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| "Because the language they use is killing:" January 14, 2007
The Jacksonian Tradition:
An Interview with Lance Corporal Nathan (Chad) Yeager Posted by Bill
A preface: A few weeks before coming over here, I met a pleasant Icelandic woman in a bar. A friend introduced us and told her that I was headed to Iraq, which precipitated her espousal of some interesting political and cultural opinions. Perhaps the most baffling was her repetitive insistence on the morally equivalent, "but what is a terrorist, really?", after I'd employed the term to describe some, but not all, insurgents in Iraq. Even after I explained - three times - that a person who intentionally kills children to sow fear and make a political point animates the term, she had to agree to disagree, and move on to her next silly argument. It was one of my favorites: "Members of the military are dumb or disadvantaged folks who have been duped or forced into going to Iraq." I mentioned patriotism, family tradition and the Jacksonian tradition, written about rather eloquently by Walter Russell Meade: To understand how Crabgrass Jacksonianism is shaping and will continue to shape American foreign policy, we must begin with another unfashionable concept: Honor. Although few Americans today use this anachronistic word, honor remains a core value for tens of millions of middle-class Americans, women as well as men. The unacknowledged code of honor that shapes so much of American behavior and aspiration today is a recognizable descendant of the frontier codes of honor of early Jacksonian America. I was surprised when she recognized the term, and even more surprised when she still wouldn't accept my argument. "They are just poor and uneducated," she said. I took another stab: citing my high school friend Dan Eggers, my grandfather, various people I know or have read about, none of whom were poor, dumb or otherwise disadvantaged. Exceptions to the rule, according to her. Soon thereafter, our conversation came to a polite end. Which brings me to this interview: I wish I had the chance to feature extended quotations from many more of the soldiers and Marines that I've met in Iraq, but that being impossible, Lance Corporal Yeager of the Marine Police Transition team will do. A 23 year-old Alabaman possessing an air of confidence and a slow, thick southern drawl, I certainly can't claim that everyone over here nor even the Marines are exactly like Yeager - but a relevant number share his idealism, sense of duty and patriotism. If my Icelandic acquaintance were to travel to Iraq, she might think, "My, there sure are a lot of 'exceptions to the rule' out here." The interview: *** Why the Marine Corps: (Originally) I took a different route, started a business, a body shop. But I always knew I wanted to be like my father; he was Staff Sergeant in the Army. Well, I guess about a year and a half into me owning my shop, my father got deployed over here to Mosul, and I was sittin' down one night and thinking, I got a great family, a father that's unbelievable, and what's it gonna take for me to be half the man he is? And I knew it would take the hardest branch out there, and so that's why I joined the Marine Corps. I remember being 4 years-old coming home from drill, seeing my dad in his cammies and thinking, "Oh, my dad is a hero." I don't know, I've been raised up in the military. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd join the Marine Corps. I always wanted to be a pilot, so I had Air Force on my mind and this and that (Note: Yeager is very close to obtaining his civilian pilot's license). But I don't know, the Marine Corps is fun, it's a lot of fun. You get really close to these guys, especially being out here with a small team. I love operating with a small team because you bond together like brothers, pick on each other and goof off. But when it comes down to the line, you'd fight to the death for 'em. And I'd hate to see anything happen to any of these guys. Motivation for volunteering for Iraq: One of my good friends who I'd gone to high school with, he joined the Marines right out of high school, and he got married to another one of my good friends, we all went to high school together. And they moved to Washington state. But anyway, he came over here - he was in Ramadi - and I think he was two weeks 'till he came home. And they got ambushed one night, and they couldn't get anyone on the radio, so he stepped out of the humvee. He was the vehicle commander. Right when he stepped out, the guy on the roof hit another IED and it killed him. The sad thing was, he was supposed to be home in two weeks and his little girl was supposed to be born in three. And, I don't know, it really bothered me. I had to bury him, and right after I buried him my unit asked me if I wanted to volunteer, and I was like "Hell yeah." Iraq, "field Marines" and hurricane Katrina: It was really different seeing your own kind dead, your own people. We were going into houses and doing body counts, and you'd find a whole family in there. You know, kids ranging from two years old, all the way up to 15 years old, with their parents up in the attic and stuff. It was a ... it was terrible. Katrina was hard. There was a lot of negative stuff there. I guess the people didn't think we came in soon enough. I was there the day after, but ... I don't know, we didn't know where we needed to be, what we needed to do. We didn't have the food sources there, but right when we got there we started doing everything we could. We started going from house to house, because our trucks were the only trucks that could get through. All the other fire trucks couldn't get through. So we'd take our corpsman out, go house to house and check on people, take 'em out supplies. It was tough. It was really tough. Being shot at: I was up on the satellite phone, talking to my mother; hadn't talked to her for a while, so calling to check in. And I'd been up there for a while, about 15-20 minutes, and I'd just happened to stand up for 3 minutes, and tracers started flying. Me, I didn't realize they had tracers, they were just like ours, and I just hit the ground, didn't cut off the phone, my mother was listening the whole time. So I low crawled over on the other side of the roof because SGT [redacted for security] was over here ... and I couldn't find him. That's when a kind of panic attack set in: "Where's he at, has he crawled somewhere?" I thought I'd lost a Marine. I scanned the whole top of the roof ... came back down here to grab my gear and everything, try to get a head count, and found out that the sergeant had come down. By the time I'd gotten here and staged my weapon the fire had stopped. It was a pretty wild night. It's different. You think getting shot at, you think you'd hear the whistle of the bullet. (But) they start crackin' when they get close to your head, they start crackin'. It ... opened up my eyes. More on being in Iraq: I don't know, I enjoy being over here. I volunteered to be over here. I'd hate ... ... I see these little kids walking the streets while I'm out on patrols and stuff, I throw 'em candy and everything ... I could not imagine kids having to grow up like this. And that's why I try so hard over here to give it 110%, so maybe 10 years or 20 years down the road, I won't have to be back over here doing the same thing. Because I know I wouldn't want my son growing up like this. Snipers and IEDs: The only thing you can do is keep your weapon loaded and have all your gear on. If you're gonna die you're gonna die, it's just when and where. I could be rolling out there on a humvee, get shot at, and tuck and roll. But that's not the way we do. We stop, we put ourselves in danger, we get out of the humvee, we've got all our gear on, and we engage. The Marine Corps has trained us and trained us and trained us to be like that. Shooting back: I saw muzzle flash coming out of that building. That's when I came over the radio and said, "I have muzzle flash, I got PID (positive ID), what do you want me to do?" That's when we all came back up and saw muzzle flash again, and I probably threw about 150 rounds down (Yeager had a SAW). We don't know if we got them, but ever since that night? We haven't been hit again by small arms fire. A different sort of war: This war is ... you can't be hard all the time. You have to be understanding and, I don't know, cordial. And it's a different kind of professionalism. The mission: We're on the baby steps right now. We've finally got 'em to where they're halfway doing their job, going out there and doing their job, but if we pull out right now, they're still halfway depending on us. If we pull out right now, let's just say things will go straight back to where they were. There's been a lot of progress here. Take the SMG (Special Missions Group - very roughly, an Iraqi SWAT team): the first night they went out, they got butterflies and chickened out. One of them said, "We don't want to go out and do this, we just want to sit back and do QRF (Quick Reaction Force)." And I said, "Why do you want to sit back and be QRF, what's that going to help? That's not going to help a thing. It's gonna take y'all to balls up, get some fight in you. Because yeah, some of y'all are gonna die. But your kids are gonna grow up to do the same thing you're doing, 20 years from now. You've gotta step up and be the leader." And now, every night we've gone out, we've wrapped somebody up and got intel from them. We've made a lot of progress. We've made a lot of progress. *** *** If you'd prefer to donate via check, please e-mail me and I'll provide you mailing instructions. Thank you for your support. Posted by Bill at January 14, 2007 06:49 AM | TrackBack (5) Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsYour acquaintance could have come right out of my J-school. It's a tired, tired argument--that people join the service b/c they have no money and no other options--and it's one I hope will soon be spent. But I guess it's fairly well ingrained into the country's narrative for now. Still, quite the elitist position she has. Posted by: Nancy at January 14, 2007 02:24 PM Keep it up, Bill. This is some of the best reporting yet coming out of the war. I hope someone at the AP reads your piece, and learns how a real man reports on a war-by being there without a polital agenda, and reporting the real down to earth facts of everyday heroics from our troops. Posted by: uberrare at January 14, 2007 03:41 PM Please tell Lance Corporal Yeager that we appreciate his service. Thank you to his family as well. It takes a family to "make" a hero. Posted by: Agnieszka O. at January 14, 2007 11:58 PM Thank you so much for this great reporting. I appreciate Yeager and all the Troops' sacrifice in this War. My support is 100% behind our military. I defend the military everytime from the brainwashed zombie leftists. I will bookmark this site to keep informed. God Bless our Troops and Country. Posted by: Jennie Kurono at January 15, 2007 04:57 AM And yet those of us who think that Jon Carry meant what he actually said (that people only go to Iraq because they are dumb and have no other options) are foolish and partisan. Keep up the good work, Bill. May God bless you and our troops. Posted by: Gerald Hibbs at January 15, 2007 08:45 AM Maybe the next time someone suggests that people in the military are poor, you should press them as to why they don't think we should pay our soldiers more... If they are so darned poor, give them a bloody pay raise, darn it... Posted by: Scott at January 15, 2007 12:50 PM My sons a corpsman in a weps co, 2MARDIV. I was a Corpsman, Surgical Team. We go because: Posted by: paul at January 15, 2007 02:06 PM Very nice article. Sounds alot like what I tell people when I get asked similar questions. My number one answer is: Posted by: Smith at January 15, 2007 02:22 PM Thank you again, Bill. And thanks to our Marines and all our military and their families. God bless you. Posted by: Maggie45 Thanks that was a great read. Posted by: Jenn at January 15, 2007 02:51 PM Our military members ARE our best and brightest. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! Anyone who loves this country enough to put his life on the line is a hero in my book. You are a hero and you make me proud to say I am an American. I continue to pray for you and all the soldiers over there to be successful, and come home safe. God bless you! Posted by: Cindy Anderson at January 15, 2007 03:02 PM I was a marine (1975-1981) and my son currently serves with the Black Widows (MALS-13). When a thousand lefty-liberal elitists begin to dishearten me, I need only the words of one ordinary marine to remind me that real patriots still exist in America. Thanks for reminding me... Posted by: Clark Baker at January 15, 2007 03:06 PM Real American Two of 'em, in fact. Thank you Posted by: richard at January 15, 2007 03:11 PM Great interview Bill, I am sure that you are passing on our admiration and thanks to the troops. A couple of articles for you to read when you have time: U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans Iraqi Papers Mon: Baghdad Security Plan Take Care and continue your mission. Papa Ray Posted by: Papa Ray at January 15, 2007 03:20 PM You can't drag people like that out of their comfortable prejudices or preconceived ideas. Posted by: Fathairybastard at January 15, 2007 03:43 PM "They are just poor and uneducated," she said. If so, then Heaven save us from people with too much money and too many graduate degrees. All I have to do is ask myself in whose company I would rather find myself with the barbarians at the gate: It won't be with tenured faculty. Posted by: Flea at January 15, 2007 04:31 PM Great interview with another stand up American. These men and women are going to be leading all of us at home when they return. God bless them. David Bourbon Posted by: David Bourbon at January 15, 2007 06:37 PM [Comment deleted by site administrator. Take your racism and insults somewhere else. -- ED] Posted by: Keith Keagy at January 15, 2007 09:09 PM Actually, Keith, there's a new law that doesn't allow anyone to avoid military service by fleeing to Canada. You'll have to flee to Ireland or something. And while I don't doubt some progress is being made over in Iraq, I doubt it will be enough. Good luck, Nathan. Posted by: Enigma at January 15, 2007 10:52 PM After the Kerry comments, several sources released info showing that: the percentage of high school grads among recruits is far higher than the general population and the poor are not disproportionately represented in the US military. Additionally, 98% of officers have undergrad or advanced degrees (which might even measure up to Icelandic standards, he said sarcastically). See, for example: Posted by: SD Neely at January 16, 2007 01:12 AM First of all I would like to thank you for a truly great article on soldier mentality, secondly I would like to apologize for any misspellings or grammatic errors as english is not my first language. David Posted by: David at January 16, 2007 08:16 AM Damned fine job, Bill. Just so you know, I hope you don't get your ass shot off. In either case, your stuff is journalism at its best. Arnold Harris Posted by: Arnold Harris at January 16, 2007 08:37 AM Notice that you like to censor out anybody that doesn't agree with you. That's typical military. For one...the best and the brightest go to college, the rest go in the military. You seriously think that just because you wear a uniform and get paid to kill innocent people tht you're a "hero"? I'll tell you who the heroes are...they're the ones who denounce this stupid war and refuse service. Iraq did not attack the US. The US attacked Iraq. Where's OSAMA? Posted by: Keith Keagy at January 16, 2007 09:36 AM A. I am not in the military. B. Your comment was censored because it employed a racist epithet and was otherwise abusive, which this site does not countenance. You are banned from further commenting. Please do not come back under another IP address, as all further comments from you will simply be deleted. I'll leave that last one up, as it's revealing of your character. Posted by: Bill from INDC at January 16, 2007 09:54 AM the best and the brightest go to college, the rest go in the military Approximately 80% of the National Guard unit I deployed to Iraq with either had college degrees, or were in college at the time of deployment. Posted by: Smith at January 16, 2007 11:45 AM Admirably written. This soldier is obviously much better educated and speaks far more eloquently than our commander in chief. If would be nice if we could have our political leaders be of as high caliber as our soldiers. Our president and all his associates dodged the Vietnam war, thought we would be greeted in Iraq as liberators, totally underestimated the efforts, did not listen to the advisors with real wartime experience, the president said he was never warned only to have it proven and documented he was indeed warned (same with Katrina), is finally coming around to listening to the advice of people with real experience whom he was insulting as unpatriotic only months before the election. Yet we have admirable patriotic men who are willing to sacrifice their lives to follow this commander in chief who has been proven misguided and incompetent more often than not. Our higher officers such as Powell have not had the patriotic guts to confront the president or Rumsfeld when clearly they were mistaken, yet the lowest on the ladder, the soldiers, are the true professionals trying their best to live honorably and nobly, the men with real valor. I am not a leftist, but at some point I wonder at the irony of sacrificing such admirable men and women while back in washington we have the likes of Bush, Libby, Cheney, Abramoff, Delay, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Pearle, Ney, etc making the decisions that send these soldiers into battle for a mission that seems to get redefined on a monthly basis, based on our decision makers being proven misguided yet again. What we need is for our soldiers to become our politicians, because the soldiers seem to be truly about serving. We need for the politicians to take our soldier's places (although we'd probably lose for sure in that case... but at least we'd thin out that portion of the gene pool which seems to be continuously dragging us into the Vietnams and Iraqs). That's when we'll see some real progress in the world, and in America. God Bless you and protect you! 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