When you think of our veterans and all they've given, just what have the rest of us sacrificed?

By CHRISTIE VILSACK
November 28, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C.

I find his name quickly on the wall that honors the men and women who died during the Vietnam War. Panel 17, halfway up. Stanley Ross graduated with me at Mount Pleasant High School, class of ’68.

It is a beautiful Sunday morning. On the National Mall, trees tinged with scarlet and orange wreath the pool, their fall colors reflected in the water. Only a few homeless men trudge slowly, carrying their few possessions. It is still too early for tourists. Lining the path that winds beside the wall are wreaths: AMVETS, VFW, bronze and write chrysanthemums, purple ribbons, left there as a Veterans Day tribute.

I continue my pilgrimage to the Lincoln Memorial. I am alone with Mr. Lincoln, except for a security guard. Scaffolding obscures the words to the Second Inaugural Address, delivered near the end of the American Civil War, in March 1865. The guard says they’re repainting the words.

The final paragraph reads: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan to do all which we may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and all nations.”

These words come alive again for me.

The day before, Tom and I had visited Sgt. Bobby Briggs, an Iowan hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the of the 224th Engineer Battalion, of the Iowa Army National Guard, which is based in southeast Iowa but which has been on war duty in Iraq.

The Associated Press story regarding Sgt. Briggs said he “suffered head injuries” from shrapnel in a mortar attack April 16, 2005, west of Baghdad. The incident occurred at Camp Ramadi when insurgents launched a mortar attack and struck a building at the camp. Two other Iowa Guard soldiers were also injured that day.

That report doesn’t have the emotional kick of seeing Bobby lying in a hospital bed minus his right eye, waiting to find out if he has to have another surgery later in the day, resulting from the complications of his injury. His wife Michelle is here and Bobby’s sister. At home in little Hillsboro in southeast Iowa, Bobby’s mother is taking care of their children, Ashlea, who will turn six in a few days and one year-old Cody.

Michelle says their children need the stability of home. She feels lucky to have extended family to help. Trying to keep young children occupied here would be difficult. Besides, Michelle is engaged in her own battle. She is fighting the system to be sure her husband and her family get the resources they need to survive this catastrophe.

First we talk about connections. Michelle quit her job working for Mount Pleasant veterinarian Rich Howie to care for her family. Bobby works for the Iowa Department of Transportation in Mount Pleasant. He grew up in Keokuk, where his family still lives. We joke about sports rivalries. We talk about the other guys from the 224th, Bobby’s friends, whom we have known since they were children.

Then Michelle talks about the issues confronting her and her family. Traveling to visit Bobby is expensive. Expenses are mounting and she isn’t bringing home a paycheck. Their community has raised money to help, but it’s not enough. She mentions that in Minnesota, National Guardsmen and women seriously wounded receive a one-time disability payment of $10,000 to help with expenses like travel, lodging and childcare.

Tom tells Michelle that many states, including Iowa, currently give tuition assistance to people who serve in the Guard if they want to go to college. This amounts to 100 percent of the average tuition to a state university. Families also receive counseling when troops return from combat. For state workers, if Guard pay is less than what they’d make at home, the state makes up the difference. Iowa is the only state that gives National Guard members who are first-time home buyers assistance with closing costs. But Iowa doesn’t have the one-time disability payment for severely injured Guard members. He assures Michelle that that he will ask the Legislature to correct that with a supplemental request for funds.

As I walk back toward the Washington Monument, I stop at the World War II Memorial and run my fingers over the letters I-O-W-A on the stone that commemorates our state. I think of my dad, a Navy aviator. I think of the men and women who stood last Sunday at the Civic Center in Des Moines when the Veterans Band played the anthems of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard.

I think again of Bobby’s sacrifice, of Michelle’s sacrifice, of Ashlea’s sacrifice, of Cody’s sacrifice, and I hear the governor’s words when he asked an audience recently, “What have we sacrificed, we who have not sent loved ones to a dangerous place?”

As we stuff our turkeys and ourselves during the holidays; as we thank God for our prosperity and our health; as we gather with families to exchange gifts, maybe we can think of Bobby Briggs and all the other Iowans serving abroad and ask ourselves, “What we are willing to sacrifice on their behalf?”

There are the easy things we can do, like volunteer a little more time, throw a little more money into the pot for the bell ringers or into the plate at church. What might really make a difference is the call or conversation we have with our state legislators. It is going to take the collective will of the Iowa community to assure that we take care of the men and women who have put themselves in harm’s way.

We can give President Lincoln’s words new life. We can give Veterans Day new meaning.

By the way, if you want to send Sgt. Bobby Briggs a card to thank him for his service, you can send it to 1373 Salem Road, Hillsboro, Iowa 52630.