Update 5/29/13: This story has been corrected to reflect Wright’s rank as Specialist, not Sergeant. Wright misrepresented his rank during the formal event.
Memorial Day was particularly special for an injured Iraqi war veteran from Allegan.
Hundreds huddled close at Oakwood Cemetery Monday morning. Some wept as Amy Wright finally pinned a Purple Heart on her husband’s uniform. He kneeled so his 7-year old daughter Torin could pin on the other one.
After a year's deployment in Afghanistan, 600 members of Michigan's National Guard are coming home. They'll join the ranks of 19,00 local Guardsmen and women who’ve served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But this particular unit will soon embark on a new mission. And this time, they're bringing their families.
For 3 years, the veterans, their spouses, and children will be part of a Michigan State University study on how families cope with life after combat.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaks at a ceremony marking the end of the U.S. mission in Iraq. "The cost was high. The blood and treasure of the United States and also for the Iraqi people," Panetta said.
After nearly nine years, some 4,500 American fatalities and about $1 trillion, America’s war in Iraq is about to end. Officials marked the finish Thursday with a modest ceremony at the airport days before the last troops traverse the southern highway to Kuwait, going out as they came in, to conclude the United States’ most ambitious and bloodiest military campaign since Vietnam.
Iraqis will be left with a country that is not exactly at war, and not exactly at peace.
"We are only thankful to them because they got rid of Saddam Hussein. They didn't bring any hope, any construction, any electricity, any water or any infrastructure."
Michigan Senator Carl Levin released this statement today:
“I hope every American will take some time today to reflect on the immense courage and selflessness of our men and women in uniform and their families over the last eight years. Over repeated deployments, in difficult and dangerous conditions, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines served in Iraq with honor. Beyond their service, they gave our nation unity – the unity of a people who, though divided over the decision to go to war, supported the men and women who fought it.”
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A consortium of Michigan companies says it's eager to oversee the building of a new city near Baghdad that draws on the skills of Iraqi immigrants living in Michigan.
Officials from the National Investment Commission of Iraq were announcing Tuesday that they've signed a memorandum of understanding with the consortium, MICH Development, to plan and build a new city of 500,000 on the outskirts of Baghdad.
The agreement gives the consortium what it needs to take the next step - raising billions of dollars from banks and private investors to get the project under way by late 2012.
Although much of the building is expected to be done by Iraqi workers, Michigan companies could win as much as $1.5 billion in contracts.
Earlier today I posted the stories of two young veterans who had served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Multiple tours overseas is common in today's military. Re-enlistments helped keep these wars supplied with soldiers over the last ten years.
The problem, as Bernard Rostker of the Rand Corporation put it, "the more you go the more you’re exposed, the more likely you will eventually have some adverse psychological reactions."
Rostker is a former Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, and a former senior policy advisor on recruitment for the Secretary of Defense.
He said the propensity to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is cumulative. And with soldiers serving multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, they're more at risk than a soldier serving a single tour.
PTSD can show up much later in life.
"This is going to be a huge concern for the military," said Rostker.
"Rand did a study, it was a random telephone interview of large numbers of vets using screening techniques for PTSD, and came to the conclusion that there was a huge number of unreported cases. It was controversial with the Department of Defense who looked at the number of people being treated versus those identified with PTSD and noticed lots were going untreated," said Rostker.
In 2010, Britain's Channel 4 News did an excellent piece on the challenges facing today's military.
You can view it here:
Bernard Rostker said the military has come a long way in its understanding of the psychological effects of war.
"We’re much more aware of it today, but it’s still the unfinished business of this war," said Rostker.
About a thousand Michigan Army and Air National Guardsmen will spend the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend back home, after spending the past year in Iraq and Kuwait. Two battalions of guardsmen have been arriving in cities and towns across Michigan during the past few days.
Captain Aaron Jenkins is a Michigan National Guard spokesman. He says moving the troops from the Middle East to Michigan is complicated by the need to bring their equipment back with the troops.
More than 6,000 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen have been killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to iCasualties.org.
Several media outlets track this information and break it down by state.
CNN.com has an interactive map that lists the casualties separately from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Their maps show where the soldier was from, and where they were killed.
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