LI vets react to troop withdrawal decision

Former National Guard Spc. Michael Tanner gave a year of his life to the war in Iraq. He wept at the funeral of a friend who was killed there. He held his marriage together during the months away with phone calls back to America. He came home exhausted.

"The war probably took a piece out of me," he said. "My wife says I wasn't the same guy I was when I came back.

"But if I had the chance to do it again, perhaps I would," said Tanner, 49, of Bohemia. "We were sent over there to make a difference and we made a difference."

Friday, as word spread that President Barack Obama would bring the last U.S. troops home from Iraq by year's end, Long Islanders with personal involvements in the war reflected on the president's decision.

Tanner is one such person. He served in Iraq during two of the bloodiest years of the nearly nine-year war. A friend, Spc. David Fisher, of upstate Green Island, had only been in Iraq a month when he was killed in a Dec. 1, 2004, Humvee rollover. Tanner said he cried his eyes out.

"I know it's hard to lose people over there and have their parents ask why," Tanner said. "So if they feel we've accomplished the original mission we were sent over there for, yes, I'm happy they are coming home. It's time to move on to the next deployment, in Afghanistan or wherever else we need to go."

But he and others have also questioned whether Iraq is ready to stand on its own.

"We've seen amazing things there since the fall of Saddam," said Army Reserve 1st Lt. Jason S. Gorey, 29, a Washington-area defense contractor who grew up in Port Washington, and who returned from an Iraq deployment in May. "But I do have some concerns about who will fill the power vacuum once we leave, that there could be external influences from Iran. My expectation is they could take some backward steps."

To a large extent, the fighting in Iraq has barely altered the lives of most area residents. With no draft to rile students and no war levy irking taxpayers, few pay an obvious price.

But at least 32 Long Islanders have perished there in the years since President George W. Bush in 2003 ordered U.S. troops to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. Hundreds more have returned suffering from grievous wounds or serious psychological disorders.

Mary Alice Condon, of Hicksville, has two children in the military, including a son, James Cavan, who has served in combat. She said she was always on edge while he was in harm's way. "I'm just glad to see it end," she said of U.S. military involvement in Iraq. "It gives me a sense of relief."

Bill McNaughton's son, James, 27, was killed by a sniper in 2005.

"I just hope it wasn't a waste," said McNaughton, 57, a retired police officer from Centereach who works part time at Calverton National Cemetery. His son, who was a sergeant in the Army, is buried there.

"On the same token, how long do we baby-sit them," he said of the U.S. presence in Iraq. "They don't want to meet our conditions, we pack up and go. We just hope 4,400 guys and 32,000 wounded were not for nothing."

For some, the war remains too anguishing to talk about.

Margaret Glover, a former Garden City resident, lost a son there in 2006. Lance Cpl. Michael Glover, 28, had dropped out of law school to join the Marines after 9/11. He was killed by a sniper in Al Anbar province.

"I really don't want to comment," said Margaret Glover, who now lives in Manhattan, of the planned troop withdrawal. "It's still very painful."