Return to civilian life

When asked about the biggest challenge for him during the Iraq deployment, Captain John VanLaningham hesitates before he replies: "The people there are not as educated, their infrastructure doesn't support education or really give them an education," he says. "When I talk to a police officer, I think about guys who can read and write, understand a book, and grasp written law." That's different in Iraq, according to him.

So "we tuned down our level," the commander of the 105th Military Police Company says. "We didn't treat them like children, we treated them as adults. But we needed to break the training down a little farther for them." The majority of the Iraqis who were trained by VanLaningham's team were soldiers or police officers.

VanLaningham's men broke down what they had to explain into actions and demonstrations, rather than using books for training purposes. "It worked fairly well," says the 36-year-old, who has just returned to his home town Syracuse in New York State.

Help rather than fight

VanLaningham arrived in Iraq in May 2011, together with his brigade of 116 soldiers of the New York Army National Guard's 105th Military Police Company. Six of them had come full circle. They were among the soldiers who were there when the Iraq war started in early 2003. This time around, the 105th company was deployed in the North of the country, in Kirkuk and in Mosul.

Their mission was to train Iraqi policemen to train fellow policemen, and to guarantee their safety. Especially in Mosul, says VanLaningham, "we were doing outside missions every day." He was surprised by how smoothly everything went, and adds that he "was very pleased that our soldiers got their reputation out there." He would tell his soldiers repeatedly: "Listen, this is not the war, we're not at war. We are here to help stabilize the area."

VanLaningham is convinced that the 105th Military Police Company he was in charge of were able to do a good job because they're not professional soldiers who serve in the regular army, but instead are members of the National Guard. That means they are civilians - among them tractor trailer drivers, scrap metal workers, and college students.

"They don't forget what it's like to be out in the world without the uniform on." That made it easier for them to deal with the population in Iraq, he believes. National Guard soldiers, he says, are less aggressive in their appearance than professional soldiers.

Indispensable - also in Iraq

Out of all the elements that make up the US Armed Forces these "vigilantes" have the longest tradition. They were formed 375 years ago, in colonial times. Men and women sign up for service for several years, which means going for training sessions one weekend a month, and two consecutive weeks a year. The National Guard are liable to both the federal state and the national government in Washington. Usually, they are deployed to help out in cases of emergency, such as floods, blizzards, or major fires.

Since September 11th, 2001, however, the National Guard have increasingly also been deployed in war missions. Between 2003 and 2011, more than 1.1 million soldiers were stationed in Iraq - one fourth of them belonged to the National Guard. In early 2011, Chief of Staff of the US Army, General George W. Casey, put it this way: "The reality of it all is that we cannot go to war without the Guard and Reserve."

After his graduation, John VanLaningham served in the US Navy for four years. He then attended college, but got "bored with civilian life pretty quickly," so he joined the National Guard. In 1999/2000, he was deployed in a combat zone for the first time - in Bosnia.

Only five months earlier he had started dating Cynthia, who is now his wife. She says she had no idea what it was going to be like to be with a soldier. "The change in communication is what's difficult," explains the 31-year-old. Not hearing from your partner for a couple of days doesn't necessarily mean the end of your relationship, she says, but simply that they may be on a mission, which, for security reasons, doesn't allow for contact with home.

Mission accomplished

John VanLaningham returned to the US in early December. He couldn't go straight back home to Syracuse, but had to make sure some of his soldiers got the medical treatment they needed. "Minor injuries, nothing serious," he says: a heavy door slammed shut on somebody's fingers, contusion to shoulders, sports injuries. "I was very happy that we didn't have any combat-related injuries."

Had it not been for the good relationship his soldiers had with the Iraqi civilians, things could have been different, VanLaningham believes. "Where the unit before us had been hit serveral times, and had several injuries, we didn't have any attacks on us as a unit." In addition, says VanLaningham, this also mirrors the fact that the security situation in the area has improved.

The pullout of US forces from Iraq meant that VanLaningham's brigade returned home two months earlier than planned. Some of his soldiers were disappointed, he recalls. "They wanted to be able to contribute to the overall mission." VanLaningham had also been prepared to spend the whole year overseas in combat zone. On the other hand, he says pensively, "the longer you stay, the greater the chance is that something happens."

Was the Iraq mission successful overall? That is not for him to judge, says Captain VanLaningham. His soldiers certainly fulfilled their mission and accomplished it at levels above of what was expected of them. He admits that he takes a little pride in the fact that "we accomplished our mission, nobody got hurt, none of our areas were attacked, and none of my soldiers came back injured from an attack."

Cynthia Roberson-VanLaningham is glad that her husband was home for Christmas, even if she doesn't say so explicitly. "It wouldn't have been our first holiday apart, so I'm ok with it." When she heard that he wouldn't be able to go straight back home, because he had to supervise the medical outprocessing, she decided to meet him where he was with his men.

While he was in Iraq she wouldn't watch the news on television, recalls Cynthia Roberson-VanLaningham. Those who are left behind know that there is always the danger that you'll catch a news broadcast about an attack in the area where your partner is stationed, and end up worrying - despite all good intentions.

As for their plans for the future: "Gosh, he's only been home for a couple of days," says Cynthia. "I think we're just going to try to get back to life and move forward." For John that means going back to his normal job as a State Trooper, doing patrols, registering complaints from people who've lost their wallets and settling domestic disputes.

He is currently on a 30-day leave and will take his wife to Antigua on holiday. They both say it is well-deserved.

Author: Christina Bergmann, Syracuse, New York / nh
Editor: Rob Mudge