Katie Rucke
Mint Press felt compelled to highlight all of the deaths that have occurred as a result of war, specifically the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, about 4,500 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives, in addition to the some 122,000 Iraqi civilians that were murdered. In Afghanistan, about 2,200 U.S. soldiers have died. And while there is no official single figure for the total civilian deaths in Afghanistan, estimates place the total around 19,000.
In this five-part series, we’re sharing the stories of Leah Bolger, Mike Prysner, Jenny Pacanowski, Wes Davey and Chante Wolf, in order to highlight the largely untold horrors of war that peace options could have prevented.
Wes Davey: Spent 30 years in the military before retiring in 2008. Most of those years were spent in the Guard Reserve, while three years were spent in active service.
Growing up in the small town of Mankato, Minn., in a family that has served in the U.S. military going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, Wes Davey said he joined the military to get extra money. Though he was drafted in 1968, Davey, a retired St. Paul, Minn., police officer, never went to Vietnam, but lost friends in the war.
“When [the government] was beating the drums of war, I thought they were rushing it so I sent a letter to Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, then Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), and Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) asking them to oppose the war.”
Though McCollum, Dayton and Wellstone all voted to oppose the Iraq War, it wasn’t enough to stop the invasion.
In 2003, Davey’s reserve was notified they would be active and his group was part of the initial invasion in Iraq — which Davey says he didn’t resist because he was an active, uniform-wearing soldier at the time.
For Davey, a father of five, not only was it a struggle fighting a war he disagreed with, but he also had to hide that he was gay. While Davey joined the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) just before he retired from the military, he said after he retired his main mission was to speak out against the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that forced him to hide his sexuality.
“It wasn’t for me,” Davey explained, “I was retired. But since I was in a leadership position, I know kids stationed around the world are finding out who they are.” High school students who are gay as well want the same opportunities as their straight peers, he added.
“Whether or not you agree with the military, if you want to do it, you should be able to.”
Of Davey’s five kids, three served in the military — two of his sons and one of his daughters. One of Davey’s sons who served in Afghanistan from 2010 through 2011, “went in with an open mind and in a few weeks changed his mind and realized his old man had some wisdom.”
Davey shared that when his younger son was going to be deployed, Davey was asked to give the going away speech. Instead of repeating the common “gung-ho bullshit” in most send-off speeches, Davey says he told the soldiers to do their best and return home with honor — something he says the men and women tell him to this day they appreciated.
Like Jenny Pacanowski (featured in Part 3 of this series), Davey pointed to failures and frustration with the military leadership.
“Women were integrated into the military around 1980,” he said, “so why do we still have … one in three women in the military will experience sexual trauma? The leadership failed. It’s a sign that something’s ‘f’d up.’”
Another flaw Davey saw was the military’s inability to tell the truth about mistakes in the war. Davey pointed to examples of Corporal Patrick Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire and not enemy fire as the Pentagon originally reported, and U.S. Army Soldier Jessica Lynch, who was taken in and cared for by Iraqi medical professionals when her convoy exploded. The Pentagon reported that Lynch had been taken hostage by Iraqis and said they sent in U.S. troops to rescue her, but Lynch later testified before Congress that the Pentagon’s story was not accurate.
Other thoughts of Davey’s on the role of the U.S. military:
“The role of the military should be what it’s supposed to be: defense of our country as opposed to wars like Iraq.”
“We have 10,000 service members in Italy or Great Britain after World War II — why? It’s costing a lot of money. Even if we brought 5,000 jobs back to Minnesota it would improve our economy. What vested interests do we have over there?”
Mint Press News visited Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis with Davey. Looking out upon the rows and rows of graves, Davey called all of the men and women in the military heroes and reflected on the sacrifices the soldiers made.
Davey also dreamed about all of the accomplishments these young heroes could have had in their lifetime, and expressed sorrow that most Americans don’t think about military sacrifices more than three times a year.
“Even if [average Americans] think about [these soldiers] instead of sales on days like Memorial Day,” Davey said most American’s don’t routinely go to places like Fort Snelling Cemetery.
Standing in front of a young Iraq War veteran’s grave, Davey muttered that people like Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Secretary of Defense when the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, should be in prison for their role in starting the war.
Part 1 of this series
Part 2 of this series
Part 3 of this series