Back home, again - Brown returns from second Guard stint in Iraq

Sgt. Robert 'Cory' Brown has enjoyed his first few weeks back from duty in Iraq.

He attended his family's annual chili cook-off Saturday at the southern Pettis County home of his grandparents, Frank and Sandy Nine. The family moved the event up from Christmas this year in his honor.

His father and stepmother, Robert and Alice Brown, of Illinois, drove into town for the weekend to welcome him back. He has gone on shopping tours to Kansas City and spent time fishing with his grandfather.

"It's just cool having him back home," his father said.

The 25-year-old served with the 110th Combat Engineer Battalion, an Army National Guard unit based in Kansas City, which deployed in November 2005 and returned at the beginning of this month.

It was Sgt. Brown's second tour in Iraq, and one for which he volunteered. His first tour, with the 1140th Combat Engineer Battalion, of Cape Girardeau, went from January 2004 to February 2005. He had been home about five months, working as a machine operator with Wire Rope Corp. of America, when he learned that members of his first unit were redeploying to Iraq.

Military mindset

"I was still in that mindset, that mentality. I wanted a chance to pass on what I had learned during my first tour. Anything I could show a first-timer would increase the likelihood of success in the mission and made it more likely that they would go home alive," Sgt. Brown said. "Besides, I kind of missed it."

Cheating death had become a way of life for Sgt. Brown during his first tour. About a month after he arrived in Iraq, Sgt. Brown got a taste of the insurgency's weapon of choice, the roadside bomb.

"We were driving in a five-ton dump truck, headed north from base when we came on an abandoned car along the road. We were about 300 or 350 meters away when it exploded. I was standing in the dumper bed with a rifle and I could feel the concussion of the blast," Sgt. Brown said.

"I thought to myself, 'If this is how it's going to be, I will never make it.' "

On another occasion, he was talking to his mother, Crystal Nichols, of Sedalia, over the Internet using a Web camera. Sgt. Brown said he and a few of the other men in his unit heard the distinctive sound of rocket fire. He leapt from his seat and called out, "Incoming!," and the group ran for the bunker.

"All I could see was people running in front of the camera. About a half hour passed, and he came back and wrote 'I'm all right mom. We just got attacked.' " Mrs. Nichols said.

It wasn't as hard to let him go the second time, "but I cried just as much," his mother said.

"I knew he felt like he could help people and that he thought other people would benefit from his experience," she said.

The day of his departure was made a little easier by a couple who approached her in the airport after she saw her son off on his flight back to the war, she recalled.

"There were lots of tears and hugs, of course. After he got on the plane, this couple came up to me, and the man said, 'I want to thank you for giving up your son for a little while.' To have someone thank me, that meant a lot."

Slow, steady progress

Sgt. Brown said that the Iraq he found on his second tour was a different place than the one he had left in February.

During his first tour, less than a year after the invasion, he saw a country in disarray and reeling from economic depression, struggling to put itself back together after decades of Saddam Hussein's rule.

"The cars were all raggedy looking, and people were still using donkey carts to take things to the market. When we came back, you could tell that the economic conditions had improved. People had started to rebuild. There were new cars on the streets, and you would see trucks pass by filled with new furniture. They were recovering," Sgt. Brown said.

Also, the troops had better equipment and armor for their vehicles. "It was a big improvement over my first tour."

Still, it was not safe.

About halfway through his second tour, he was driving an RG-31 Nyala, a mine-protected transport vehicle, during a support mission with a Navy explosive ordnance disposal unit when a roadside bomb exploded under his vehicle. It was designed to take the direct blast, but the impact blew out the front tires and ruptured a fuel line.

"I just punched down on the gas and pushed through the area so we could get to a friendly base to do our repairs," Sgt. Brown said.

The gunner in the vehicle was "pretty pumped up" by the blast, Sgt. Brown said.

"He said, 'That was awesome.' The truck commander was just trying to figure out what had happened. I was mad because I'd made it through a full tour and half of another without getting blown up, and it blew my streak," Sgt. Brown said.

Although low key about his experiences, Sgt. Brown has pointed feelings about the war and how the media have portrayed it, as well as slipping public support.

Media reports skewed

"My opinion on public opinion is that it stinks. Regardless of why we went, we are there now. Taking Saddam out was something that should have been done the first time (the 1991 Gulf War). Saddam's conviction on war crime charges only reinforces the fact that we did the right thing," Sgt. Brown said.

Media reports of attacks, he said, present a skewed picture of the conditions on the ground in Iraq.

"The Iraqi security forces are not ready to go it alone yet, but they are getting there. I don't think they are in a civil war. There are lots of areas that are secure. Businesses have opened up, and people have started to rebuild. The progress is slow, but it is steady, and sometimes slow and steady (are) what you want so you have time to learn from and adapt to the changes," Sgt. Brown said.

Pulling out now would be a mistake, he said, and "people have the misconception that if we pulled out now that everything would be all right, that it wouldn't affect us -- it will."

The young man said he relished the experience.

"The most satisfying thing was getting to interact with the locals. My unit adopted a village of Iraqi kids, and our families would send us care packages for them. They were curious about our equipment and where we were from and who we favored in the World Cup.

Most of the people I met were Shiites. They were happy to be rid of Saddam and were excited about the prospect of freedom."

Sgt. Brown will spend the holidays with his family, then move to California state to be with his girlfriend. In the spring, he will return to active duty, serving at a training area for troops getting ready to deploy at Fort Hood, Texas.

"I'd hate to see this end up like another Vietnam where there was no decisive victory and nothing was gained, but if we pull out then all my friends that died, died for nothing. I think we will always have troops in Iraq, like Korea, and it will probably take another three to five years to secure things. I just hope the public doesn't lose sight of the goals there," Sgt. Brown said.