Talk of the Town - Whitley County

(Talk of the Town photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano)  Columbia City veteran Doug Fahl, below, stands in Greenhill Cemetery today during the Memorial Day observance ceremony held there. Fahl participated in the color guard during the ceremony held just before noon today.

By Jennifer Zartman Romano

On Memorial Day, our thoughts turn to the men and women who’ve served our country during the many periods of war in our history.

We quickly think of veterans our grandparents’ age, the men who served in World War II, or of those soldiers who served in Vietnam or maybe a few, younger still, who served in Desert Storm. But the faces of our soldiers grow younger each day – with many young men and women serving overseas now in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever else this War on Terror takes them.

One of the younger faces of a veteran belongs to Columbia City resident Doug Fahl.

Today, Fahl rode in a parade float through the streets of Columbia City, waiving and smiling to friends and family along the way – a happier time and place than where he was a few short months ago. He recently shared his experience in Iraq with Columbia City Rotary members.

Last year, Fahl served as a JAG in Iraq with the National Guard’s 76^th Infantry Brigade, an experience that brought him face to face with an often unseen enemy and with America’s 21^st Century soldiers.

Fahl’s pre-mobility training, prior to being sent overseas, included important convoy logistics, search and attack and an explanation of third world war tactics.

“They had us out in the woods,” Fahl said. “But I looked all over and I did not see any woods in Iraq.”

“We learned a lot about the techniques the enemy was using, including the use of IEDs (roadside bombs),” Fahl said. “It’s a unique challenge to face an enemy that won’t face you.”

But the American soldier, like the scores of soldiers in wars since our country began, utilizes skill and ingenuity to prevail.

“The American soldier is a very adaptive, creative soldier,” Fahl said, relating stories of the young men and women who are fighting today who’ve helped create tools that save lives on the battlefield each day. He spoke of the 22-year-old soldier who created the Rhino, a arm-like device with coolant, that reaches out front the front of a vehicle to trip a roadside bomb, saving the military vehicle and its occupants.

The sense of ingenuity and creative-thinking is necessary each day because, according to Fahl, the enemy is using those same skills. “Iran supplies terrorists with many of their weapons,” he said. “They are very industrious people who use crude and random items to create weapons. “Most of the explosives they have – we sold to them to my knowledge,” he said of deals that were made decades ago.

Fahl left for Kuwait on a C130,  with a hammock for a seat and no lights inside. He landed an hour north of Iraq and was sent to provide convoy security.

In Iraq, the sand and dust hung in the air much like talcum powder. “It would get into everything and it hung in the air like fog,” he said. The soldiers lived in containerized housing units much like semi-trailers, but furnished.

“Really, they were pretty comfortable compared to the tents in Kuwait,” he said.

As expected, they found themselves in various scrapes and trouble. His group worked through the night because it was safer for convoys to travel in the dark. Fahl said the enemy relies primarily on sight using cell phones and they do not have much in the way of night vision technology.

“We’d be rolling out each day and not knowing what was going to happen that night,” Fahl said. Prayer, he said, was an important part of each day – praying together as they left before each mission.

“We felt like it was a tough job, but that we were going to get it done,” he said.

Fahl’s biggest surprise overseas was the sheer enormity of the base in Balad and the numbers of troops he saw there. The Iraqi people he met were very much like anyone living near an Army base, Fahl said.

“They are very reliant on the base in the Iraqi Based Industrial Zone. It has had a huge impact on their economy,” he said. “For them, this is an exciting time. They didn’t ask a lot from their government – just not to be taken from their families, from their homes or to be beaten and killed in the night.”

In his experience in Iraq, most of the enemies he encountered were paid to fight the troops and were not members of religious extremist groups.

Regardless of what the future holds in Iraq, Fahl believes the US will always have a presence there.

“A lot of American troops are dialing down there and you see more contractors there to work,” he said.

When Fahl returned home, he said he was struck by the color of everything around him – the vibrance of American life.

“Boy, when I got home and saw the brilliance and color around me,” he said, smiling.

 “When I hear news about the doom and gloom – that’s just not the country I’m seeing coming back home,” Fahl said.

After nine months without rain, he’s thrilled to have the experience of a rainy day and after 18 months of desert sand, he was actually excited to watch the shades of green appear on the lawn and in the trees of his Columbia City home this spring. He relished the opportunity to cut the grass for the first time – his first opportunity to mow his lawn in 18 months.

“I feel so proud to have served my country and to have served with the others in my unit,” Fahl said. “It’s been a really great experience to have the welcome we had when we came back.”