When Christopher Batiste, a 29-year-old Army E-6 from Inglewood, served his first tour inIraq, he had no communication with his family for 12 months. “I was basically pen-pals with my wife,” Batiste said last week in an interview. During his second tour, he was able to communicate with her and his children via Skype, but communication was still limited.
As servicemen like Batiste return from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, they and other men and women, all veterans of previous wars – WWII, Korea, Vietnam – shared experiences and were also honored and lauded for their service at the Redondo Beach Veterans Day Service on Friday.
“Soon tens of thousands of our modern-day veterans will be coming home,” added Congresswoman Janice Hahn at the Veterans Park event. “Not for a second should we rob them of medical care or rob their families of the resources they need to move forward. Veterans deserve medical care to not just heal their broken bones but their wounded spirit.”
Speaking of service personnel still deployed in combat areas, Batiste suggested that if people want to help out, simple things go a long way. “You would be surprised how far a letter will go,” Batiste explained. “I think as the conflicts die down, people forget that we are still out there. People put political reasons behind where they stand. You have to remember the basics, that soldiers have families too.”
Even though soldiers are coming home fromIraq and Afghanistan, Batiste noted, there are still troops serving across the world who live day-to-day on communication from home. Currently, there are many programs geared towards getting in contact with soldiers whether the correspondent knows somebody abroad or not. Interested people can sign up to send letters and care packages or even buy phone cards.
“Being able to call my parents was the best,” said Batiste. “They saw all the killings on TV and worried about me. Hearing my voice eased their mind.”
As for what he and others in war zones do, Batiste said, “You hear about a lot of bad things happening, but a lot of the time you don’t hear about the good. There’s a lot of good we are doing day-to-day. We try to help out as best as we can. It’s not just killing all the time — it’s not just about destroying stuff.”
Scott Pruitt, 24, from Rolla, Missouri, like Batiste, also served as an infantryman inIraqfor 20 months. “We got letters and packages from schools and churches,” Pruitt said, adding that all kinds of people and groups would them much appreciated items. “It’s cool to think that people are thinking about you on the other side of the world…. I have a deep respect for veterans from other wars; their combat was different than it is today. A lot of them didn’t come back, and they didn’t have communication like we have today.”
Army Staff Sgt. Guadalupe Vargas, 26, from San Pedro, said his communication lifeline was a lot like Batiste’s. Conversations with friends and relatives, he said, “are the moments that keep soldiers going — the Skype conversations with family, the 20-minute phone calls, the emails and cards, even if they come from strangers.” Vargas has a strong admiration of the many U.S.military men and women still serving abroad. “I’m proud of my service,” he said.
Another soldier, Staff Sgt. Chris McKinney, from Montgomery, Alabama, similarly had served in Iraq, doing two tours of duty. He said he understands what happens when you come home from war. “Keep your head up,” he advised other returning vets transitioning back to civilian life. “It gets rough. I hope we learned our lesson with health care forVietnamveterans.”
If history always repeats itself, McKinneysaid, “this time he hopes that it won’t and that the soldiers coming home will get the physical and mental-health attention they need to better transition back to civilian life.”
Currently there are many organizations working towards opening communication with soldiers. Visit http://www.redcross.org/holidaymail to send holiday mail to soldiers through the Red Cross or find another organization through local community-service groups.
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