Faculty, Students keep link with Loved Ones at War
Tiffany Mercer | For the Wichitan
 
An e-mail, cell phone call or letter carries special meaning to a select few at MSU. The messages come from dangerous places. They come from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Faculty, staff and students correspond regularly with relatives who serve as soldiers on the battlefield or civilian workers who are putting themselves in harm’s way. Although the war zone is thousands of miles away, many at MSU have never felt closer to their loved ones.
University Librarian Clara Latham’s son, Kevin, is an army captain in Mosul.
Major Erin Dowd, daughter of John Dowd, associate professor of educational leadership and technology, is serving her second tour of duty in Iraq.
John Schreiber, associate professor of education and reading, has a son, John “Jay,” a sergeant in the National Guard in Afghanistan.
MSU junior Kelcie Newton’s father, Donnie Johnson, works as an electrician for Kellogg, Brown and Root in Iraq.
Jane Owen, assistant professor of educational leadership and technology, has a son, Patrick, who has been deployed in the Middle East several times.
Mrs. Latham thinks about her son, Army Capt. Kevin Latham, every day. He is a battalion adjutant and company commander. He plans movements, leaves, ceremonies and medical evacuations. He left for Mosul on Oct. 14, 2004, and isn’t scheduled to return home until Christmas. He participated in the ROTC at the University of Missouri, where he was enrolled in the engineering program.  After graduation, he was obligated to military service.
On Dec. 21, 2004, a suicide bomber walked into the mess hall Latham usually dines in. Twenty-two people were killed in the packed tent. Latham was not in the tent that day. Instead of joining the other men for lunch, he remained in his office while a few men from his unit went off base to pick up lunch for him. Four men from his unit were killed in the bombing.
The librarian speaks to her son on the phone about every two weeks. She also receives e-mails from him every three days. Capt. Latham tells his mother about the sandy landscape, the cold, windy nights and the primitive roads his unit travels by special striker vehicles. As for the citizens of Mosul, most are appreciative of the troops and thrilled about the U.S. presence, he said.
Mrs. Latham said her son is100 percent supportive of the war in Iraq. He knows that he and his comrades are making a difference and was proud to contribute to security during that country’s first elections since the regime changed. She especially remembers an e-mail he wrote about assisting a group of Kurds.  He helped pile them into the armed trucks and took them to the polls.  Twelve hundred people in Latham’s compound voted for the first time in their lives.
“I am proud of him,” Mrs. Latham said.
Mrs. Latham said she can’t help but worry about her son every day, but she deals with it.
“I feel he is as protected as he can be,” Mrs. Latham said. 
Major Erin Dowd, daughter of associate professor John Dowd, is serving in her second war overseas. Today, she trains Iraqi officers.
Ms. Dowd participated in the Army ROTC program at the University of New Hampshire.  After graduation, she became an active-duty second lieutenant, serving in the 101st Airborne in Tennessee. Professor Dowd brags about how much his daughter loves parachuting out of airplanes and helicopters. 
Ms. Dowd was then sent overseas in Operation Desert Storm following Iraqi’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.  Dowd said he had little communication with her during this time.
After Ms. Dowd served out her term, she switched to the Army Reserves. She was assigned to teach ROTC at the University of Connecticut in Hartford, but it wasn’t long before she was called back into active duty.
She spent a month training at an Indiana base and began her duty in Iraq in November of 2004. 
Dowd communicates with his daughter every other week by telephone and once a week through e-mail. 
“As parents, we are very grateful for regular phone calls and e-mails from Erin,” Dowd said.
Dowd said his daughter is not only committed to her mission, but also believes in it. She tells her father that she really likes working with the Iraqis. They try hard to use English and have shown themselves to be very hospitable.
“Erin sidesteps our family’s admiration that she is doing something heroic by serving in Iraq,” Dowd said.
She told her father that her real heroes are the Iraqis who are risking assassination by joining the U.S. troops.  The Iraqi officers trust our nation and depend on U.S. forces on being there until the very end, she said. 
Dowd said when Erin was first deployed he and his wife were worried sick.
“My wife and I are numb to it now,” Dowd said.  “The constant messages help ease our concern.”
Dowd said the mission of the U.S. Army is to honor and respect the Iraqis while recognizing the large amount of work left to be done.  He believes the Iraqis are good people whose culture differs from ours.
“We Americans are very similar to Iraqis in our love for our families and our country,” Dowd said.
Sgt. Jay Schreiber joined the Army National Guard 14 years ago because he wanted to serve his country. He grew up in Texas and now works in army intelligence. He serves as the intelligence officer for his group, which gathers and interprets a variety of data.
His father, John, is an associate professor of education and reading. 
Schreiber said that his son has been in Afghanistan for 10 months. He and Jay communicate through e-mail and Yahoo Instant Messaging.  With IM, they can use text, voice communications, and web cam technology.  The professor also sends “care” packages each week to his son.
“In some ways, even though he is half a world away, I feel closer to him than I ever did before,” Schreiber said.
Schreiber said his son has not been impressed with the weather in Afghanistan.
“When I would joke with him about the similarity between Afghanistan and West Texas, he quickly informed me that there was no comparison at all,” Schreiber said.
Jay Schreiber describes single-digit humidity levels and three-digit temperatures.  He writes about the constantly blowing dust and calls Afghanistan “the most desolate place for so many people to live on earth.”
He told his father that conditions on the base have improved through American construction, but added that there is no place like home.
Schreiber said his son believes in his mission in Afghanistan.  With Jay overseas, said each member of the family thinks about him every day, Schreiber said.
“I can only speak for myself but my thoughts are a mixture of pride, worry and a hope that he and all of the others serving their country far from home will return home safe as soon as possible,” Schreiber said.
He is scheduled to return in two months.
Junior mass communication major Kelcie Newton is faced with different circumstances.  Her father, Donnie, has been in Iraq for three months, but he is not in the military. He is a civilian electrician.
Newton’s father works for Kellogg, Brown, and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. In January, he signed a yearlong open-ended contract.  She said her father wanted to take advantage of the job opportunity, hoping it would open up new doors for his career when he returned to the states. The money was too good for him to turn down, she said.
When he told his family he wanted to work in Iraq, they didn’t want him to go, she said. They remain supportive, however.
“His friend was going there with him,” Newton said.  “That made us feel better about it.”
Newton and her siblings receive about one e-mail a week from their father.  She said he asks about school and life, but tries to avoid conversation about his experiences in Iraq.
“He doesn’t want to get into the nitty-gritty and make us worry,” Newton said.
She said her mother is able to speak with him every day.  In fact, the Johnsons were recently able to take a trip to in Europe, Newton said.  After her father worked three months in Iraq, he was allowed two weeks of vacation.  The only problem was that he couldn’t come home to the states.  Instead, his wife flew to Paris, and they toured France together.
Newton said she thinks about her dad, but was used to not seeing him every day.  She said she feels bad for her mother, though.
“She is mostly affected about him being in Iraq,” Newton said.  “She is the one who usually spends every day with him.”
Newton said her father is scheduled to return home in January.  Until then, she hopes he is careful and makes it home safely.
Patrick Owen, son of Jane Owen, assistant professor of educational leadership and technology, has been deployed overseas four or five times in the past several years. Twenty-nine-year-old Patrick grew up in Farmington, New Mexico. Mrs. Owen said he’s dreamed of being in the military since he was a boy playing with his G.I. Joes. Her husband, Jim, also an assistant professor of economics, remembers Patrick’s 5th grade Space Camp in Alabama. Owen said that the camp sparked his son’s interest in flying.  Now, Patrick, a captain in the Air Force, is a navigator on C-130s.
Mrs. Owen said her son is typically deployed for 45 to 90 days at a time. Sometimes, he was only gone a week when ferrying planes.  During his service in the Middle East, his mother communicated with him mostly through his wife.
“When he had time to communicate, we thought it was important that he spoke with her,” she said.
She said he would phone or e-mail her occasionally, but there was so much he wasn’t allowed to talk about. His days were routine, so he usually had nothing new to tell her, she said.
Mrs. Owen said the few pictures he sent her illustrated a flat landscape with little or no vegetation. He told her the summers were extremely hot and he tried to stay under air conditioning as much as possible when he wasn’t flying.
Mrs. Owens said her son strongly supports the war, which he believes was necessary.
“He has had a much more complex view of what is going on,” she said.
His mother does her best not to worry excessively but says she misses him a lot. He lives in North Carolina when he is back in the states and she does not see him very often. 
“I don’t always know where he is, but God does, and that is enough,” Owen said.  “We are confident that he is following God’s plan for life.”
Mrs. Owens adds that Patrick will not return to war for a while.  He is switching to MC-130s, special ops planes, and must complete a three-year tour in England. 



SGA approves custom Regalia
Paige Dickerson | Managing Editor

The Student Senate nixed the idea of maroon regalia for graduation next year, but gave approval for customized black robes at Tuesday’s meeting.
A committee of three senators, chaired by Michelle Donahou,  researched options offered by the Herff-Jones company, including three different shades of maroon, specialized color and the addition of the school seal to the gowns.
“A lot of people we talked to liked the idea of customizing the black gown. Some liked the maroon ones, too, but some felt that it was a little too high school,” Donahou said.
In order to make the graduation look more uniform, the Student Senate was presented with the option of rented gowns. Donahou said the majority of the committee favored the black regalia customized with the school seal.
The price of gowns will increase once the change is implemented. The current cost of renting a gown is about $35. Although the exact amount of the increase cannot be determined until all the changes are evaluated, the increase is estimated to be $10 to $12, Donahou said.
In other business, Chief of Police Michael Hagy addressed the Senate on lighting across campus, which had been discussed at a previous meeting.
“On a weekly basis the officers drive into every parking lot and street and take note of what lights are out. Every light has a unique number assigned to it, and we let the physical plant know so they can get it taken care of,” Hagy said.
Some areas of concern were the spaces between McCullough-Trigg and Killingsworth and between Sunwatcher and Bridwell, and the street near the Clark Student Center.
If a student has to walk back to the dorms late at night, Hagy suggested being aware of surroundings and carrying a noise-making device such as a whistle.
“Bad guys don’t like to have attention called to them. I can never say there is a perfect plan to make you safe, but if you’re aware of your surroundings it will help,” Hagy said.
He also said that if a cell phone is available, students may call the police station and ask for an officer to escort them back to the dorms. Call 397-4239 and then push the number one to get through to the dispatch office.
Although he promised to recommend better security and lighting options across campus to the Board of Regents, Hagy said the improvement depends largely on funds allocated to these issues.
For any future concerns he invited students to stop by his office.
“I’ve been in this business 25 plus years, and I’m always more than glad to address any concerns students have,” Hagy said. “I have a sort of open door policy. Just tell them that the chief said you could stop by, and I’ll try and make time in my schedule to see you.”