Frank Dunsmore, 77, may only be watching the conflict in Iraq from his living room in Sterling, but he knows first hand what it's like for many of the young soldiers.
He was drafted into the Army in 1944 and sent to Germany in 1945 to patrol the borders right after World War II was over. "Like Iraq, we were always patrolling and they were always shooting," he recalled. "Our job was to keep things quiet."
The magnitude of the Iraq War aftermath, however, is greater today, he said. Other Sterling veterans say there are more differences than similarities between the two wars.
Seventy-seven-year-old Ron Croft, who was in the Army from 1944 to 1947, was sent to Belgium, Holland and France to find the bodies or remains of Americans and their allies, British and Canadian soldiers. "When an American solider was killed, he would have been buried where he died or somewhere nearby," Croft said. "Now they bring the remains back."
Soldiers tacked up notices asking Europeans to help identify the makeshift graves.
Willard Gardner, 78, was in the Army from 1944-1946, and was called to combat. "In World War II, you knew where your enemy was," he recalled. "In Iraq, you don't know. They can be all around you."
Mary Trombetta, 80, served in the Navy's Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES) from 1944-1947 and never came close to fighting the enemy. The Navy wouldn't let women join the battle overseas. "A lot of us wanted to go over there to help do whatever we could," she said. "We felt we'd have more direct contact, be more directly involved."
THE VETERANS said the greatest difference between the two wars was that World War II had unilateral support. Today's division over whether the United States should have gone to war did not exist.
Gardner recalled Americans were united, whether they were in the armed forces or supporting the troops back home. "Patriotism was a lot stronger in World War II," he said.
"The entire country recognized the problem we had ahead of us," Croft said.
Trombetta said the war became personal after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Americans feared their homeland would be next. "It was the first time we had been threatened other than our own independence from England," she said. "All Americans felt patriotic.
"We were protecting our country in World War II," Trombetta said. "Now I wonder what we are doing over there."
Iraq needs U.S. aid, but soldiers are being killed every day, she said. "It's a no win situation."
Gardner said it bothers him to see Americans losing their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I don't think we should be there to start with," he said. "Saddam Hussein definitely should have been gotten rid of. If we got other countries involved, we could have taken him out without bloodshed."
Dunsmore, who served 1944-1948, had the opposite view. "We probably saved the lives of many Iraqis the way Saddam was killing them by the thousands, even millions," he said. "We were like their savior."
His concern now, however, is how the United States is going to resolve the uprising among the dissidents. "I don't know how we'll get out of this or if we'll ever get out of this," he said.
Croft said Iraq is only part of the terrorism problem, but U.S. troops belong there. "If we don't address it there, our enemies will determine where we'll have to address it," he said. "We have people who are ready to kill us all over the world."
WITH THE UPCOMING Memorial Day and dedication of the World War II Memorial, veterans find themselves remembering their service 60 years ago.
Dunsmore said he was in training while the other soldiers were fighting. "Thank God for that," he said.
Consequently, his tour paled in comparison to those in combat, he said. "Compared to the Battle of Normandy, now that was hell," he said.
As communications chief, he remembered being called out when a group of Germans attacked. He said one soldier was consumed with fear when he radioed for help. "He went berserk," Dunsmore said. "He was scared to death. I was scared just listening to him."
Dunsmore and comrades came to the rescue in a tank, and the Germans backed away, he said.
Gardner said he has plenty of war stories, but like many veterans, he won't talk about them. "There was nothing good about none of it," he said. "I don't want to dwell on it."
He is haunted, however, by the memory of five hungry Italian girls. Nearly 60 years later, he still has visions of them at night.
"We were in what was Yugoslavia then," he said. "We would come out with our food trays and there would be five little kids with gallon buckets. They would beg for your garbage.
"It really hurt me. I'll never get over it."
The soldiers were supposed to finish eating everything on their plates, but they would dump their leftovers into the buckets. "They'd let you go back for seconds, but you had to eat it all," Gardner recalled. "I'd dump the whole second plate in the buckets and get sent to the mess hall to do the dishes."
After a while, the sergeant knew Gardner would rather take the punishment than stop contributing his food. "The sergeant decided to turn his back on it," he said. "Imagine going to a restaurant here and having people standing with buckets. That bothered me more than anything in the war."
CROFT RECALLED finding an old bombed-out building that still had a basement in Hans ser Lesse, Belgium. His detachment used it as a temporary morgue. "We had a book of people missing in action," he said. They compared the names to the identifying marks, such as dog tags, personal effects, scars, tattoos, teeth, laundry marks in the clothing with an initial and the last four numbers of a social security number, the physical description and more. "I don't want to get into the morbid part of it," Croft said. "In all of our work, there was always an atmosphere of reverence. We had an honor guard on the remains all the time."
The bodies of the soldiers were moved to small cemeteries, and eventually they were either buried in a large cemetery or sent back home. Croft said the detachment usually found two to 10 soldiers a week. "It was a tough, dirty job that had to be done," he said. "The next to kin had the opportunity to have the bodies exhumed and brought home or leave them in a permanent military cemetery in Europe."
Once Croft finished identifying the Americans, he oversaw the burial of German soldiers. Prisoners of war dug the graves of their allies and enemies, he said. "They were never allowed to touch an American body."
MANY OF THE GI'S wanted to see their families. "It was hard for them to stay over there and do this kind of work instead of coming home," he said. They often sang the words, "Tell Me Mr. Truman, When Can We Go Home?"
Gardner recalled his return. "If you have heard the old song, 'It's Great to be Back Home,' well, it was great to be back home again."
"Sometimes I almost feel guilty going through and not even getting a scratch," he said. "Guys over there were getting killed or getting wounded."
Trombetta served her time at an aviation supply depot in Philadelphia. "Our group was responsible for identifying airplane parts and putting them in the right category," she said. "It was unusual for women to join. We were all out to win the war, to do anything to help our fellas in the service."
THE VETERANS SAID they appreciated the new World War II memorial, but it was long overdue. All except Trombetta plan to see it. She said she and her husband are not well enough for the trip.
On Memorial Day, she will say prayers for the soldiers. Gardner said he is proud of his service, but for him, it's just another day.
For Croft, it will be a day of reflection. "It's a time when a lot of us look back and appreciate all that we had and did," he said. "And we have a deep regard for those who aren't here." Dunsmore said he would spend the day thinking about Vietnam instead of World War II. "I get mad," he said. "I get disgusted with Vietnam, that we were there for nothing."
His opinion is laced with pain, not politics. Dunsmore lost his only son, Green Beret Frank Dunsmore Jr., to the conflict. "I don't think about myself on Memorial Day, I think about my son," he said. "He had no fear, and he gave it all."