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When
I Served My Country We Were at War!
Sandra Hartle
11/11/2003
I
graduated from High School in 1963, at the time there were no jobs for
the inexperienced. And I had none. John Kennedy was
President, and at the time few women volunteered for
service. It simply was not the 'right' thing for a woman
to do.
I
went to Alabama in the fall, and lucky for me it was a time of year
there, when things were very similar to where I was
raised. The weather although warm, was not so hot that it
caused me any grief in adjusting while in Basic Training.
After two months of Basic Training, I was then sent to Georgia for
Advanced Training. On November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy
was assassinated I was sitting in my Military Civics class and was
stunned by the reports of his death.
My
Advanced training was in communications, and I was taught to use the
teletype for communicating with other bases. My permanent
orders were for Fort Bragg, North Carolina in the communications
center where I worked as a cryptographer for the Army. At
the time Cryptography was the method used to send messages back and
forth from areas where we received all the messages from around the
world, mostly Vietnam at the time.
Women
were not sent into battle back then. Although this was the case,
we still did work that was extremely important to the war
effort. As I listen to the conflict over the stories told about
Jessica Lynch, I have to wonder why women are being sent into
situations where they could be raped, killed and harmed in ways that
we were protected from in years past.
I
am not saying that women are not capable of fighting, because the
service made me a fighter. Fighting has many meanings, not just
shooting a gun. And there are many important jobs that can be
done by women that would not require them to be in harms
way.
I
am not a feminist, I don't think that women were designed to get in
the trenches with men. In fact I think we were designed more to
be a distraction to men. And I believe it was and still is
a good design.
There
is another controversy going on over a woman in the service right
now. Her husband is already serving in Iraq. She has seven
children, and is also on orders to return to Iraq. Yet, due to
health problems of her father, her mother is not able to watch the
children any longer. She is also involved in a custody battle
over two of the children, if she is sent back to Iraq she will lose
that battle, and her other five children will be put in the hand of
the state. I can't think of a situation that could be
worse, for both the mother and the children.
She
is refusing to return to duty, and hopefully this situation will be
resolved by the Department of Defense with the welfare of this woman's
children taking top priority. When I served women who became
pregnant were immediately discharged without fanfare or any stigma on
their service record.
I
agree that the war we are fighting now is important. It may in
fact define not only our future, but the future of millions of people
now living in horrible conditions in the Middle East. But
I am deeply distressed to see the politics being played over this
war. I know that we are coming up on an election year, but
I would like to think that the people who have been sent to Washington
DC to represent the people of this country are aware that what they
say, is indeed causing the death of our soldiers.
It
is very easy to track. Every time a politician takes a negative
position to the war, the attacks in Iraq increase. Every time
there is a political debate and those speaking are attacking President
Bush, without providing an alternative plan of their own, or
worse yet saying they would pull out of Iraq, the attacks against our
men and women in Iraq increase.
I
remember Vietnam well, I remember the politicians and the
protests, and I remember reading in the dark room with no
windows to the outside, where I decrypted the messages coming in from
Vietnam, that more men had been killed, more men had been captured and
tortured and more men had become demoralized because of what was going
on at home. I remember the treatment our men received when
they returned from Vietnam by those who were protesting the
war. It was deplorable.
What
I find deplorable now is that while everyone is unwilling to say that
the wars we are fighting are wrong, they are willing to demoralize our
men and women by playing politics with their lives. They
are willing to take too long to fund them, while making their
points. They are willing to sacrifice the lives of men and women
doing their duty, in order to make points politically.
And
Ladies and Gents, this is the only similarity I see to the war in
Vietnam and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Words like bogged
down, quagmire and others came off the tongues of the reporters
in the briefings one week into the war. Words that imply that
President Bush had reasons to lie to get us into this war are fully
unhelpful to the safety of our men and women. Words that state
they would pull the troops out before the war is won only serve to
increase the attacks on those who are doing the fighting.
For
a brief moment after 9-11, I recognized the country I was raised in,
when people came together to fight a common enemy. Now
unfortunately, it appears that we are fighting again among
ourselves. To the outsiders looking in it appears that if they
continue to attack our men and women, they can still win a war they
actually lost back in May.
By
attacking our men and women, they can get those who should be
supporting their efforts to say things that ultimately lead to the
demoralization of their efforts. I am saddened by the lack
of unity I see in both those who are representing us and are suppose
to be protecting us from outside attacks, and those in the streets
protesting.
What
a sad day for America when we fight among ourselves the way the tribes
of Arabia have fought among themselves for Centuries. It is no
way to win a war. Today as we honor those who died protecting
our country, can we agree to stand together so we can ultimately win
this battle against terrorism?
The day we
entered Baghdad
Have
we forgotten these images?
Sandra Hartle
Email: sandrahartle@juntosociety.com
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