[iwar] Mil iwar campaign on local US newspapers

www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031011/frontpage/121390_Printer.shtml
 LEDYARD KING GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

The Olympian Online

IRAQ: Latest developments

Your thoughts about war with Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- Letters from hometown soldiers describing their
successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the
country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.

And all the letters are the same.

A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different
soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry
Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including
Snohomish, Wash.

The Olympian received two identical letters signed by different
hometown soldiers: Spc. Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois, who is now
a sergeant. The paper declined to run either because of a policy not
to publish form letters.

The five-paragraph letter talks about the soldiers' efforts to
re-establish police and fire departments, and build water and sewer
plants in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the unit is based.

"The quality of life and security for the citizens has been largely
restored, and we are a large part of why that has happened," the
letter reads.

It describes people waving at passing troops and children running up
to shake their hands and say thank you.

It's not clear who wrote the letter or organized sending it to
soldiers' hometown papers.

Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said
they agreed with the letter's thrust. But none of the soldiers said he
wrote it, and one said he didn't even sign it.

Marois, 23, told his family he signed the letter, said Moya Marois,
his stepmother. But she said he was puzzled why it was sent to the
newspaper in Olympia. He attended high school in Olympia but no longer
considers the city home, she said. Moya Marois and Alex's father, Les,
now live near Kooskia, Idaho.

A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father
congratulated him for getting it published in the local newspaper in
Beckley, W.Va.

"When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said: 'What letter?'
" Timothy Deaconson said Friday, recalling the phone conversation he
had with his son, Nick. "This is just not his (writing) style."

He spoke to his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson, at a hospital where he was
recovering from a grenade explosion that left shrapnel in both his legs.

Sgt. Christopher Shelton, who signed a letter that ran in the
Snohomish Herald, said Friday that his platoon sergeant had
distributed the letter and asked soldiers for the names of their
hometown newspapers. Soldiers were asked to sign the letter if they
agreed with it, said Shelton, whose shoulder was wounded during an
ambush earlier this year.

"Everything it said is dead accurate. We've done a really good job,"
he said by phone from Italy, where he was preparing to return to Iraq.

Sgt. Todd Oliver, a spokesman for the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which
counts the 503rd as one of its units, said he was told a soldier wrote
the letter, but he didn't know who. He said the brigade's public
affairs unit was not involved.

"When he asked other soldiers in his unit to sign it, they did,"
Oliver explained in an e-mail response to a GNS inquiry. "Someone,
somewhere along the way, took it upon themselves to mail it to the
various editors of newspapers across the country."

Lt. Col. Bill MacDonald, a spokesman for the 4th infantry Division
that is heading operations in north-central Iraq, said he had not
heard about the letter-writing campaign.

Neither had Lt. Cmdr. Nick Balice, a spokesman for U.S. Central
Command in Tampa, Fla.

A recent poll suggests that Americans are increasingly skeptical of
America's prolonged involvement in Iraq. A USA Today-CNN-Gallup Poll
released Sept. 23 found 50 percent believe that the situation in Iraq
was worth going to war over, down from 73 percent in April.

The letter talks about the soldiers' mission, saying, "one thousand of
my fellow soldiers and I parachuted from ten jumbo jets." It describes
Kirkuk as "a hot and dusty city of just over a million people." It
tells about the progress they have made.

"The fruits of all our soldiers' efforts are clearly visible in the
streets of Kirkuk today. There is very little trash in the streets,
many more people in the markets and shops, and children have returned
to school," the letter reads. "I am proud of the work we are doing
here in Iraq and I hope all of your readers are as well."

Sgt. Shawn Grueser of Poca, W.Va., said he spoke to a military public
affairs officer whose name he couldn't remember about his
accomplishments in Iraq for what he thought was a news release to be
sent to his hometown paper in Charleston, W.Va. But the 2nd Battalion
soldier said he did not sign any letter.

Although Grueser said he agrees with the letter's sentiments, he was
uncomfortable that a letter with his signature did not contain his own
words or spell out his own accomplishments.

"It makes it look like you cheated on a test, and everybody got the
same grade," Grueser said by phone from a base in Italy where he had
just arrived from Iraq.

Moya Marois said she is proud of her stepson Alex, the former Olympia
resident. But she worries that the letter tries to give legitimacy to
a war she doesn't think was justified.

"We're going to support our son," she said. But "there are a lot of
Americans that are not in support of this war that would like to see
them returned home, and think it's going to get worse."

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Received on Sun Oct 12 09:31:11 2003