Reservist, back home, defends Iraq mission

In last week's issue, The Evangelist ran an article asking Catholic peace activists and officials when it would be morally acceptable to leave Iraq. Some said, "Now."

That answer disturbs Bob Logan. Today, he's a business analyst with PSE&G Inc., a Glenmont power plant. However, just a few weeks ago, he was on active duty as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve's 98th Division, stationed at Camp Taji near Baghdad, Iraq.

"It bothers me when you see people saying, 'We shouldn't be there,'" he remarked. "Now that we're there, we need to stay until we're done. We've got to get them to a certain point."

That point, he believes, will be when the Iraqi people are able to defend themselves against insurgents.

On duty

Lt. Col. Logan, a parishioner at St. Matthew's Church in Voorheesville, was part of a design team that created training programs for the Iraqi military in the areas of personnel, operations, intelligence, logistics and computers/communication.

The presentations he designed were translated into Arabic, and nine five-man teams were sent to sites across Iraq to train Iraqi troops.

There was a vast spectrum of understanding and knowledge among different units of the Iraqi military. While some training teams were eventually disbanded because they were no longer needed, others encountered Iraqis who were illiterate and needed a great deal of further training to work independently.

Changing view

Before he left for Iraq, Lt. Col. Logan said, "I wasn't too sure we doing the right thing."

But after he traveled to different locations to see how the programs he created could be improved, he began to believe the U.S. presence in Iraq was necessary.

"We're definitely making progress," he added. "The Iraqis want their country back, but they have to learn how to defend themselves first. We're part of that support structure."

Whole picture

Lt. Col. Logan objects to what he sees as a media focus on only negative aspects of the Iraq conflict.

"You only get bits and pieces," he argued. "Well over 1,000 schools have been built by U.S. forces. There have been donations of backpacks with school supplies. Sewer plants and water treatment plants have been rebuilt. The electrical system is being repaired. [And] you never hear about Iraqis turning in insurgents, but that's been happening for months."

He also pointed out that the U.S. presence made it possible for Iraqis to hold their first national elections in January, an event he witnessed while manning a checkpoint about 15 minutes north of Baghdad. About 1,000 Iraqis passed him on their way to vote.

"The enthusiasm on the way [to vote] was sporadic," he reported. "But on the way back, they were very excited. They got to vote; nothing happened to them; and they got some say in what happened to their country. That was a big event."

Impressions

Honesty among Iraqis is one area where Lt. Col. Logan sees much work yet to be done.

He called the Iraqis "good people" and "probably the friendliest people you'll ever meet," but he cautioned that years of living in a dictatorship and fighting among Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis have made "lying a way of survival. It might take a couple of generations for it to take hold that you don't need to do that" any more.

"They're building their democracy," he stated. Though he thinks Americans are "of a society where 'everything has to happen right now,' it takes a while to build a democracy."

Where he stands

Both in Iraq and back home, Lt. Col. Logan has encountered soldiers and civilians with differing opinions on the war.

"They say there's two types of people in the military right now: the ones who love it and the ones who hate it," he remarked. "The ones who hate it are just waiting for their time [on active duty] to run out, but a lot of people are re-upping. There's still a lot of patriotism in this country.

"At first, I was upset about going to Iraq, but I'm proud of what I did. I feel good about it. I'm glad to be out of there, but it was a good thing to do."

(Lt. Col. Logan returned home in early October to his wife, Charlene, and their children Brittney, Meaghan, Adam and Ryan. The Logans were profiled in the Sept. 8 issue of The Evangelist as they awaited his return. Find the story at www.evangelist.org by searching for "Military family waits for Dad.")

Adjusting to being home

The reservist figured he would come home from a year in Iraq and struggle to readjust to family life, but the transition has been easier than expected.

"For the first day or two, I felt like I was looking through people, my eyes were so wide open," he said, laughing.

However, he's met many fellow soldiers who did go through a rough transition.

"I know a lot of guys who've had problems," he said, but "I got my sleep pattern back in less than a week. A lot of guys are still waking up at 3 a.m. -- that's 11 a.m. over there."

When his children misbehave in minor ways, Lt. Col. Logan tells his wife, "'Don't worry about these things; it's not life and death. Relax!' After what we went through, you realize there's good things to life. How lucky we are to live where we live!"

Though he looks back on many friendships he made in Iraq, he was "very excited to leave. My job was done; I was ready to come home to my family, my work."

He took two weeks off when he came home before starting work at PSE&G again (his job had been held for him while he completed his tour of duty) and said that vacation helped in re-orienting to his old schedule.

His older children are to have their father attending school events again and only tested their limits briefly before understanding that the same family rules still apply. Three-year-old Ryan, however, has had a few concerns.

"The first day I went to work, my wife said to me, 'You have to call him right now: He thinks you left,'" Lt. Col. Logan said.

When the preschooler got on the phone, he immediately asked, "Daddy, did you go to the airport?"

"No," said his father; "Daddy went to work, and he'll be home tonight." (KB)

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