Locals among contingent of 136,000 U.S. troops establishing order

By Town Crier Staff Report,

Capt. Mark Kiehle of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion participates in Operation River Gate in October 2005 near Barwana, Iraq.

Amid the political fallout over the continued U.S. presence in Iraq, American men and women serving in that war-torn country are simply trying to do their duty. Nearly a million soldiers have served or are serving with coalition forces since the war in Iraq began in 2003. Last week, a U.S. Deptartment of Defense spokesperson estimated approximately 136,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in Iraq.

Virtually every community has felt some local impact from the conflict. Los Altos is no exception. The Town Crier has made contact with several Los Altos-area residents and their families whose experiences range from the mundane to the horrific. Some have not made it back.

But those on the front line believe they are making a difference in helping Iraqis get back on their collective feet. They’re proud of the teamwork and camaraderie that comes with working together.

“It’s disturbing for most of us who have served during wartime to see the press be so negative when there are really a lot of good things going on over there,” said Ken Girdley, member of the Los Altos American Legion.

The Town Crier offers a few of those experiences here.

The experienced marine:

Capt. Mark Kiehle, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps

Los Altan Mark Kiehle is on his second tour of duty in Iraq and has survived two explosive attacks.

After graduating from the University of Colorado in 1997, Kiehle was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps. A 1993 graduate of Mountain View High School, Kiehle had family in the armed forces and said he had been interested in the military since he was a young boy. He said that he continues to believe in the military profession.

“When I was 23 years old I was in charge of 60 people and $3 million worth of equipment,” Kiehle said. “Not too many 23-year-olds in the private sector could claim that kind of responsibility.”

Kiehle’s battalion, deployed to Iraq last September, operates out of Camp Korean Village in western Iraq. The nearest town, Ar Rutbah, is 15 miles away. Most days, Kiehle stands watch in the Battalion Combat Operations Center tracking events such as convoy movements and insurgent attacks.

“It’s not too different from what I would be doing if we were conducting full-scale combat operations,” Kiehle said. “(But) things happen at a much slower tempo,” he said, now that active war has ended in Iraq.

When Kiehle wrote to the Town Crier, the weather in his area was rainy, overcast with thunderstorms and quite cold.

He communicates with home (his mother Genevieve and twin sister Ingrid live in Los Altos) through e-mail or satellite phone. Kiehle said that in some respects, life at Camp Korean Village is like that at a community college. “We all know each other, we eat at the same dining facility and we all are here for the same purpose,” he said. His fellow Marines “joined because they wanted to serve their country and be a part of something bigger than themselves,” Kiehle said.

He has survived two improvised explosive device (IED) attacks while moving in a convoy on major roads. In both cases, vehicle armor, body armor and Kevlar helmets were adequate protection, Kiehle said.

“After the explosion, it takes a couple of seconds for it to register that someone has just tried to kill you,” he said. “Your first instinct is to make sure that no one on your vehicle has been injured. Then you … verify that no one else in the convoy was injured and … start looking for the triggerman who set off the IED.”

“When (Mark) tells me he’s in charge of a whole group of 30 Marines, I can’t tell you how much respect I have for him,” Ingrid said. “He’s grown - he’s an adult man now. He can be demanding but also gain the respect of the guys.

“He really has an understanding about what he got himself into. He knows he signed himself up for this,” she said. “I don’t watch the news because I know they won’t tell me the good (being done). Mark tells me to watch BBC because they do both sides. I still want my brother to come home, but as a whole I think we are making a difference (in Iraq).

“I think about Mark’s getting killed over there and think, ‘Damnit, he hasn’t lived his life long enough.’ But I know if he dies during combat, he died doing what he loves,” she said.

The new recruit:

Lance Cpl. Mark Harvey, Marine artillery observer, 1st Battalion, 14th Regiment

Twenty-year-old Mark Harvey, Los Altos High School graduate, joined the Marines last year because he wanted to do something hard. “My parents were shocked and didn’t want me to go,” Harvey said. “But after boot camp they were probably some of the proudest parents there could be. They saw the sense of accomplishment I had, learning things, gaining life experience - doing something with myself.”

Harvey said that watching the attacks on Sept. 11 inspired his interest in enlisting. But he added, “You could say that I had a great call to serve my country. I felt compelled to do so because I was so privileged, growing up in Los Altos. It’s not fair for people from the South and lower-income areas to bear the burden for everybody.”

Harvey’s unit is scheduled to leave for the Anwar province west of Baghdad this month. He is currently training in the desert in Southern California. As an observer for the artillery, Harvey is trained to support a platoon or company by calling for fire support such as artillery, mortars or aircraft. But he will go to Iraq as military police rather than artillery - “to provide security for the Iraqi people,” he said. “I’m not going to Iraq to kill Iraqis, I’m going there to provide stability so that they can have a chance at a life like we did. We’re building schools for kids and water purification plants.”

On an average day, Harvey expects to conduct security patrols, convoy protection, route reconnaissance and IED sweeps. “I’m a little guy, I weigh about 140 pounds and usually I’m carrying over a hundred pounds of gear with me.”

As the cold season ends, he anticipates the temperature will climb well above 100 degrees. “All of my gear is going to be an extra 15 degrees of heat,” he said. “These flak jackets do not breathe whatsoever. Our cooling technology is water - drink water.”

Harvey has no female colleagues because women are not admitted to combat units in the Marines. He is receiving cultural training in Arabic phrases and gestures (how to avoid impolite ones) and how to respectfully avoid Iraqi women. American women are attached to some Marine units in Iraq for the special purpose of interacting with Iraqi women, he said.

Harvey said that it is a challenge to be a peacekeeper as well as a warrior. “People who join the military think they’re going to fight a certain enemy who’s wearing a certain uniform. Fighting guerrilla warfare … you don’t know who is on your side or who to trust. It’s kind of hard to embrace a culture that at the same time is trying to kill you. It’s definitely a difficult situation,” he said.

Harvey’s family has purchased body armor for him to supplement the Marine Corps standard-issue gear. He said that the government is beginning to provide the extra side armor plates, but “like everything it’s going to take a while.” He said that he expects to work only with armored vehicles, an area of equipment that has already been improved.

“Sometimes I can’t watch the news,” Sandy Harvey, Mark’s mother, said. “Even though I’m scared, I am proud of Mark and all the servicemen and women who are out there.” The Harveys plan to fly to Southern California for one last visit this month before he deploys to Iraq.

“Mark is going to a place where we as family members cannot help him,” Bob Harvey, Mark’s father, said. “We trust in Mark and his decision making, his leadership and their training, and the Lord to watch over him because we can’t.”

To contact Mark after he heads overseas next week, e-mail lcplharvey@gmail.com.

The soldier who died in the field:

U.S. Army Specialist Edwin Roodhouse, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division

Edwin Roodhouse came to the Army late, at age 34. He had worked in the dot-com world but wanted to try something different and see more of the world, according to his mother, Los Altos Hills resident Joy Desai. Making use of his computer skills, the Army gave Roodhouse a relatively low-risk assignment.

“But when he got to Iraq, he said he wanted to be out there with the guys,” Desai said. “He went out with the guys and he was in a Humvee that ran over a bomb in December 2004.”

Roodhouse died at 36 in the Dec. 4 attack, along with a sergeant who had small children. The men had been patrolling the area searching for insurgents.

“Normally they didn’t find too much,” Desai said. “He wrote us an e-mail saying he was bored, we wrote back and said hallelujah.”

Desai learned about Roodhouse’s death when two soldiers rang her doorbell the next day. “You open the door and immediately know what they are there for,” Desai said.

She attended an Army event with other soldiers who had been involved in Roodhouse’s operation, and their families. “The Army went out of their way to do everything they could to make us feel welcome,” Desai said. “Meeting the friends and soldiers that Edwin served with just made us feel really good - we realized they really liked him. One major said he was a hero because he could have stayed inside working on a computer simulation, but he wanted to go out with the fellows he had trained with.”

Desai said she has stopped following the news from Iraq because she feels so strongly for the relatives of people who are killed in the conflict. “There’s nothing you can do to bring the person back,” Desai said. “Some days are better than other days. You either learn to deal with it or you don’t.

Clear messages

There are some clear messages from the troops’ families.

“We do come from a very affluent community, but just remember - there are people in our own community who are fighting for us every day,” Kari Harvey, Mark’s older sister, said. “You may not agree with the war, but be aware of those who are putting their lives on the line every day for us.”

“I have made the determination in my life that whenever I learn that someone has served in the military, I’m going to personally thank them for what they did, and try to pay back in some small way my personal debt to them,” Bob Harvey said. “These folks make incredible sacrifices. Many of them are mundane sacrifices, but they really give up their freedom to protect and maintain ours.”