By Bill Wolcott
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
LOCKPORT —
Mission completed? It remains to be seen.
President Barack Obama ended the U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday. “It is time to turn the page,” he said, seven years after Operation Iraqi Freedom started.
“It’s time that we get out. I can’t see where we would progress any further,” said Cathy MacFarlane of Lockport, who lost her son, Pfc. Albert Jex in the Iraq war. “Women can vote, children are in school, they’ve got their own security. Like a child, let them fly and be on their own.”
However, there are 50,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq in support roles. In Baghdad, Vice President Joseph Biden called it “Operation New Dawn.” The troops left behind will have a different mission, principally in training, assistance and as advisers.
Local veterans who have returned from the war feel that most Iraqis want freedom and many are willing to fight for it.
• Lockport native Matthew “Buck” Austin, 40, was the emergency manager in 2008 at Baghdad Airport and was in Iraq nine months. His job was to deal with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive issues.
“I think it’s good thing Iraq is stepping up to the plate. They’ve got to continue their mission rebuilding,” he said. “The majority believe in our mission.”
According to Austin, Iraqis line up to serves as police officers and military while their lives are threatened every day. “They are signing up and believe in the new Iraq,” he said.
He wrote, “while at Baghdad International Airport I volunteered for the bitter honor to carry fallen soldiers onto the airplane for their final trip home. I carried each with distinction and honor thinking of those loved ones who these brave troops left behind.
“When I arrived home, my kids asked me if I was a hero. I told them no not really, but there were hero’s over there and I helped some get home.”
Contractors, engineers and security forces work at a huge complex around the air base. A tech sergeant, he was emergency manager for the base and was in Baghdad for nine months.
Austin was in the Army for 16 years and served in the Air Force for four years. He is a product of Royalton-Hartland High School and earned his bachelor’s degree in biology at Edinborough University in 1996 while in the service.
He lauded the 107th Air National Guard of Niagara Falls, who volunteered to take the mission. “They really got a good outfit there,” he said. “They’re not full-time servicemen. They left families and signed up for mission. The way they performed their jobs is really stellar.”
• Gerry Gardner, who served combat tours in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2007, worked in ordnance. “That covers a wide spectrum, from beans to bullets for soldiers.”
He noted that there are still 50,000 troops in Iraq. “You hope there’s hope,” said the retired first sergeant from Newfane. “If you help one person, that makes it worthwhile. If you help more, that’s more good you did.”
Gardner cautioned, “We also have missing soldiers. We shouldn’t leave until everybody is home.”
• First Sgt. Ricci Hoffer, 42, was in the Army 41 years and was in Iraq seven months in 2005. He enlisted in the Army in 1986 and his job was explosive ordnance disposal.
“Roadside bombs, that’s our job,” he said.
most of time, the demolition unit used robots to look at an improvised explosive device and remotely explode the roadside bomb. He also had to go down in a bomb suit.
Hoffer was first assigned to the Al-Taji airfield, which came under U.S. control following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Taji is in the volatile Sunni Triangle 20 miles north of Baghdad. After the elections, Hoffer was reassigned to an area south of Baghdad.
He noted that casualty rates have gone down in Iraq. “It’s worthwhile,” he said. “If we were able to finish the job in 1990, we would not have had to deal with the mess.”
Hoffer is now a stay-at-home dad in Newfane with his wife, Lisa, and two daughters, Emma, 5, and Kendall, 3.
