Reservist: Troops hurt by Sheehan
Sgt. John Thompson calls protest ‘demoralizing,’ says media is only covering fighting, not the rebuilding.
By DAN MCLEAN For the Times Leader
FORKSTON – Cindy Sheehan’s anti-war protest that started outside of President Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch and will roll into Washington, D.C., later this month has raised the ire of a Wyoming County reservist.
"To have this woman go out there and say, ‘We need all our troops home right now because my son died,’ " Sgt. John Thompson said, shaking his head, sitting on the couch in his parents’ home. "Her son would be the first one to say, ‘We’re not done yet. Let us finish our job.’ "
Thompson, 35, said if he was killed in battle and his parents demonstrated against the war, "I’d come back and haunt them."
Seeing Sheehan protest the war is "demoralizing," he said. Worse even than seeing a fellow soldier coming under fire.
"That hurt far more than seeing my buddy get shot at because at least we expected that. We don’t expect getting stabbed in the back by the mother of one of us back home," Thompson said. "She’s hurting all the guys that are over there."
During the past 10 years, Thompson has served in regular Army, the National Guard and the Army Reserve. He remains in the Reserve and can be deployed again, but is waiting for knee surgery. Thompson said he hurt his knee coming out of a dump truck while in Iraq.
He also lost 40 percent of his hearing in his right ear when a rocket hit a Humvee next to him. Until his surgery is complete, he said, he can’t work and is "stuck living with his parents."
Thompson says normally he is not one to complain, nor is he very political.
However, Sheehan’s protest and the criticism of the war from politicians such as Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., prompted him to speak out.
"I’m asking the Kennedys and the Sheehans of the news to please shut up. … I don’t really care what your political affiliation is and I don’t care if you like our president or not. Please just help us do our difficult job by supporting our efforts and not making a political joke out of our sacrifices."
"Forget about why we’re there. We are there. Let’s finish what we set out to do," he said, flipping through stacks of pictures he took while serving in Iraq. "They want to be free. They really want it."
Thompson returned from Iraq in early May. He serves with the 365th Combat Engineers Army Reserves based in Scranton, but was deployed to Kuwait with the Texas-based 980th Combat Engineers in March 2004. One month later, he headed north to several bases in Iraq where he built infrastructure at new facilities and cleared make-shift bombs from the road to allow military convoys to proceed.
During a two-week leave last October when he returned to Pennsylvania, Thompson said he first became "angered" after watching television coverage of the war.
"They were playing it up. They were making it so much more than it was," he said of the violence in Iraq. "I was there."
"No one seems to know exactly what we are doing over there – except getting shot at and blown up," he said, criticizing American media outlets covering the war in Iraq. "They don’t go out and talk to the people. The average Iraqi wants a nine-to-five job and for his kids to go to school. And that’s what they are not reporting on the news."
Americans don’t realize soldiers are helping everyday Iraqis, he said, listing two elementary schools, a dental clinic, various roads and several temporary bridges he helped build.
The war in Iraq, regardless of the reasons it was started, is a "worthwhile mission," he said.
"We defend democracy so she can do what she wants to," Thompson’s platoon commander, Sgt. Kevin Walsh, said of Sheehan. "Her son paid the ultimate price. And she is entitled to do what she wants. If you don’t like it, just turn the channel."
Asked what he thought of Thompson speaking out against the anti-war mother, Walsh said, "That’s his call. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion."
Casey Sheehan, who first joined the U.S. Army in May 2000, was killed in action on April 4, 2004 at the age of 24. |