Finding a local story about the Iraq war is difficult. But there are a lot of things that go on that are related to the war. I grew up on a naval base. My dad was in the military my step dad retired military. Both grandparents on one side of the family were in the navy as well. And I have an uncle who is still in the army. So through out the duration of my life I’ve had a slightly different perspective on what went on with any incident involving military action.
When talking specifically about the Iraq war there is not too much involvement on any one person in my families part. With the exception of my uncle who I will be doing an interview with. But by the time the Iraq war was in full my step dad was on shore duty then retired shortly after. But in some ways he is still involved with the things that go on in Iraq. At present he works at world airways which is the company who does the majority of transport for soldiers over seas. Sometimes he’ll tell us about when he goes to work and schedules a full flight from the middle of nowhere Midwest in the united states to the middle east somewhere that he knows that a plane full of the reserves just got flown out. He said that there are an increasing number of flight coming back but there are still a lot going out. From the way he sees it, the United States military is running out of soldiers so they are having to go to the reserves.
World airways does do a lot of things for the local soldiers, or at least the ones being flown out of Atlanta. a lot of times the company will decorate the planes with art work that they have collected from the local schools. They will also leave baked goods in the seat for the soldiers. When the soldiers actually get on the planes they often have people standing at the gates handing out beanie babies. These gestures are mainly to show that people do care and are supporting the soldiers even if they do not support the war. I helped decorate one of the planes that was leaving out over Christmas. Which during the holidays it is especially important to be supportive. With the plane I helped to decorate, it was scheduled to leave out a few days before Christmas. It is hard enough to have to leave your family behind, but even harder during the holidays. a lot of times there are welcome back groups, and my step-dad often attend these.
There are actually a lot of groups that do thing like this but they are not often heard of. In my hometown anytime a squadron left or came back there was always a lot of commotion. There would be banners and always a farewell or welcoming group. While a squadron was gone people were always sending packages out to the soldiers. Here in Atlanta I don’t notice this as much. I actually saw someone on a corner saying something against soldiers. But when I started to look into it I did find there is a lot of support for the soldiers. Not necessarily the war, but the soldiers. Especially in churches. There are a lot of organizations supporting the local men and women over seas. No matter what church I go to there is always time set aside for prayer for those who are serving and have served. At the church I go to back in Newnan there is a wall set up for everyone in the area who is over seas. There is a picture and information about where they are from and where they are now.
The local red Cross also has services supporting the soldiers in Iraq as well as their families in the area. The majority of the counties have their own chapter of the red cross. The red cross offers support groups for the families of soldiers as well as services like emergency communication. Emergency communication allows the families of the soldiers to be able to get a hold of them if there is ever a major emergency like a death or birth.
So while it seems like there is not much going on locally surrounding the war, when you really look into it there is a lot of support. There are many groups who may not support the war but do support our soldiers.
