Stay in Iraq changes USU employee’s life
A new outlook on life in America is one of the things a Utah State University employee brought home from Iraq.
Alan Andersen, assistant director of Housing and Food Services at USU, returned from Iraq in August after being there for nine months. Andersen was deployed in November 2002 as part of a maintenance detachment of 17 people whose main job was repairing light-wheel vehicles such as Humvees and five-ton trucks as well as construction equipment.
Andersen said at first he spent most of his time in Kuwait preparing for the war and did not go into Iraq at all. While the Kuwaiti people were glad the Americans were there, he said, they did not necessarily want them there. The bases were locked down and the Americans were not allowed to go into town because soldiers had been killed there.
“I definitely think the Kuwaiti government wanted us there,” Andersen said. “But the Kuwaiti people? I look at it as how would I feel if a foreign power had a big base right outside my city? You have to look at how that makes people feel.”
Andersen said there is a certain amount of “country pride” among the Kuwaiti people, and while some may not have wanted them there, the Americans were protecting Kuwait from Iraq, and they have been for 12 years now.
“The Kuwaiti people knew why we were there,” Andersen said. “But it was still an inconvenience to them, with our trucks on their highways and interstates. Before the war started, in Kuwait, anytime we would convoy anywhere, we had police escorts and it was almost like their world came to a stop because we were convoying somewhere. You can imagine the inconvenience for them.”
Andersen’s company moved from Kuwait into Iraq on the second day of the war. Andersen said the farther north they traveled, the more they could sense
hostility.
“Southern Iraq was really beat up by Saddam Hussein, they were really picked on,” Andersen said. “Southern Iraq is just desolate, it’s really a sad situation.”
Andersen said he understands some animosity on the part of the Iraqis.
“We came in and just basically took over their country, with all our multi-million dollar vehicles, and I think part of it was just the incredible wealth Americans have as a country compared to Iraq,” Andersen said.
“I think deep inside, most people were glad to get rid of Saddam Hussein, glad that he was out of the country because of the terror that he caused for people,” Andersen said. “They were glad for him to go, but then they wanted us to go because we were a nuisance. We took over their places.”
Andersen said while the Iraqi people have been told they are free from Hussein, they still may not understand it.
“You can’t just walk in and say ‘Congratulations, here’s your democracy, have a nice day.’ They are used to a certain way of life and you can tell them but I think that for a long time, deep down inside, people are going to question that freedom,” he said.
Andersen said one thing in particular he noticed was incredible poverty.
“It was a shock for me to come back to the United States and see the wealth that we actually have,” Andersen said. “We live like kings compared to the way most of the Iraqi people live.”
Andersen said when he returned to the United States he was in Denver in a demobilization station. He had a weekend off and went to the mall.
“I was just literally in awe of all the things that we take for granted,” Andersen said. “We can get in our cars and drive somewhere. If we want to go to the store, we can go shopping, and a lot of that just doesn’t exist in Iraq.”
Andersen said American soldiers in Iraq would talk about how they would spend the money they earned while in Iraq.
“Someone the same age as those soldiers who lives in Iraq worries about where their next bottle of water is going to come from, where their next food is going to come from,” Andersen said.
“It’s really unfortunate to me how much people in the United States take for granted, and how really great we have it,” Andersen said. “I never understood that until I went to Iraq and saw how some people live in this world.”
Andersen said when he was in Iraq and coming home, he didn’t think it would have an effect on him, but he was surprised because it has been quite an adjustment period for him.
“I just thought, no big deal, I will come home and just slip right into life again, and it really doesn’t happen that way,” Andersen said. “There are times since I’ve been back that it feels like I never even left, but then there are times where I don’t even know hardly where I am because I feel almost out of place when I think back on Iraq and the things there.”
Andersen said the biggest thing he wants to convey about his experiences in Iraq is to be grateful for what they have here in the United States.
“You see people complaining about the stupidest things and they are so trivial compared to some of the issues in the world,” Andersen said. “People need to step back and say, ‘You know, I really don’t have it that bad.’
“It’s sad to see people in Iraq that are in such famine and see people in America have everything,” Andersen said. “That was the biggest lesson to me about Iraq. The biggest thing I would like people to know is that they need to be thankful every single day they were born in America and not somewhere like Iraq.”
Andersen said he joined the military out of patriotic duty.
“That’s why I do what I do,” Andersen said. “I would be proud to go again, just like I was proud to go this time. That’s what I do. I’m a soldier.”
-tracylund@cc.usu.edu