Public Employee Press

Part 4 of a series on DC 37 members in Iraq
Iraq veterans speak out
The weight of war

By JANE LaTOUR

“War is hell,” but coming home has been tough for some of the DC 37 members returning from military duty in Iraq. Frontline service has injured many physically and changed the minds of some about their nation’s mission.

The members who answered the call to serve and made the sacrifices came from every ethnic group. They were men and women, young recruits and old warriors. Their city jobs range from repairing road signs to clerical work and computer operation.

District Council 37 has opposed the war from the beginning, and many locals and members join antiwar demonstrations. But the union and PEP have nothing but respect for the sacrifices and opinions of the brave men and women who face death daily for their country.

The union soldiers whose stories PEP has told over the last two years are all alive. Those who have returned to the States are buying new homes and having babies, but others are under medical care.

Back from the combat zone, three 911 dispatchers, Iraida Velasquez, Nichole Santos and Robyn Clay have been honored with Community Service Awards from the Police Dept. and commendations from their union, Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549. But others have been treated contemptibly, despite the patriotic rhetoric that always flourishes during a war. Master Sgt. John Nicotra, a long-term Local 2627 shop steward, was among the first to ship out for Iraq. He returned home with an injury that still requires treatment, but his employer, the Human Resources Administration, has refused to accommodate his special needs.

Sgt. Deborah Simon, a truck driver in Iraq, injured her shoulder while staging supplies for transport. She returned from the war Sept. 20, and after surgery at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, she was welcomed home by her two sons and her 11-year-old grandson. “Iraq was a great experience, but it was also stressful, lonely and depressing,” she said. “It’s such an impoverished country. The children have so little.”

The stress on some of the families has started to recede. Sgt. Santos’s son Julius, 9, is now doing well in school. “It took a long time for me to get things back on track,” she said. “Things went haywire, even with my son. It took him a while to get adjusted.”

Stress on families
After only eight months at home, Col. Ralph Sabatino was recalled to the Judge Advocate General’s staff in Kuwait. His father, Local 1070’s Rick Sabatino, suffered a fatal heart attack July 8, and Col. Sabatino was able to return home for the funeral. In January 2004, Rick Sabatino spoke lovingly of his son. “I’m very proud of him,” he said. “All we can do is hope and pray they come home all right.”

The national debate on the war — about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, the use of torture, the growing casualty list and the lack of an exit plan — resonates with the returning soldiers and their families.

Some of the fighters unequivocally back the mission in Iraq. Many feel a conflict between their duty and the nature of this war. Some fear to express judgments on the war while they are subject to military recall.

Nicotra accepts the arguments of the Bush administration, but at home, he feels dissension on the issue within his family. “My military friends and I — we’re behind the president 100 percent. Mistakes were made. To me there were not enough boots on the ground,” he said.

The Rev. Wilfredo Rodriguez, a Navy chaplain, is committed to public neutrality. He wants to minister to his soldiers without feeling compromised by expressing his own opinions on the war.

On the other hand, Sgt. Matthew Zephyr feels at times “that the government is clueless as to why we are out there.” And Staff Sgt. Iraida Velasquez believes, “The war is out of control and the president doesn’t seem to have any idea as to how to get out of there.”

Other soldiers have voted with their feet, opting not to re-enlist. Local 1070 member Hawa Barkon’s son, Army Specialist Jukue Sieh, “got out last year after he returned home,” said Barkon. “He had wanted to stay in the military and make a career of it, but with the war, he decided not to re-enlist.”

Staff Sgt. Anthony Hernandez served as a combat medic with the 69th Infantry Division until he was injured and flown out. The Local 371 member offers a troubling portrait of problems in the military. After serving for 17 years, he was “surprised and shocked” to experience a high level of racism in the famed “Fighting 69th.” He described instances such as black soldiers forced to work excessive hours without breaks and punishments imposed on soldiers of color for small offenses, while white soldiers were treated differently.

Haunting memories
“Most of the soldiers were ready to fight the war,” he said. “They were not ready for the racism.” Anti-Arab bias is also part of his indictment of the military. “Many soldiers have a negative attitude toward the Iraqi people. Here we are walking into other people’s country with a bad attitude! There was an accidental shooting and it was covered up,” he added. “They didn’t even offer any aid to the injured. Two innocent people killed, and it was just covered up,” he said in disgust.

Although he initially opposed the war, Sgt. Hernandez now believes that the United States cannot simply pull out. “The Iraqi people have had democracy pushed down their throats. I believe we can educate them about democracy and elections,” he offered.

Every soldier PEP spoke with is intensely aware of the death toll. “We lost a lot of people out there and they’re not coming back to their families,” said Zephyr. As the Rev. Rodriguez prepares to return to Iraq, this time with a Seabee unit, he recalls the highly emotional funeral last November of a young Marine — Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Lam, a 22-year-old Chinese-American from Queens, with a wife and young child.

Nicotra tears up as he talks about a lone coffin he saw in Iraq on its way to a solitary flight to Dover Air Force Base. Hernandez, who began his duties by cleaning up the human remnants of a blown up convoy, is still haunted by his memories.

“When I’m asleep, dreaming and drowsed and warm, they come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead,” wrote poet Siegfried Sassoon, a decorated World War I hero.