By MICHAEL MOLINARO

After almost nine years, the Iraq War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, is over. What isn’t over is the lives of the U.S. military forces – all volunteers – who embody the newest class of veterans in the country, the last of whom returned home when President Barack Obama declared an end to the war on Dec. 14.

One such veteran, Manahawkin native Justin Rogers, found himself returning home on the very last plane to leave Iraq following the war’s conclusion.

“We were the last ones out of there – my unit. My plane was the last plane,” said Rogers, who left Iraq on Dec. 16 at around 11 p.m. in a group of the last remaining U.S. military presence, excepting the approximately 160 troops still stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

And what does a soldier do upon returning home from the Iraq War? He goes to Disney World! At least that is where Rogers was heading with his girlfriend Zaira Pichardo and her two children from his home in Miami while speaking with The SandPaper on Jan. 13.

Before graduating from Southern Regional High School in 2001, Rogers had joined a delayed entry program of the U.S. Army. On the fateful day of Sept. 11, 2001, he found himself on his first day of basic training.

“Honestly, we thought (at first) it was a joke,” said Rogers of the events of that day. “We thought it was a typical basic training spiel that they give. They told us terrorists just attacked the U.S. Nobody had been through basic training, and we thought they were giving a speech to get us motivated.”

Though Rogers was deployed to Afghanistan, he would not see Iraqi soil – or sand – until July of last year. By that time he had transferred from the Army infantry to the Air National Guard and found his unit activated during the twilight of the Iraq War. He handled base security, perimeter security and convoy escorts while stationed at the Victory Base Complex in Iraq, which he described as “probably the size of Barnegat without the Pine Barrens.”

Rogers believes the main reason his deployment was cut short and the war was ended has to do with disagreements over how Americans would fit into new Iraqi laws that were being established.
“They’re so corrupt that they would have situations where one person in a crowded marketplace might start shooting and we shoot back, then get charged on their laws and executed or jailed for life because we killed an Iraqi citizen while trying to defend our own lives. That’s what actually caused us to come home, because they couldn’t come up with an agreement. Iraq wanted us to be tried under their laws and the United States understandably was, like, ‘No way, you guys are way too corrupt for us to do this.’”

Rogers was able to legally retain employment with the State of New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs in Atlantic City while deployed in Iraq. He returned to work following his vacation, though he plans to move to Florida. He would then go to school for his Florida Department of Law Enforcement certification, hoping to eventually become a police officer in the state. He also plans on working toward an associate’s degree in nursing or paramedic studies in case law enforcement is unavailable.

Rogers is only one of a sea of prospective employees back on U.S. shores now that Operation Iraqi Freedom is over. Obama recently used the work ethic of the U.S. military in Iraq as a metaphor for the potential of the U.S. economy during his State of the Union speech, and a veterans’ jobs bill passed in November rewards companies with tax credits for hiring vets.
Another of that potentially employable crop is Iraq veteran and Manahawkin resident Matthew Georgi, who is currently taking full advantage of an expanded G.I. Bill that provides college tuition to veterans. Georgi returns to Rutgers University this semester to finish a degree in history he began before he made the decision to join the Army following the events of Sept. 11.

“I wanted to contribute,” he said. “There was so much more going on in the world, and I felt so small. There was a naïve sense of adventure also, wanting to kind of change the world in one way or another. I didn’t join the Army because I love violence. I thought it was a good way to get a job, get a special skill and an alternative to doing college.”

Georgi served three deployments to Iraq, from 2004 to 2005, 2007 to 2008, and 2009, working his way from Army infantry to intelligence officer. He was also hired privately as a contractor working for the government to provide intelligence to troops in the field.

He explained the extensive use of contractors during the war was a result of wanting to keep the number of government employees (U.S. military) down and because of the ease of letting contractors go. “It is easier when budget cuts come to cut the contract instead of firing 100 people,” Georgi said.

Though he could most likely find further employment in the intelligence field in such places as Afghanistan, Georgi hopes to stay stateside with his girlfriend. He also hopes the degree he is working toward will help him compete in a belt of employment that is ever tightening.
“A lot of vets are coming back to a country with a lot of smarter people that have a lot of education, but I’ve been to a lot of places these people haven’t.”

As it is for many veterans, it is those places Georgi has been and things he has seen that have created lasting issues following his time overseas. “It affected my daily life. Your car can get totaled just as easily as your mind can. I had to start thinking about things in different ways.”
Some things both Georgi and Rogers have had time to think about are the justification for the war itself, and whether or not the mission was truly accomplished.

“I think that’s something history will denote,” said Georgi. “Is Iraq a better place for us having gone there? I’m sure a lot would say no. There are so many ‘if’s,’ ‘and’s,’ and ‘what’s.’ It wasn’t a war over oil, which is one thing people might think. A lot of U.S. oil comes from Latin America, and Iraq oil goes mostly to China, Russia, and some to India. Was Iraq a threat? I don’t think Iraq was going to be invading South Carolina, but they were a direct threat to countries around them and to destabilizing that part of the world. The only thing I could do is do my job as best as I could.

“It’s hard to say whether we won as there was no standing visible enemy,” he said. “It’s not like our grandparents, where they went to fight the Nazis or the Empire of Japan. We’re very good about fighting a war against tanks and armies; we’re not very good at fighting a people and ideas.”
“Was it worth it overall?” said Rogers. “If you’re talking about 4,500 Americans losing their lives, I’m going to tell you no, it wasn’t worth it because that’s 4,500 people that aren’t going home to their families; 4,500 people that don’t have that extra person sitting down at their dinner table.

Yeah, it’s a better place to live for some, but it’s still got its issues.

“None of those soldiers and airmen and Marines lost their lives in vain. They lost their lives for a good thing, which was to try and make Iraq a more sovereign and stable nation.”

Despite arguments over the war, what seemed incontrovertible throughout and seems unwavering today is the undeniable support by the majority of Americans for the troops in the war. The question now is whether that support will transfer to stateside employment.

“People in the military are definitely always an asset to any country, no matter what the country is,” said Rogers. “Military builds that character of a hard-working person; it builds that discipline not to complain when things get a little tough. I guarantee whatever happens out there in civilian markets – no matter what it is – it’s not as tough as the military. Military prepares them to adapt and overcome any situation and to remain calm in any high stress situations, which are two important attributes to have when working for any business.”

michaelmolinaro@thesandpaper.net