Veteran devotes his life to disabled heroes

I am not a fan of The New York Times. In my opinion, the newspaper has behaved irresponsibly in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, repeatedly using the military as a prop to smear politicians it disagrees with. The paper's unrelenting, over-the-top coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, which spent many consecutive days on the front page while positive military news was lucky to be buried deep inside the paper, was inexcusable. The Times was also one of the worst offenders during the initial media craze over the Haditha "massacre" in Iraq, sensationalizing accusations of murder against Marines and later failing to report with the same zeal when the same men were exonerated of wrongdoing.

However, as I have said repeatedly, this blog will always be fair when national media outlets get it right while covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Times' 'Home Fires' project is a good example, and a Tuesday columm by former servicemember Dan Clare is a must-read.

Clare is an ex-Marine who left active duty in 1999. But just before the 9/11 attacks, he enlisted in the Air National Guard in California, and wound up deploying to Iraq in 2007. Yet Clare has also been performing an important job in civilian life, as Assistant Director of National Communications for the Disabled American Veterans since 2004. Clare writes about how the military and his role with the DAV has inspired him to help others.

The quiet lives we lead would have been much more quiet if I hadn’t decided two years after getting off active duty in the Marines to enlist in the Air National Guard in California. Weeks after that came 9/11.

In the fall of 2007 I left Kentucky and deployed. I will never forget the time I spent in Iraq or the people I met along the way. For better or worse. I don’t think anyone can go to a place like Iraq and not be changed by what they see and experience.

I hope that the memories and dreams are the only long-term consequences of my time in Iraq. But I know that whatever the future will bring we will face it together.

Being a veteran means being a part of a community of men and women who’ve served. I look forward in the coming weeks to sharing some experiences related to my deployment, the transition back to civilian life and some of the issues that I feel are important to veterans and people who care about us.

Kudos to the New York Times for giving this veteran a column to share his experiences and help support his organization. You can donate to Disabled American Veterans here.