BARKER: From soldier to screen, veteran is an acting activist

Nathan Lewis, Iraq war veteran, appears in upcoming Matt Damon film about search for WMD

By Bill Wolcott<br><a href="mailto:bill.wolcott@lockportjournal.com">E-mail Bill</a>

Nathan Lewis of Barker traveled to Morocco, Spain and London for bit parts in the new Matt Damon film, “Green Zone.” Last week, the veteran of the War in Iraq attended the world premiere with his mother in New York City to watch the film at Loew’s Theater, Lincoln Square.

Nathan didn’t know if he would be left on the cutting room floor or if he would see himself on the big screen in Gotham. Lewis, tall and slim, caught glimpses of his 6-foot-4, 165-pound frame in about six scenes of the fast-paced flick. Other extras, he said, were not that fortunate.

The movie opens nationally on Friday, and Nathan is inclined to see it again.

“I enjoyed it, but it was a little much to take in,” said Nathan who is working for his master’s degree at the state University at Potsdam and is student-teaching in Rochester. “I want to see it again in a relaxed mood. It starts out pretty strong, and it’s unnerving to relive the experience. I don’t have a huge role in film. A lot of scenes were not in it. It’s action filled and makes good points about the Iraqi War. There’s a lot of truth in the movie.”

Anti-war movie?

Is it an anti-war movie? “Green Zone” is about the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a critic.

Lewis, a 2001 graduate of Barker High School, took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and came away as an “Iraq Veteran Against the War.” That’s a group of veterans from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom committed to ending the violence in Iraq.

It was because he was a member of that organization that he was among the variety of people chosen as an extra.

“Director Paul Greengrass had the insight to include vets in roles of soldiers,” Lewis explained. “He has a history of doing that. He looked into vets’ organizations.”

“Green Zone” is based on the 2006 nonfiction book “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Greengrass has directed Damon in the successful Jason Bourne movies.

Lewis put off studying a semester in Vietnam, which is a SUNY Potsdam program, to work on the film from late December 2008 to May 2009.

“It paid good, for someone is used to Army pay and doing odd jobs since out of the Army,” Lewis said.

Although he served in the Army in Iraq, Lewis did not qualify for the extensive GI bill. He was able to live off his movie money.

Enlisted in 2001

Lewis enlisted in the Army on Aug. 28, 2001, for a two-year tour. Two weeks later, he was in basic training when the U.S. was attacked on 9/11.

He wrote: “I joined the Army straight out of high school. Sept. 11, 2001, was my second day of boot camp. The towers fell and we knew the drill sergeants were right; war was just around the corner. The small town of Barker, New York, where I grew up, hung yellow ribbons on all the trees to honor the many young service members from the area. My picture hung in the center of the school, surrounded by flags. I was proud to be a soldier.”

He was deployed to Iraq in March 2003 and began having doubts that the war was about freedom, democracy and national security.

In April 2003, the day before his company went north toward Kuwait, the soldiers were warned that there were a lot of Iraqis on the road. The Army was worried about snipers.

The troops were told that the insurgents put children in road. The U.S. soldiers were given orders not to stop if children were in the road, but to run the children over, according to Lewis.

“That happened, not to my vehicle,” Lewis said. “I’m thankful it didn’t happened to us. It was fairly common in 2003.”

Weapons of Mass Destruction

He questioned the morality of war. The weapons of mass destruction were not found, and the “Downing Street Memo” allegedly showed that President George W. Bush still wanted to remove Saddam, through military action. The invasion was justified by the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

“Bush lied and falsified intelligence,” Lewis said.

Lewis, who felt he was doing good things for his country until he was deployed in the initial invasion of 2003, refused to re-enlist. However, his tour was extended five months through “stop loss.”

Cluster bombs

Lewis was a crew member in the Multiple Launch Rocket System. That’s the Army’s heavy artillery that launched long-range rockets. He described them as “telephone poles filled with cluster bombs.”

About 30 percent of the cluster bombs did not explode, and the duds were left in farms, fields and yards. They were orange and about the size of a baseball or tennis ball, he said.

“The locals picked them up, the little orange ball, and there was a good chance it would explode,” Lewis said. “I thought, what if it was the other way around and Iraqis shot them in my backyard and my sister picked them up?”

No threat to U.S.

There were not that many attacks, but Lewis said: “People were starving, struggling just to feed their families and find shelter. They were no threat to the U.S.”

He joined Iraq Veterans Against the War after he got out.

One of his pick-up jobs was at Newfane Lumber company in Lockport. “I wore my Army hat and talked to people. They assumed I supported the war,” he said. “I heard very racist things about Arabs, genocide statements from people. They thought I held extremist views — bomb them all, kill them, blow them up.”

Played for Raiders

Lewis ran cross country and played basketball and football for Barker High School. He eventually studied in Vietnam for a semester and will graduate from Potsdam with a degree in history and secondary social studies education. He’s living in Rochester and teaching at Edison Tech.

His parents, Douglas and Lisa Lewis, went to Morocco to watch the filming of “Green Zone.” The movie was the positive aspect of his tour in the Army.

“Morocco was very interesting,” said Lisa, who is a sixth-grade teacher in Lyndonville. “It was a real experience. The whole culture of Morocco and being on the set was really fascinating — all the detail that goes into making a small scene.”

Nathan remembers that day his parents took him to a Buffalo train station in August 2001.

“Often I look at my photos from Iraq and wonder, is that me?” Nathan wrote. “ Did I really do that? I am both horrified and shocked at the wars we find ourselves fighting.”

Contact reporter Bill Wolcott

at 439-9222, ext. 6246.

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