'Journey to Normal' Film Features Iowa Red Bulls

In its Iowa premiere, the 2017 documentary "Journey to Normal: Women of War Come Home" will be shown in an exclusive, one-time engagement on the Boone, Iowa campus of Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) at 7 p.m., Thurs., March 22, 2018.

A Q&A session with producer and director JulieHera DeStefano will follow the 93-minute film.

Hundreds of women service members were interviewed for the film project, and plans call for their stories to be archived and made available to researchers via the non-profit Journey to Normal website, producers say.

"Since 2001, over 280,000 women have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan," the documentary says. "Journey to Normal shares 8 of their stories so that we might reflect on the individual experiences of all who serve."

Two of the eight women featured in the film are originally from Iowa. Featured in the documentary are:

• Jessica Astorga Dayton, a U.S. Air Force nurse from Dayton, Ohio
• Abby Brookbank Allen, a U.S. Army National Guard combat medic from Ida Grove, Iowa
• Ivonne Daly, a U.S. Army Reserve surgeon from Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Jill Finken, a U.S. Army National Guard attorney from Souix City, Iowa
• Christine Mau, a U.S. Air Force F-15 pilot from Mountain Home, Idaho
• Judi Reeves, a U.S. Army Reserve surgical technician from Middletown, N.Y.
• Devon Reyes, a U.S. Army Military Intelligence officer from Fort Knox, Ky.
• Amy Sinkler, a U.S. Army truck driver from Chadbourn, N.C.

The event is the last installment in the inaugural "In Their Boots Film Festival," a three-month series of film presentations intended to foster conversations about military service, veterans issues, and social reintegration. The event is co-sponsored by the DMACC-Boone student group In My Boots 5k, and the Central Iowa non-profit Paws & Effect. The festival is made possible by a generous grant from Humanities Iowa.

"Because we train service dogs for veterans, we recognize that 'coming home' from a wartime deployment can be a journey, not a destination," says Nicole Shumate, executive director of Paws & Effect. "Reintegrating into our society and with our families doesn't just happen overnight, and it doesn't happen without hard work and continued support. We are extremely proud to celebrate the lives and stories of the veterans depicted in 'Journey to Normal'—and all who have walked these paths."

In 2010-2011, in what was described as the largest deployment of Iowa troops since World War II, the Iowa Army National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (2-34th BCT) sent more than 3,000 citizen-soldiers overseas as part of the "Afghan Surge." The 2-34th BCT is headquartered in Boone.

Randy Brown, a Central Iowa-based freelance writer and editor of "Reporting for Duty," a collection of U.S. Army public affairs reports from the Iowa brigade's deployment, says that "Journey to Normal" uniquely captures some of what it was like to deploy to Afghanistan—and what it is like to return to family, friends, school, and work following a wartime deployment. "All of these stories are important—individually and collectively," says Brown. "To most of us, this is a depiction of war far more 'real' and relevant than popular movies about snipers and drones."

Interviews with at least three "Red Bull" soldiers are featured in the documentary. Each appears multiple times on-camera, in settings both downrange and "back home." Abby Brookbank was a combat medic assigned to 1st Battalion, 168th Infantry Regiment (1-168th Inf.), and was based at Forward Operating Base ("FOB") Gardez. Jill Finken was an attorney assigned to the brigade headquarters, which was based at Bagram Airfield ("BAF") during the 2010-2011 deployment. Martha Kester, a chaplain with 334th Brigade Support Battalion, also makes a number of appearances throughout the film.

For more information about "Journey to Normal," visit here. A Facebook page is here.

To view an early (2011) trailer about the film, visit here.

There will be a freewill donation pasta dinner fund-raiser preceding the movie, starting 6 p.m. in the DMACC-Boone food court area. Proceeds will go to support the "In Our Boots 5k" run, walk, and ruck fund-raiser event April 14, 2018. The 93-minute movie "Journey to Normal" will be shown in the adjacent auditorium starting 7 p.m.

A Facebook page for the "In My Boots 5k" student group is here. A website is here.

A registration page for the April 14, 2018 5k run, walk, and ruck event is here.

MWSA Mil-Writers Can Submit to Anthology, Contests

Members of the Military Writers Society of America (M.W.S.A.) are invited to submit short stories, poetry, essays, illustrations, and photographs to its 4th annual anthology. Entries should reflect this year's theme is "Our Voices." Deadline is July 31, 2013. For more information on the anthology, click here.

According to the association's website:

This is your opportunity to be heard and to further the MWSA’s three-part mission of writing for healing, preservation of history, or education of others. Share something about yourself, be published, and earn buckaroo bucks. The anthology is open to all who are members, so if you have been thinking about joining MWSA, now is the time to do it.

Membership in the association is open to "anyone interested in books, movies, and other works about military issues and the experiences of men and women in uniform." Annual dues are $40 for a one-year membership; $65 for a two-year membership; $90 for a three-year membership.

Send anthology submissions, along with a high-resolution mugshot and short biography, to Betsy Beard via e-mail: eabeard AT nc.rr.com

The anthology, which also includes reviews of the year's MWSA book award-winners, is distributed as a souvenir at the association's annual conference. Participants in the anthology receive $1,000 in association "buckaroo bucks" scrip, which can be spent at the conference. The next MWSA conference is scheduled for Sept. 26-29, 2013 near Dayton, Ohio.

The association also conducts a monthly writing contest, 12 winners of which are considered for an annual "William E. Mayer Award" (W.E.M.) award. Deadline for submission to the first such contest for the 2013-2014 calendar is Aug. 15, 2013. This year's theme is "Writing to Heal." Entries must be no more than 500 words and relate to the theme. Subsequent monthly deadlines are the 15th of each month.

Monthly winners receive $250 worth of "buckaroos" scrip and be entered into the finals. The first-, second-, and third-prize winners of the finals are respectively awarded $1,500, $1,000 and $500. The works of the winners and monthly finalists will also appear in the association's annual anthology.

The award is named in memory of William "Bud" Mayer, a former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Korean War veteran, and assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Mayer also authored a number of books, including "Beyond the Call, Vol. I"; "Beyond the Call, Vol. II"; "Brainwashing, Drunks & Madness: Memoirs of a Medical Icon"; and, with his wife Heidi, "Waltzing with Death."

For more information regarding the contest, see page 19 of the association's Summer 2013 "Dispatches" newsletter here.

Send WEM contest submissions to Jim Greenwald via e-mail: LeansToFar AT aol.com

'Talk of Iowa' Radio Explores Veterans and Writing

I participated in a "Talk of Iowa" program on Iowa Public Radio yesterday, Thurs., May 13, regarding how veterans and families can communicate their military experiences through writing and music.

Also participating were host Charity Nebbe, Iraq War veteran and poet Hugh Martin, and Vietnam and Gulf War veteran Lem Genovese.

Martin is the recent winner of The Iowa Review's Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award for Veterans. He's also author of the recent poetry collection "The Stick Soldiers."

During the interview, I found out Martin is also a former Ohio Army National Guard soldier, although I didn't have a chance to find out whether he ever wore the "Buckeye" patch of the 37th Infantry Division. I've gotten a chance to write about that unit once or twice.

I first met Genovese at an April writing workshop for veterans in Iowa City. The former Iowa Army National Guard medic continues to provide care, comfort, and inspiration to military families through his words and music.

For my part, I chose to read from an excerpt of a 2012 Memorial Day essay, which I'd written for the Iowa Press (Iowa) Press-Citizen. It paired nicely with one of Martin's poems, and, more importantly to me, was another opportunity to share the names of the four citizen-soldiers who were killed during the 2010-2011 deployment of 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division.

You can listen to the 50-minute archived program here. Left-click the "listen" button to stream the audio. Right-click the button to save the program on your computer as an MP3 file.

New Video Thanks Readers Who Wrote to Mil-Dogs

Last summer, a brief Midwest Living magazine article regarding 12 deployed Tactical Explosives Detection Dogs ("TEDD") and their handlers got tails wagging, pens flowing, and people talking.

In the current January/February 2013 issue, Editor-in-Chief Greg Philby reports how hundreds of his magazine's readers (and many of their dogs) expressed sentiments of patriotism, thanks, and support for the 2,800 Ohio and Michigan National Guard soldiers of the 37th Infantry "Buckeye" Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.). The unit was then-deployed to Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"We received more than 400 letters from schoolchildren, veterans, families all across the Midwest and even from family pets," he says in the narration of a companion video, which the magazine produced as a thank-you to those who participated. "All of them share the appreciation of those who serve, the special bond between us and our pets, and the sense of pulling together that truly shows the heart of the Heartland."

Both Philby's January-February "letter from the editor" and the video quote readers' words directly. Here are some examples:

"Dear warriors: As a Vietnam vet, I am familiar with the capabilities and even comforting presence of working dogs," wrote James, from Leawood, Kan. "I just wish the dogs and their humans all the best to be safe and to save lives." 

"As the owner of a therapy dog, I totally understand how dogs can do things people cannot," wrote Nancy and her therapy dog Quincy, from Eagle River, Wis. "I'm certain the bond you've forged with your canine is much more than just a working relationship. I pray you return safely."

The 37th BCT has since returned from deployment, and the magazine has arranged for the Ohio National Guard historian to archive the letters.

Midwest Living to Bundle Mail to 'Buckeye' Mil-dogs, Handlers

Photo: Spc. Zach Laker, Tactical Explosive Detection Dog ("TEDD") handler assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, gives a command to Sassy, his TEDD, while checking a vehicle at Forward Operating Base Griffin, Faryab province, Afghanistan, Feb. 24, 2012. Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Kimberly Lamb.

*****

This Fourth of July, Midwest Living magazine is encouraging readers of all ages to send messages of support to a group of military dogs and handlers currently deployed to Northern Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The 2,800 men and women of the Ohio Army National Guard’s 37th Brigade Combat Team (37th B.C.T.)—historically called the "Buckeye Brigade"—are the first citizen-soldiers to deploy with military working dogs called “TEDDs.” The acronym stands for “Tactical Explosives Detection Dogs.” Using a variety of techniques, they sniff out bombs while serving overseas.

“Our job is helping to save lives, and being able to do something that machines or people alone can’t do,” says Spc. Devin Cooper, 23, of Columbus, Ohio. “What I like about the assignment is that I always have something to do: When people see my TEDD they always say, ‘I miss my dog back home.’ It’s just good company having him around.”

Published bi-monthly, Midwest Living regularly delivers tips and inspiration on pets, travel, food, home design and gardening. The magazine's editors originally explored the idea of sending "care packages" to the dogs and handlers, but learned that Uncle Sam provides all the doggie gear and food they require.

"This mail project seemed a creative way to recognize and remember our Midwestern citizen-soldiers while they are serving our country overseas," says Executive Editor Trevor Meers. "Focusing on the dogs and their handlers potentially offers people a new way to think about that story—and provides a simple way to act on their patriotic impulses."

Think of it as "mail-call for mil-dogs."

Midwest Living is published by Meredith Corp., Des Moines, Iowa, which also produces Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home Journal. Midwest Living reaches approximately 3.4 million readers nationwide.

In the "Discoveries" section of the July/August 2012 issue of Midwest Living, readers are asked to send postcards, letters, and other messages of support to:

Buckeye Brigade
c/o Midwest Living
1716 Locust Street
Des Moines, Iowa 50309

The 37th BCT, historically known as the “Buckeye” brigade and for its distinctive circular shoulder patch (see right), comprises units from the Michigan and Ohio Army National Guards. In addition to a headquarters based in Columbus, Ohio, these include:

• 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment (1-125th Inf.) Flint, Mich.
• 1st Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment (1-148th Inf.), Walbridge, Ohio
• 1st Squadron,126th Cavalry Regiment (1-126th Cav.), Wyoming, Mich.
• 1st Battalion, 134th Field Artillery (1-134th FA), Columbus, Ohio
• 237th Brigade Support Battalion (237th BSB), Cleveland, Ohio
• Special Troops Battalion, 37th BCT, Springfield, Ohio

There are 12 dog-and-handler teams deployed throughout the brigade. An Army veterinarian helps the handlers monitor their canine partners’ health. Dogs are carefully issued specific amounts of food each day. Treats are given as reinforcement for jobs well-done. By tradition, the dogs are considered to hold rank one step above their handlers.

Before deploying overseas in January, the teams trained at Vohne Liche Kennels, Inc., Denver, Ind., and in the Arizona’s Mojave desert. “The trainers incorporated stressful combat situations while working you with the dogs, yelling and screaming at you,” laughs Sgt. Anthony Utz, 25, of New Bremen, Ohio. “It was almost like basic training all over again.” Utz is the coordinator for the brigade’s TEDD program.

After the Buckeye units return stateside in fall 2012, the TEDDs will travel to Indiana for retraining and reassignment.

Hometown News ... from Downrange

Love it or hate it, a deployment turns an overseas patch of dirt into something akin to a high school, or a hometown. You spend a lot of time on the same ground, with the same people, doing a job that no one understands, speaking jargon and language foreign to anyone who doesn't wear the same uniform. There are inside-jokes, pep rallies, and lots of rules to follow. Some bonds are made, some friends are lost. Then, one sudden day, you leave.

Everyone leaves it behind, but everyone deals with it differently. Some people want to forget it all. Some people can't help but remember. Some people want to relive the stories of glory and war, over and over again.

Still others try to hold on in a different way, and keep an ear tuned to what's happening back in the old neighborhood. If you've ever wondered whatever happened to the star quarterback, the class clown, or the prom queen, you know what I'm talking about.

So it is with me. In 2003, I deployed to Egypt as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. I saw a lot, learned a lot, made a lot of friends. I had experiences I would have never had unless I'd joined the Iowa National Guard. Ever since, I have had an interest in political and cultural happenings there. I didn't realize I was so transparent until my grade-school daughter started checking out library books on ancient Egypt, and the lives of children who live there today.

"Someday, Daddy, can we go to Egypt together?" she often asks me.

Inshallah, Sweet.

The National Guard is something of a small community, too. There are interstate rivalries, to be sure, and occasionally quirky differences in character and capabilities. Given that the National Guard is now considered part of an "operational" reserve—one routinely called upon to augment active-duty forces—rather than as a "strategic" one of last national resort, keeping track of which brigade is doing what mission has become a little like following hometown sports.

Readers of the Red Bull Rising blog, for example, will remember that the Iowa National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (2-34th B.C.T) was the second U.S. National Guard brigade ever to deploy to Afghanistan as a "battlespace owner"—and the first to be configured for that mission from the start.

Following the Red Bull is one of the reasons I continue to take an interest in all things Afghanistan. And Iraq.

In 2009-2010, Vermont's 86th BCT had successfully transitioned from its role as the headquarters of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix to become a battlespace owner.

Currently, Oklahoma's 45th Infantry "Thunderbird" BCT is in Eastern Afghanistan, operating on some of the same ground as their Vermont and Iowa predecessors.

In 2011, another Red Bull brigade—the Minnesota National Guard's 1-34th BCT—deployed to Kuwait and Iraq. At the last minute in 2011, some elements of Oklahoma's 45h BCT were diverted to Kuwait to serve alongside the Red Bull. After U.S. troops left Iraq in December 2011, the Red Bull remains in Kuwait to serve as part of a 15,000-soldier regional reserve.

Jonathan Raab is a New York National Guard soldier currently on his second deployment. In 2011, New York's 27th Brigade Combat Team had been preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. The brigade went as far as the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., before taking an unprecedented pause over the December holidays. Thousands of citizen-soldiers were caught in a limbo between mobilizing and deploying. As Raab wrote in a December 2011 essay published by Stars and Stripes:

They told us we were not going to Afghanistan, but that we might go elsewhere. The new rumored deployment date was far enough down the road that I’d run out of money well before then; I had just enough time to find a new job or a new place to live, to get settled back in with my friends, family and girlfriend, and to get on with life before having to let go of everything and everyone all over again.

Raab has since learned he will deploy not to Afghanistan, but to Iraq, in a mission similar to that currently performed by the Red Bull and Thunderbird soldiers there. Raab has a blog called "With a Bible in My Ruck," which I hope will continue. Consider this recent excerpt:

This is a non-combat mission. We'll be training and pulling guard duty for a year. Am I happy that my comrades won't be coming home killed or maimed? Yes, praise God for that. But as an infantryman and a soldier, I can't help but feel like I don't have utility in a peacetime mission. I feel unnecessary. I feel like I'll be in football practice for a year with no chance to get in on the game. That's irrational, I know. But there it is.

I wouldn't be honest with you if I told you that I wanted to go at this point. My article in the Stars and Stripes 'Ruptured Duck' Blog sums up how I feel about the situation and its uncertainty. Ever since we were cut loose in November, I used that time to find work and plan for my life. With this deployment, however, that's over. I'll be going overseas for a mission that I did not want or volunteer for, and I'll be returning to an even more difficult job market.

For more official detail on missions and units comprising the 27th BCT deployment click here.

In yet another sign that the National Guard fight is changing in Afghanistan, Arkansas' 39th BCT was recently notified that its pending deployment has been cancelled.

Deployed with the Ohio National Guard's 37th Infantry "Buckeye" Brigade Combat Team (I.B.C.T.), "Old Blue" is a senior non-commissioned officer (N.C.O.) with 29 years of experience. He's on his third deployment to Afghanistan, and his third military blog, "Afghan Blue III."

He's previously served as a trainer with Afghan National Police (A.N.P.) in Kapisa and Nuristan Provinces. He's also had eyes on Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan, where he worked with British soldiers.

Like Raab in Kuwait, Old Blue has found himself pursuing a different mission than the one for which he and his buddies had prepared. The brigade to which he is assigned will not be conducting "full-spectrum operations"—a term that includes everything from humanitarian assistance to finding and killing bad guys—but will instead be performing "security force assistance" (S.F.A.)—advising and resourcing their Afghan counterparts. (It could be worse/better: Some Buckeye soldiers were diverted to Bahrain.) Still, he is a believer in counterinsurgency ("COIN"), and sees his new role as part of a process. He writes:

My quest in Afghanistan parallels my nation’s quest; finding a new role in an increasingly globalized world. [...] [I]f the United States can assume the role of mentor, advisor and enabler of development, perhaps future conflicts can be avoided altogether. Insurgencies can be avoided and terrorism prevented from developing.

In the meantime, I will do what I can to help speed success in Afghanistan. I believe that success can best be accomplished through the adaptive and intelligent practice of population-centric counterinsurgency.

I am the father of four children; two girls and two boys. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. My intent is that someday my children will visit Afghanistan as tourists, not as soldiers.

Inshallah. And roger that.

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Both the "With a Bible in My Ruck" and "Afghan Blue III" blogs have been added to a "News & Views from Downrange" blog-roll on the right-hand side of Red Bull Rising. Both writers have also been featured on Garry Trudeau's/Doonesbury's "The Sandbox." If you know of other blogs written by citizen-soldiers currently downrange, please recommend them to: sherpa AT redbullrising.com.