2
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2004
UNC student soldiers share views from Iraq
Aim to serve nation, help Iraqi citizens
BY ADAM RODMAN
STAFF WRITER
In October 2003, UNC sopho
more Chris Arndt was in line with
his friends at Southpoint Cinemas
when he received a phone call
from his Army Reserve unit he
was going to Iraq.
“I knew for a while that I was
probably going to get deployed,” he
stated in an e-mail sent from Iraq.
“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out
that the Army is stretched thin, and
they’re using everyone they have.
“So really, I was relieved to finally
know something for certain instead
of wondering what could happen.”
At least four students have with
drawn from the University since
/"■ -N
theory •
juicy couture 4 ■„
citizens ofkunuuuty
Chapel Hill
452 West Franklin St ;] k‘
919.933.4007 B
Raleigh
Cameron Village % M
919.832.1234 TP**.. ”
open every day
www.uniquities.com
V >
CHECK OUT
THE HEW
HOTTIE.
I>j ij 1101
NEW CAMPBELL’S' CHUNKY CHILI.
vmw.chunkyontour.com
the beginning of the semester to
serve in the military, said Emily
Gay, a unit coordinator in the
Office of the University Registrar.
Arndt, who serves in the 227th
Transportation Company, said he
joined the Army ROTC and U.S.
Army Reserve to help the country
he deeply loves.
“I also wanted a way for tre
mendous personal growth, and I
knew that the high-paced, stressful
nature of the military would chal
lenge me,” he wrote.
Rafael Barbosa, a UNC sopho
more and veteran of the Bosnian
war in 1999 who also served in
Afghanistan as a national guards
man with the first and 130th
Aviation Regiment, joined for simi
lar reasons.
“I wanted to give something
back to society,” he said. “I feel like
my four years were as important as
one piece of one giant puzzle.”
Although Arndt said he and the
other soldiers are mostly well off,
the mental stress is the hardest
part of serving in Iraq.
The most difficult part of ship
ping out, Arndt said, wasn’t fear
of a foreign culture or of working
under enemy fire.
“Leaving school was the tough
est part and as I speak ... now
7,000 miles away, UNC is what I
miss most,” he wrote.
UNC’s meticulously kept build
ings stand in stark contrast to the
war-ravaged Iraqi landscape. The
soldiers witnessed firsthand what
decades of fighting and a repressive
regime have done to the country.
“There is evidence of conflict
everywhere,” stated sophomore
Jason Barber in an e-mail. He is
serving with the 252nd Armor
Regiment in the Kurdish region of
northern Iraq.
“The countryside is covered
with berms, trenches and fight
ing positions, which are a constant
reminder of what this country has
been through.”
Buildings and people through
out the nation still carry war scars,
he said. He has seen the remains
of entire Kurdish villages that
were slaughtered during Saddam
Hussein’s reign.
Despite the damage to the coun
try and the tense military situation,
Amdt said helping the Iraqis is one
of the best parts of his deployment
“In many ways, they’re just like
us,” he wrote. “They want die same
things in life peace for the family,
a hope for the future, a better life.”
Barber’s experiences with the
Iraqis were equally positive, espe
cially with the children.
“The kids love candy, play soccer
and would talk your ear off if given
half a chance,” he said.
And amid that chatter were
thanks for the soldiers’ help in
rebuilding the Iraqis’ fallen cities.
Still, Arndt realizes that much
remains unfinished in Iraq.
“We have lots of work to do, and
the Iraqi people have decades of
work to undo the scars of a repres
sive regime and years of war,
including this one,” Amdt wrote.
CCSC Brands. L.P 2004
News
.''aSi , /i y
COURTESY OF JASON BARBER
lason Barber, a UNC sophomore in Army ROTC, shows his school spirit while he poses on a mountain
range in northern Iraq. Barber was called to active duty with the 252nd Armor Regiment in August 2003.
Where average Iraqis support
the efforts to rebuild, the insur
gents are doing their best to dis
rupt this work, Amdt said.
He recalled a man who joined
the Iraqi National Guard so he
could have a weapon with which
to protect his family. Students from
his daughter’s school waved at an
American convoy, and a group of
insurgents threatened to blow up
the school and kill all the children
if it ever happened again.
“The people we are fighting aren’t
freedom fighters or minutemen,
they’re criminals and thugs,” he
wrote. “I connected with that Iraqi
man and the fact he had such a love
for his people and his family.”
But whether the situation in
Iraq is actually improving is up for
debate, senior Emran Huda stated
in an e-mail. Huda is serving in the
Diyala Province in Iraq.
“The last few weeks have been
anxious,” he wrote. “I’m not sure if
things have gotten better or worse
here, there seem to be enough
events to support both claims.”
The soldiers stress that the actions
taken by insurgents shouldn’t be
viewed as representative of the gen
eral population, and many believe
the American media sensationalizes
the situation in Iraq.
Lm jL jM
Friday, November 12,2004 • 4:00 p.m.
Cobb Theater ♦ Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
Free and open to the public.
The lecture will be preceded by a special performance by
photographer and National Public Radio storyteller Jesse Kalisher.
Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor at Columbia University and a senior fellow in
international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is one of the world's most
important and engaging scholars of international trade and immigration and a leader in the fight
for freer trade. A prolific author, Bhagwati has published more than 300 articles and 50 volumes.
He writes frequently for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times,
as well as reviews for The New Republic and The Times Literary Supplement.
Jagdish Bhagwati's lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is organized by
the University Center for International Studies as part of its Distinguished Speakers Series.
For more information, please contact Kim Glenn at kim_glenn@unc.edu or at 919/843-2403.
Campus parking information is available at www.unc.edu/visitors.
“Leaving school was the toughest part
and as I speak ... now 7,000 miles away,
UNC is what I miss most”
CHRIS ARNDT, UNC SOPHOMORE, U.S. ARMY RESERVE, 227TH transportation company
“I know good news doesn’t sell
like bad news does, but I rarely ever
see any good news on this struggle,”
Amdt wrote.
The media fails to show how
much the Iraqis want the coalition
in their country, Barber said.
“After all, if 25 million Iraqis
wanted the 150,000 coalition sol
diers to leave, we wouldn’t be here
now,” he wrote. “The media shows
the bombings but none of the
building.”
As for the UNC soldiers, they
want to return to pulling all-night
ers and writing papers once their
tours of duty are over, but their
future plans could be interrupted
by a call to serve again.
“The Army is stressed right now,
and many people are gearing up for
a second tour here,” Amdt wrote. “I
think that many people will return
here for a second time, and if it
happens to me, then I’ll just do the
best job I can.”
Barber’s wife, Joy, said she has
atyr Sathj (Bar MM
feared her husband being called
back to duty since his first day.
“It’s weighing heavily on my
mind,” she said. “He expects he’ll get
called up again in the next five years.
We’ll have to put off having kids.”
Despite the violence, the strag
gles he’s seen and the threat of
being called again for active duty,
Arndt said he sees improvement
in Iraq.
“Every day, I see reasons for hope
in this country and the cause.”
Contact the Features Editor
atfeatures@unc.edu.
(Bfyr iailij (Bar Mrrl
P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Michelle Jarboe, Editor, 962-4086
Advertising & Business, 962-1163
News, Features, Sports, 962-0245
One copy per person; additional copies may be
purchased at The Daily Tar Heel for $.25 each.
O 2004 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved