The war at home: How a faraway fight in Iraq is shaping the people of Snohomish County
Published 8:01 am Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Moms and dads cried when their sons and daughters went off to war. They cried again for joy when they returned unscathed.
Tears also poured for those who didn’t come back.
It’s been five years today since the United States began the invasion of Iraq.
Some have soured on war. Some are more committed than ever.
A total of 17 people with connections to Snohomish and Island counties have died in Iraq since the war started. Nationally, the number of U.S. war dead is approaching 4,000. About 29,400 have been wounded in action.
The U.S. likely will continue a military presence in Iraq for years, no matter who our next president is, said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., a member of the House Armed Services Committee. It will still take years to help the Iraqi military develop to a level where it can stand on its own, Larsen said.
The Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and 3,000 local sailors last week embarked on a second trip to the war zone. Another 600 crew members of two Everett destroyers accompanied the Lincoln.
The Lincoln was there at the beginning, sending warplanes to bomb enemy targets during the invasion of Iraq.
In May 2003, President Bush flew onto the Lincoln as it returned from a 290-day deployment, declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq, and thanked the Lincoln crew for its help in the war on terrorism.
Gail Hall, wife of Lincoln commander Capt. Patrick Hall, believes there’s a great deal of misunderstanding about the young people who serve on the aircraft carrier and elsewhere in the military.
“They serve for the same reason a firefighter serves or a police officer serves,” she said Tuesday. “You don’t have to agree or disagree with the war to appreciate the fact that these guys are willing to protect our freedom, as well as the people who are downtrodden and can’t fend for themselves.”
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Brian and Shellie Starr of Snohomish get discouraged when they hear people talk about Iraq and fail to acknowledge the progress that’s been made there since 2003.
Their son, Marine Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr, was killed May 30, 2005, in combat operations in Ramadi.
His sacrifice was memorialized in a speech by President Bush.
“We’re very proud of our son and his contribution to Iraq’s freedom,” Brian Starr said Tuesday. “It’s imperative that we don’t leave until there’s a just ending to the conflict and the Iraqis are standing on their own.”
“We’ve seen a lot of progress to that end,” he added.
The Starrs are in touch with the Marines in their son’s battalion, who regularly correspond with the family, Starr said.
Jeffrey Starr, a Snohomish High School graduate, had enlisted with the Marines in March 2001 and was just three weeks away from finishing his third tour in Iraq. A portion of his final letter to his fiance was quoted by President Bush in a speech about the war. The Starrs later met with the president.
Shellie Starr plans to travel to Olympia today to meet with Gov. Chris Gregoire, who plans to sign a bill honoring the mothers of fallen service men and women. The bill will allow commemorative license plates, and the Starrs plan to get one to honor their son.
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The Army announced last week that a soldier who lived briefly in Everett in 1999 was killed when the vehicle in which he was riding was demolished by a roadside bomb.
Sgt. Phillip R. Anderson, 28, is the most recent military person with connections here to die in the Iraqi conflict.
Anderson lived with a sister in Everett for about six weeks and briefly attended school here, said his father, Ken Anderson of Columbia, Mo. Phillip Anderson earned his General Education Development Certificate — better known as a GED — in Everett and then enlisted in the Army.
Ken Anderson said his son considered Columbia to be his hometown.
He met his wife, Melanie, while assigned to Fort Lewis near Tacoma. When he was deployed in November, his wife and their 1½-year-old son moved to Graham in Pierce County to be with her parents.
Phillip Anderson was on his second Iraq deployment. He was wounded and earned a Purple Heart in 2005, Ken Anderson said.
The Army sergeant and two other soldiers died in the attack.
“Growing up you had to stay on top of him. He definitely was a boy from day one,” Ken Anderson said. “He was rough and tough, but he loved animals, people and everything else.”
His dad said the Army helped his son mature.
“The Army was the best thing for him,” Ken Anderson said.
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Months-long deployments that put parents in war zones take a toll on kids. However, military families adjust, said Bill Landry, principal of English Crossing Elementary School in Lakewood.
Almost 10 percent of English Crossing students have parents in the military, most assigned to Naval Station Everett. The majority live in the Carroll’s Creek Landing development, which the Navy supports.
When ships set sail for a long deployment, there’s usually a small spike in behavior problems and withdrawn kids, said Landry. For the most part, though, children go on with their lives, he said.
There are no school-based support groups or programs for students with military parents at English Crossing, but many kids find help through Navy-supported programs. Students who are struggling with deployments are often referred to a YMCA after-school tutoring program just for military kids, Landry said.
“The kids are pretty resilient because it’s an expectation,” he said. “I think the families do a nice job of letting the students know it’s coming and leading up to it and supporting them afterwards.”
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Navy Chief Patrick Wade was a man of action, not words. When he committed to something, he stuck it through to the end, his widow said Tuesday.
Wade had one of the toughest jobs in the Iraq war. He was assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11, a small group of about 160 sailors who are trained to get rid of unexploded shells and to disarm dangerous roadside bombs. The unit is based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Oak Harbor.
It was a roadside bomb that killed Wade and Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey L. Chaney, 35, in July.
Their deaths stunned the small unit and the whole Oak Harbor community. The pair were among six members of the unit killed in Iraq during a seven-month span in 2007.
Keri Wade is taking care of her two children, ages 3 ½ and 1 ½. She is just beginning to cope with her husband’s death.
“I think we are just starting to … incorporate what we had before,” she said of her relationship with her children. She’s spending more quality time, making “treasure minutes,” with the kids.
“It’s been a struggle. You go from being a team,” she said. “I already felt I was giving 100 percent before and then it was overwhelming to feel like you had to make it 200 percent.”
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The Iraq war has brought a mixture of emotions for a Darrington couple. They sent two sons off to the Iraq war. Both are home again.
“They did well. They served their country good. And they made it,” said Rod VanLanningham of his sons Damien, 26, and Dana, 24.
He and their mother, Vonne, knew their sons wanted to serve their country and supported that decision. On the other hand, there were anxious moments and attempts to not think about their sons in war.
“It’s hard to explain,” he said. “It really wears you down. I did a lot of praying and things worked out. That’s the good part.”
Damien VanLanningham served in both Afghanistan and Iraq as a U.S. Army Ranger. He made eight trips into combat.
Dana spent a pair of yearlong deployments in Iraq, sometimes driving supply trucks, sometimes serving guard duty. He was injured once when part of a wall fell on him during a mortar attack, his dad said.
Dana VanLanningham’s second deployment was the roughest.
“The second one was really hard on the whole company,” his dad said. “We had to pull the family together and support him way more than the first tour.”
Dana got out of the Army in June and is now attending the University of Idaho. Damien remains in the Rangers as a first-class sergeant at a base in Georgia, is married and is expecting a second child in June.
Although supportive of his sons, Rod VanLanningham now has his doubts about the Iraq war. Dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled and captured nearly five years ago.
“We need to get out of there,” VanLanningham said. “We gave (the Iraqis) a good shot in the arm. We helped them get started. It needs to be up to them. We can’t do it for them.”
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Some people here are focused on healing. During the past five years, Michael Reagan, 60, has drawn 1,050 portraits of service men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to present to their families.
Throughout his 35-year career, the Edmonds artist has been paid well for thousands of celebrity portraits. Those drawings, though, simply prepared him for what he sees as his calling.
“I am going to do as many free portraits (of the troops) as I am asked to do. I am so proud of them and I’ve dedicated the rest of my life to this,” Reagan said. “I will be available until no one asks anymore.”
The portrait project is about love and respect for the troops and their families, said Reagan, a Vietnam War combat veteran. “This country has a broken heart and I am trying to help push those pieces of heart back together.”
The Stanwood-Camano Hero Quilters group has delivered 150 quilts to the wounded at the Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis.
The group has about 60 more quilts in various stages of completion and about 40 people are involved in the local effort, including those who have donated money to buy the red, white and blue material used for the quilts, said Sharon Szekely of Camano Island.
The group has stepped up its production of quilts to help meet the need at the new Warrior Transition Center at Fort Lewis, where about 600 to 800 wounded troops are expected to get treatment, she said.
“For every one of the 4,000 dead, there are many more who have been wounded,” Szekely said. “We want to help and show our appreciation for those who have served.”
The Stanwood-Camano Hero quilters includes people who support the war, and those who don’t. They plan to keep making quilts until hospitals don’t need them anymore.
“We hope we don’t have to keep making them forever,” Szekely said.
Reporter Kaitlin Manry contributed to this report.
