Jamie Koerner

    The long journey home was actually longer than he thought.
     A good friend of mine from high school was deployed to Iraq about two years ago. He was scheduled to return home in February 2007, but his deployment time was increased by about four months. He returned June 24 to Lincoln. On O Street, people were packed from 84th to the Haymarket (9th St.). There were approximately 5,000 people at Haymarket Park, Lincoln, to greet the estimated 250 soldiers from Lincoln, Beatrice, Fairbury, Fremont, Wahoo and Crete.
     Families across the country have loved ones away at war. One of the comments I've heard most from soldiers who've been away is it almost feels like their deployment was a dream, a part of their life that remains separate from life in the U.S.
     Being that so many of us here have not served abroad, we cannot entirely relate to the emotion that goes with serving our country.
     We need to remember that asking questions and not forgetting that so many young soldiers have returned and want to talk about their experience in Iraq is as important as supporting them while they are away.
     I don't think it's that soldiers want everyone to understand and know what it was like to serve in Iraq, but each soldier needs some form of expression to keep the memory alive and in perspective.
     Their experience in Iraq affects who they are today and being able to talk about it will help the soldiers and their families talk, listen, smile and move on together in their lives.
     To get a better perspective of what returning home to the states feels like, I talked to a 22-year-old soldier who served in Iraq and returned home in August 2007.
     "It's kinda like a dumbfounded happiness [when you return home]," said the soldier. "You get this feeling when you're back that you know you are smiling, but you can't stop and you don't even want to try."
     He also explained how the feeling of culture while living in the U.S. and serving in the military in Iraq is different.
     "Things there are fundamentally the same and also fundamentally so different than what you could experience in the U.S.," he said. "You can have people understand some parts of the experience, but there is no way you can fully convey and have someone understand the things that you experienced."
     Then, he talked about the different mindset between here and military life abroad.
     "There is a completely different mind-set there than you have here," he said. "For example, when you are driving down the road here you see roadkill and you don't even look twice. In Iraq if you see roadkill, you need to be aware of your surroundings because there may be roadside bombs in the area. There are a lot of things you have to deal with differently than you do here."
     He said that on the enclosed base where his unit was stationed, he and the other soldiers had more concern with indirect fire, like artillery mortars hitting the base, than roadside bombs.
     When he was in Iraq, he said he missed family and friends the most.
     Since moving back to the U.S., he said he misses the simplicity of life in Iraq the most.
     "It was less complicated because all you had to do was worry about your job and the rest of the time was free time," he said. "A lot of the things that people deal with in their personal lives [in the U.S] do affect their lives in Iraq, a little, but you don't have to directly deal with them. It is hard to explain."
     After thinking a moment he said, "It is easier because there was not much you could do about things related to your personal life in the U.S. in Iraq; you can only do so much through talking and writing emails. Then, you have to rely on yourself and understand that you are not [in the U.S.] anymore – with your family and friends. Also, you don't have to try to figure out what you are going to do on the weekends – once you get those things out of the way life tends to be a lot simpler, but the simplicity you have over there is one of the things that makes it so difficult because it gives you more time to think about everything and worry. In the states you may not have the time to do that."
     He also described what it was like to get the call to serve in Iraq.
     "It is very stressful until you resign yourself to the fact that there is nothing you can do to change what may happen," he said. "The more you worry about it, the more what may happen will affect you and the less effective you will be in what you do. You just develop a sense of acceptance with the situation. I know when I got the call I was proud, it was nice to know that I was finally going to go to get it over with, yeah, but it is also one of the greatest things you can do for your country."
     He said not to worry about the things you cannot change because it's a waste of time.
     "You really have to leave a lot up to God,," he said. "The less time I spend worrying about it, the more time I have to enjoy things."