Local Families Talk About Paying the Price of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Posted Oct 21, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Oct 21, 2011 at 11:27 PM

It was supposed to be relatively quick.

It was supposed to be relatively easy.

More than eight years, nearly a trillion dollars and almost 4,500 U.S. lives later, we know Iraq was neither quick nor easy.

Friday, as President Barack Obama announced that we would be pulling out our remaining troops in Iraq by the end of the year, some local folks reflected on Operation Iraqi Freedom and the price they paid since it was launched March 19, 2003.

For some, the price was a child. For others, the price was coming under fire.

I was off on a vaca-lough today, so my colleagues Rob Shaw and Keith Morelli caught up with families – some who I’ve talked to before, some I’ve never known – who paid a price.

Norma Aviles says she is glad that more families will be spared the pain that hers has suffered.

“It should have been sooner,” Aviles said of President Obama’s announcement today that all American troops will be coming home from Iraq by the end of the year.

“I was always against this war. We never should have been there,” she said. “I lost my son, my beautiful son. That life will never be replaced. I am glad we are getting out of that place.”

Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Aviles of Tampa, a graduate of Robinson High School, was just 18 years old when he was killed in Iraq on April 7, 2003.

“So many lives have been lost in this war,” Aviles said. “Especially young Americans like my son.”

She said she has grown tired of hearing stories of more troops dying in far-off places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We should get out of there,” she said of Iraq. “We should get out of Afghanistan. We should not have to go to other countries like that.”

Aviles said she was glad for the relatives of the troops who will be coming home.

“I’ve very happy for the families,” she said. “I’m glad it’s over.”

But what will never be over, Aviles said, is the daily pain and suffering she and other members of her family endure for their loss.

“I don’t think I can ever smile about anything,” she said, her voice breaking. “I can never be happy again. The pain of losing him never goes away.”

Jordan Calder of St. Petersburg was injured by an explosion in Baghdad in June and flew to Fort Riley in Kansas late Thursday night. He heard the news today about the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and said he was relieved for his fellow soldiers still in the war-torn country.

“I think it’s a good thing we’re all coming back,” he said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “How effective that is going to be, I don’t know. Things change over there like there’s no tomorrow.

“It’s about time we handed it over to the Iraqi army and police,” he said. Whether that force can keep the peace is another issue, said the 21-year-old Dixie Hollins High School graduate.

“It’s a hard question,” he said. “I worked with them for 10 months and you can’t always trust them.”

He said he’s happy to be back in the States, though he’s not planning on quitting the military.

“I plan on staying in for 20 years,” he said.

His wounds from the explosion in June are about healed, he said.

“I’m doing good,” he said. “I just got three scars on lower right leg. That’s it.”

He’ll return to St. Petersburg in December when he goes on leave, he said.

His mother, Apryl Hansen, went to Kansas this week to meet her returning son.

She had heard bits and pieces about the announcement to withdraw troops from Iraq, she said.

“We just need to get out of Afghanistan now,” she said.

Darlene Ginther’s son, Ronald, was killed in action on May 2, 2004 in Anbar, Iraq.

She was happy to hear the news for all the other troops in Iraq, but remained skeptical.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said the Port Charlotte woman. “I don’t think it’s going to happen. It’s just my feeling I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Her 37-year-old son was a petty officer in the Navy when he was killed, she said.

“He was number 870,” she said Friday afternoon, referring to service men and woman killed in the line of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The memory of her son remains strong, she said.

“I’ve got five sons,” she said, “but he’s missed.”

Ronald Ginther had been in the Navy for four years when terrorists attacked New York and Washington 10 years ago, and he called home to tell his parents he likely would be shipped to a war zone, she said.

There are many, many others in this place where the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were run - over at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base - who have paid a price and have a story to tell. And who have an opinion on whether it was all worth it and if leaving by year’s end is the right, or only choice.

And now it will be up to Centcom, ultimately, to figure out how to get tens of thousands of troops, and tens of thousands of tons of equipment, out of Iraq. In a little more than two months. All while those who wish us harm know, for the most part, when we are going and how we will get there.

Stay tuned as I talk to some of those folks and get answers and opinions for some of those questions.

Your opinions, as always, are welcome.

What do you think about the President’s announcement?

Let me know - haltman@tampatrib.com