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’Operation Homecoming’ gives troops a voice
3:50 p.m., Oct. 11, 2006--A new book published in September gives an unfiltered voice to the American soldiers on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to their families back home. Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families was published by Random House in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The project brought together soldiers recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and prominent writers from around the country, including the University of Delaware's McKay Jenkins, Cornelius A. Tilghman Sr. Professor of English. Jenkins said more than 6,000 GIs participated in the NEA's Operation Homecoming, which received more than 2,000 manuscripts including memoirs, fiction and poetry totaling about 12,000 pages. It was an eye-opening outpouring of prose. “I don't think anyone had any idea how popular this would be when it started out,” he said. Jenkins both trained the soldier-authors and was part of an editing team that helped winnow the works down to about 100 pieces selected for inclusion in the book. He conducted a writing workshop two years ago for about 75 troops at Fort Drum, N.Y., home of the famed 10th Mountain Division, about which he had written in the book The Last Ridge, which detailed the unit's heroism during World War II. The result of the NEA's Operation Homecoming, Jenkins said, is a book that provides an honest and unvarnished look at war from those most directly involved. “Every kind of voice involved in a war is included,” he said. Jenkins said he believes early questions about government sponsorship of the project, which included the support of the Department of Defense, have been answered. “As the project launched, there was some tension, and concerns as to whether the anthology would be propaganda or literature,” he said. “But this was never intended to promote any particular political point of view. I think the effort to make the book as politically neutral and as descriptive as possible was achieved. There are some very vivid and very graphic descriptions of war here.” Jenkins said the best aspect of the book is providing “the people on the ground their say,” with unfiltered, firsthand opinions from the men and women of the military.
Jenkins said the book “is a very strong collection of writing,” and strong enough that he plans to continue relationships with some of the soldiers who are interested in expanding on their manuscripts. “I'd like to see if we can get more points of view and memories in print,” he said. One of the contributors, Lt. Col. Frank Correa of Los Angeles, is hoping to write a book about his experiences as a medic on airplane flights carrying the men and women wounded in Iraq. In the chapter titled “This is Not a Game: the Physical and Emotional Toll of War,” he wrote, “The scene on the aircraft was hard to believe. We had row after row of litters stacked three- and sometimes four-high with patients. They seemed to go all the way to the back of the plane. The smell of unwashed bodies and infected wounds filled the airÉ. I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of patients we were treating, and I had been awake and on the go for the last 24 hours. Making critical decisions and keeping track of everyone when my mind and body screamed for sleep made the missions all the more difficult. But I knew I really had nothing to complain about because while our discomfort was temporary, many of the wounded faced a lifetime of hardships. For them, this trip was only the beginning.” The anthology was edited by Andrew Carroll, editor of the bestseller War Letters, and author Jeff Shaara, the 2005 UD Commencement speaker, said it “is the honest voice of war,” adding, “The variety of voices is astonishing, from those who fight to those who sit home and wait, from those who repair broken bodies to those whose lives will be changed forever by their experiences. In the end, they are all one voice, a voice we must hear, and must not forget. It is our voice.” Reviewer Vanessa Bush, writing in the American Library Association's Booklist, said the “history-making project records feelings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan even as conflicts continue in those nations. “ She said the book offers “an incredibly wide range of opinions and emotions about U.S. policy in the Middle East, the war on terrorism, and the duties and responsibilities of citizens and the military. In 100 pieces of poetry, essays, letters, e-mails, plays and journal entries, soldiers recall the awful thrill in the threat of killing or being killed, the deaths of buddies and the cultural and psychological adjustments to a strange land. The book is divided into sections, including the war in the beginning, when 9/11 fueled certainty among the military; the campaigns to win the hearts and minds of Afghanis and Iraqis; the daily terror and boredom of war; efforts to sustain family life on the home front; and the joy and anxiety of homecoming. Intimate perspectives from the people on the frontlines.” The concept behind Operation Homecoming originated in a conversation between the acclaimed poet Marilyn Nelson, who was teaching English at UD at the time, and Dana Gioia, NEA chairman, at a conference of state poets laureate in 2003. The conversation turned to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the very different worlds of literature and military service, and resulted in a project that combines the two. Article by Neil Thomas
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