Study Distractions
Semester of War
Kurt Preston
Issue date: 7/15/03 Section: Perspectives
Keeping my head in the books and studying for finals last spring was particularly hard because of the war in Iraq.
Besides being an evening division law student, I am a reserve officer, so my mind kept wandering. It kept forcing my fingers to bring up the Internet news or flip on the TV. Of course, I wondered if I was going to be called up again. Or I would have a fleeting memory of my time in the Mid-East, or more recently in the Balkans. But mostly I thought about all the friends deployed and hoped they were doing okay.
Jeez, there are a lot. Alan is there. He is a Special Forces reserve officer who worked as an international lawyer. Acting as extras for a "Treasure Island" birthday party, we first met dressed as pirates. He left a few weeks after 911 - haven't seen him since. The dad of the kid having the party is gone, too. I received a digital news photo of one friend being interviewed about the water pipeline he was building from Kuwait to Iraq.
Michelle, a very sharp engineer captain, is probably over there. She designed the breaks on the Ford Focus.
Then there is Bob. He worked in the cubicle next to mine.
Bob is an interesting case. He is the commander of a Civil Affairs unit. Civil Affairs units are made up of people who work to put a country back together after a war. Since most, if not all, of these units are in the reserve components, they have been particularly busy this decade.
I joked with Bob that when the President sneezes, he gets deployed. The last two or three Presidents have done plenty of sneezing. Panama, Haiti, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Afghanistan, now this one. Bob's reserve career reads like a who-is-who of international crisis.
Married with two kids, middle-aged, glasses and balding, Bob is about the least likely person you would imagine setting a country back on its feet. Imagine Mr. Rogers in BDUs, and you got Bob. He is the kind of guy that tears up when he tells his story of getting new technical manuals for the Sarajevo Waterworks.
Besides being an evening division law student, I am a reserve officer, so my mind kept wandering. It kept forcing my fingers to bring up the Internet news or flip on the TV. Of course, I wondered if I was going to be called up again. Or I would have a fleeting memory of my time in the Mid-East, or more recently in the Balkans. But mostly I thought about all the friends deployed and hoped they were doing okay.
Jeez, there are a lot. Alan is there. He is a Special Forces reserve officer who worked as an international lawyer. Acting as extras for a "Treasure Island" birthday party, we first met dressed as pirates. He left a few weeks after 911 - haven't seen him since. The dad of the kid having the party is gone, too. I received a digital news photo of one friend being interviewed about the water pipeline he was building from Kuwait to Iraq.
Michelle, a very sharp engineer captain, is probably over there. She designed the breaks on the Ford Focus.
Then there is Bob. He worked in the cubicle next to mine.
Bob is an interesting case. He is the commander of a Civil Affairs unit. Civil Affairs units are made up of people who work to put a country back together after a war. Since most, if not all, of these units are in the reserve components, they have been particularly busy this decade.
I joked with Bob that when the President sneezes, he gets deployed. The last two or three Presidents have done plenty of sneezing. Panama, Haiti, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Afghanistan, now this one. Bob's reserve career reads like a who-is-who of international crisis.
Married with two kids, middle-aged, glasses and balding, Bob is about the least likely person you would imagine setting a country back on its feet. Imagine Mr. Rogers in BDUs, and you got Bob. He is the kind of guy that tears up when he tells his story of getting new technical manuals for the Sarajevo Waterworks.
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