Soldiers’ Waiting Families Get a Visitor

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld took polite but pointed questions Saturday from the wives of soldiers from an Alaska-based Army unit whose yearlong tour in Iraq has been extended by as much as four months, a decision that has angered and disappointed many of the families.

About 700 family members met with Rumsfeld at a gym at Ft. Wainwright, where the 172nd Stryker Brigade is based. The 172nd, which had been deployed in Mosul, was moved to Baghdad this month as part of an attempt to dampen rising sectarian violence.

The extension was ordered as the first of the brigade’s 3,800 members began leaving Iraq, returning home to long-planned reunions, vacations and delayed family celebrations. The order stunned brigade members and their families.

Perhaps the most defiant question given to Rumsfeld on Saturday was from a woman who asked whether the military was training another unit to take the brigade’s place and ensure its tour did not have to be extended again.

The question received strong applause, and Rumsfeld quipped: “You knocked it out of the park.”

He tried to be reassuring without being definitive.

“You want them home for Christmas?” Rumsfeld asked the crowd.

The families responded with a loud “Yeah!”

“I wish I had a magic wand and the power to say yes. I don’t,” Rumsfeld said. “I will do everything in the world to make sure they are not extended past the 120 days.”

Before the meeting, Rumsfeld told reporters he could not promise a Christmastime return. “I’d love to be Santa Claus, but I am not,” he said.

Underscoring the sensitivity of Saturday’s session, the meeting between family members and Rumsfeld was off-limits to the news media. Rumsfeld said he believed his meetings with families of service members should be kept private.

But several family members videotaped the session, and one of the wives critical of Rumsfeld played her tape for the news media shortly after it ended. From the tape, there seemed to be some tension in the room. All of the questions were polite. The families laughed at Rumsfeld’s jokes and applauded some of his answers. Still, the loudest applause was for the most pointed questions.

An initial meeting between families and commanders, shortly after the extension was ordered in July, was contentious.

A second meeting -- with only written questions allowed -- was calmer. Since the announcement of the extension, top Army officials, including Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey, Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker and others, have come to visit family members and thank them.

“It has been an emotional time, but we are trying to stay positive,” Monique Fox, whose husband, Jonathan, is a major in the 172nd, said before the meeting. “It is tough on the kids. My 8-year-old was really waiting for Dad to come home. There were a lot of tears when we got the news.”

After the meeting, Fox said she was pleased by Rumsfeld’s appearance. She said that although the he did not answer every question directly, she believed he had given the families as much information as he could.

“There was no hostility at all. Most of the questions were positive and upbeat,” Fox said. “We all appreciated the time and effort he put in.”

But not all family members shared Fox’s view.

“He didn’t answer directly any of the questions, so I don’t see how you could be satisfied,” said Jennifer Davis, whose husband is in the 172nd. “I think it was a show.”

And Rich Moniak, whose son Sgt. Michael Moniak is in the 172nd, said he felt Rumsfeld was trying to “charm” the families.

Rumsfeld is visiting in Alaska to tour a missile defense installation and to open a World War II memorial. The hourlong visit with the families was added to his schedule. Addressing complaints of relatives, Rumsfeld praised the Army unit and said the soldiers had volunteered to serve.

“These people are all volunteers, they all signed up,” Rumsfeld told reporters on his plane en route to Fairbanks. “They are doing what they do because they want to; they are proud of what they do; they do it very, very well.”

Rumsfeld emphasized later that he appreciated the sacrifice of the soldiers and their families.

Before the meeting, Tammy Wilson, whose husband, Chief Warrant Officer Frank Wilson, serves in the unit, said she was anxious to hear what Rumsfeld had to say.

Wilson said she had been struggling to handle the demands of home-schooling three children by herself while her husband served in Mosul. And she said she had been eagerly awaiting the day her husband would come home.

“There are people who are mad and don’t want to hear him speak,” Wilson said of Rumsfeld’s visit. “But I think it shows he is concerned.”

Wilson said she wanted to ask Rumsfeld why her husband’s unit was assigned the new duty in Baghdad instead of a unit already in the capital.

Speaking before the meeting, Rumsfeld said that the 172nd had been held over to reduce the level of violence and deal more aggressively with sectarian death squads.

“This particular unit, needless to say, is very experienced and has 300 -- plus or minus -- Strykers, which creates quite a presence in a city,” he said. A Stryker is an eight-wheeled armored vehicle.

At the meeting, Rumsfeld was asked why the Strykers were needed in Baghdad if most of the soldiers were doing the work of dismounted infantry, such as clearing houses. The question received loud applause.

Rumsfeld said the Strykers have a “physical and psychological effect.”

At another point, he also explained that it was easier to build up troop strength quickly by holding units back, rather than rushing ahead a unit preparing for a later deployment.

Another Stryker-equipped brigade has taken over in Mosul.

The Army has been offering extra counseling for families. In addition, commanders have been trying to organize volunteers to help the families prepare for the Alaska winter, a job many wives were counting on their returning husbands to do. The military also is providing the soldiers a $1,000 bonus for each extra month they remain in Iraq.

After the meeting, at a brief news conference in downtown Fairbanks, Rumsfeld said he felt the exchange was a good one.

About 25 yards from the news conference, a couple of antiwar demonstrators looked on.

“Get us out of Iraq!” one shouted.

“I know the feeling,” Rumsfeld answered.