survived, the younger relative being one of them. The blast happened outside the notorious Abu Ghraib prison where a prisoner-handling scandal turned public opinion against the war.
Kallsen recalled, “I said, ‘outside Abu Ghraib?’ I think I took a photo of that Bradley.”
He showed the photograph to his kinsman and he gave it to him.
“He just walked away with it and he had to take a few moments for himself.” Kallsen added, “I can’t believe I took that photo and I was related to the soldier in that blast. And I still had that photo.”
Monika Johnson, spouse of retired Staff Sgt. William Johnson, remembered the cruise they took when Bill returned from Iraq. I asked them if they had a good time, and she responded, “We did. It was later that all the other stuff came up.”
And the “other stuff” is the stuff that follows the warrior home from the war.
Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “In The Company of Soldiers,” traveled with the 101st Airborne Division while I rolled with the Cal Guard troops early in the Iraq War.
He observed, “The troops were better than the cause in which they fought.”
That, I believe, is too often the case. But soldiers do not set policy. They execute it to the best of their ability.
Mavropoulos has a scroll that asserts, “Comrades gather because they long to be with the people who suffered and sacrificed ... I am sure that when I leave this world my last thoughts will be of my family and my comrades.”
These troops are what that too often misunderstood holiday, Veterans Day, is about. Thanking them can be awkward for all parties, but standing a round, a beer or drink, hard, or soft, is almost always welcome.
Dennis Anderson is a licensed clinical social worker at High Desert Medical Group. An Army paratrooper veteran, he deployed to the Iraq War with local National Guard troops to cover the war for the Antelope Valley Press. He works on veterans’ issues and community health initiatives.