December 4-10, 2003

city beat

Gale Warning

by Daryl Gale

The War in the Homeland

A few weeks ago in this space, I wrote about my friends and acquaintances from Philly who’d gone off to fight the war in Iraq, and how some of them found comfort in being sent little pieces of home -- like Tastykakes and City Paper. A few of them have returned from the front, albeit temporarily, so I thought I’d update you on how the war is going.

My buddy Willie Sly -- a model, actor and budding music mogul, better known to the U.S. Army as Sgt. William G. Schley, military policeman -- sent me an e-mail the other day. He’s just back from Baghdad and is, as he put it, "home and loving life."

"Do you know how hard it is to get back all of my old connections from the music business?" Willie wrote. "I may never be able to get Sly Entertainment off the ground again, because my name has been out of the loop for almost two years. My next war will be just getting money to start my company back up."

He wrote me that if things on the local music front don’t improve fast, he’s going to move back down to Virginia and try to get his old job back as a deputy sheriff, which is how he ended up as an MP in the first place. Still, he concedes, it’s better than waiting to be picked off by snipers or blown to kingdom come by a car bomb, very real possibilities he says his comrades face every day. He’s seen the bodies.

And make no mistake; the bodies are piling up fast.

According to the Department of Defense’s latest numbers, nearly 10,000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines won’t be coming home in the same condition they were when they left. Four hundred and forty of them have been killed outright in combat; 2,472 wounded in combat; and more than 6,000 are suffering noncombat injuries, like the vehicle crash that made Jessica Lynch a household name or from some sickness severe enough for them to be airlifted out of the war zone.

If you don’t find those numbers appalling enough, consider this: In the first three full years of combat in Vietnam, from 1962 through 1964, the United States lost 392 soldiers in combat, 48 fewer than these first eight months of war in Iraq. Extrapolate those numbers out a bit -- over a period of a couple of years, let’s say -- and see if that doesn’t make you shudder.

Even if you’re one of the lucky ones who make it back home in one piece, your problems aren’t necessarily over, which is the point Willie Sly was trying to make. Many companies, more concerned with the bottom line than patriotic duty, either don’t hold the jobs of deployed servicemen or at best, offer the returning soldier a lower position. Combine that with the fact that military pay is woefully inadequate to keep up a fat mortgage, car payments and the like back here at home, and you have some soldiers trying for years to get back on their feet.

On Tuesday afternoon, I spoke with another friend who recently returned from Iraq, and he had some of the same complaints.

Ozzie Wright Jr. was one of Philadelphia’s best-known martial arts instructors, and had just taken over as principal of West Philadelphia High School when he was recalled to active duty and shipped off to Iraq. I spoke to Sgt. 1st Class Wright as he sat in his office at Fort Drum, N.Y., having returned from the war zone a few months ago to serve out the rest of his duty time there. After 23 years in the Army Reserve, that’s their idea of giving him a break.

"I’m anxious to get back home to my family and my kids at West Philly High," Wright said. "I’m really concerned about my students. The thing most people forget is, that when a soldier is called up, it affects his family, extended family, friends and many, many others."

Ozzie also repeated Willie Sly’s story almost word for word.

"Most people take a major pay cut while on active duty," he said. "Some companies don’t hold jobs more than a month or two, some mortgage companies won’t cut them any slack, and so a lot of these guys are starting their lives over from scratch. This situation is a war on the home front."

I have no doubt that Sly and Wright will land on their feet. They’re smart, resourceful guys who can easily right themselves financially and mentally, but that doesn’t apply to everyone. So while we’re busy flag waving and cavalierly asking these folks to make the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, maybe it would be nice to show them a little loyalty in return.

Daryl Gale’s weekly radio show, Dialogues, with co-hosts Rotan Lee and Bill Miller, is burning up the airwaves Fridays 7-10 a.m. on WURD (900 AM) in Philadelphia.