Q&A: PAUL MCKENNA JR.

Glendale News Press
Aug 26 2009
CA

"It’s not a young person’s war anymore. I turned 50 on my way to Iraq,"
he said. "But to look at young people who I met for the first time
and then six months later was in a combat zone with them, and to see
the growth, it gives us a lot to be proud of."

McKenna, a Unites States Marine from 1977 to 1985, tried his hand
at acting, teaching and served as vice president of a transportation
company before joining the Army National Guard about 16 years later.

He served in Bosnia from 2005 to 2006 and in Iraq beginning in 2008.

The Sgt. First Class sergeant first class returned from Iraq two weeks
ago, where he supported convoys of third-country nationals and American
contractors taking everything from food and water to ammunition and
mail on some of the nation’s country’s most dangerous roads.

The Kiwanis member is preparing again to enter the job market as a
Realtor at Keller Williams. We caught up with him at his family’s home
in Burbank, where he lives with his wife, Janet, and their 7-year-old
son, Liam.

CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO: What strikes you most about returning home?

PAUL MCKENNA JR.: How much Liam has changed and grown. I am also
always overwhelmed with what Janet has gone through and what she has
done. I look at how she’s maintained the house, finances. She’s got
seven years in the Burbank Unified School District and she was put on
the layoff list. She had to change schools and went to Bret Harte to
stay with the district. I just wish I had been here for that. These
are things that are life altering for them, and I wasn’t here.

Q: How has fighting abroad changed your perspective on the world and
other cultures?

A: The world is a small place. One of the things I came back from
Bosnia with, I was embarrassed. I learned more about the Armenian
Genocide there than I did in Burbank. We were there fighting a genocide
and in doing so we learned about the history of genocide. It’s made
me closer to my neighbors in that respect. You see people coming
from other parts of the world and you have a greater understanding
for why they are coming. I also gained a much deeper respect for
the youth. We look at MTV, I’ll use that as a general term, and you
see that as the youth of America. Both times I’ve been deployed with
central and northern California units and you see people from very
small outlooks on the world and then you see how much they’ve changed
in 14, 16 months. It really, really has been rewarding to see the
future of America.

Q: What in your experience has been the biggest difference between
these two wars?

A: I think the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein. When he
released the oil into the gulf he declared war on the ecosystem, not
on the United States. He declared war on the people of the world. For
that reason I will never think that going to Iraq was wrong. Because
that mission was completed and the world is a better place. From that
day forward it’s all politics.

Q: We hear Afghanistan defined by the administration as a "war of
necessity," as opposed to Iraq, which senior officials on up to
President Obama have dubbed a "war of choice."

A: I disagree with that. I do think that there were aspects of Iraq
that were unfinished business. President Bush wanted to go in. Don’t
get me wrong, I’m not a parrot for the administration, I’m not going
to agree with everything that took place, but as I said, the world’s
a better place. In an era of terrorism, that’s one terrorist that has
been eliminated. Going to Afghanistan, the aspects of the country with
Osama bin Laden, whether or not that’s a realistic objective still,
I have a lot of friends of mine that served there. I just think that
the success on those two battlefields, the success that’s been noted
in history, is what we’ve got to look at. We have to realize that
it’s a long, prolonged situation, and whether or not the American
people are willing to do that is to be determined.

Q: Improvised explosive devices cause the most injuries in both
wars. From Oct. 2001, through July 2009, according to a the defense
department, explosive devices caused 25,353 American casualties
whereas gunshot injuries caused 4,102 casualties. But as in past wars,
the likelihood of an American dying from an I.E.D. once injured —
9.7 percent — remained far behind the dangers of the bullets, which
killed 20.3 percent of the soldiers they struck. Can you talk about
the challenges I.E.D.’s pose?

A: The equipment that we use is incredible. We had vehicles hit by
I.E.D.s that didn’t even mar the paint. And I am talking about an
I.E.D. that took out a guardrail. Some of the things that happened
to our soldiers involved traumatic head injuries. For these reasons
the escalation bothers me. The type of weapons that we use now on
people we used to use on people. What I would think is one of our
darkest days in Iraq, they took out a vehicle (long pause), they
used the same size truck bomb as was used for the Oklahoma federal
building. And that escalation it doesn’t necessarily (long pause)
make me feel like we’re leaving the world a better place.

Q: The president last week told a group of veterans that he is on
course to end the fighting in Iraq, pulling out combat brigades this
year, followed by all combat troops by next August and all troops
by the end of 2011. Is victory achievable and, if so, what does it
look like?

A: Iraq has had its victories. It has its victory in the sense that
Saddam Hussein is gone. They have elections now. They have their own
security force in. The critics look at the challenges that the security
force is being faced with now. I was in Baghdad June 30, the day that
our forces were being removed completely from the cities. I actually
went to get my passport renewed at the embassy on the fifth or sixth
of July. It was a Sunday. And I saw other than American soldiers at all
of the checkpoints. The violence that we’re seeing now is testing that,
which is no different than when we were being tested in 2004 to -2005.

I think if we left today, it’s a victory. Now we’re looking at a
hand-over process. You’re going to have people who talk about the
failures. That’s their freedom and their right.

Q: Public support for the war in Afghanistan has reached new lows. This
is the war where the president, who has stepped up the number of
troops, said the U.S. could and would achieve a clear victory.

A: They are changing their crops, slowly, away from opium. You hope
that these are things that will change for generations. I don’t know
what the definition of a clear victory would be. My definition is
bringing soldiers home. A friend just won a distinguished-service
cross, the second-highest award that our country presents. His victory
was not that day. He would not consider it a victory because it cost
him members of his team.

Q: Another thing the president discussed amid torrid healthcare
discussions is healthcare for veterans. Still, the number of those
seeking help. What could be done?

A: The health system is in place. I know now that if you have
active-duty service, combat-related service, it’s a minimum of five
years from when you come home. That makes a big difference because it
used to be, I think, 90 days and going up to 180 for initial things. I
remember literally seeing a senator on TV saying ‘When I come home,
I have other things on my mind other than myself.’ I’ve been assured
of a lot of ghosts that will go away in the first 90 days. You just
got to come home and deal with them.

Q: Stars and Stripes recently reported that journalists are being
"screened" to "determine whether their past coverage has portrayed
the U.S. military in a positive light." Is any of the journalism,
or, information, getting out to people and if so, what type?

A trained, embedded reporter, going back to the days of Ernie Pyle,
they wore a uniform and they trained with you. I think there’s value
to that. Sticking someone in there that’s trying to glorify himself,
and therefore he’s going to exaggerate or possibly risk the mission —
as one well-known reporter did when he revealed troop movement live
over the air.

A reporter who is there to tell the people what’s going on, about
the human side of things as well, that’s very valid. A reporter
that’s there to get a Pulitzer, the value is not there. He becomes
a liability rather than an asset.

Q: What has the effect has been since both wars have largely been taken
off the front pages of national newspapers and the first segments of
the network news?

A: In don’t think Americans should ever forget it. There’s a number
of books where the same type of thing happened in Vietnam. All the
way up to the presidential level there was what they considered an
acceptable amount of loss. They would literally table it for another
week. I think the American people have done more to keep the efforts
in the forefront. Things like banner programs, I know the one in
Burbank. Things like families that put the names of soldiers when
they’re killed on their front lawn. These things help people realize
that this stuff happens every day.

Unfortunately it’s just random acts. It has nothing to do with a
soldier’s ability. It’s what you said earlier on about bullets, it’s
more random than that, more random than a single-aimed bullet. The
American people have done a great job. If the newspaper wants to
run it on page four, they can, but the American people won’t let it
stay there.

Q: Is the consciousness there?

A: Yes, but I think it’s a little caviler. I was home on leave for a
short time this spring at my son’s game and a guy found out I was on
leave. He said, ‘Oh, nothing’s going on over there’ when we had just
had a truck bombing. I explained that their family through that was
significant. It might have been a little more curt than it should
have been, because the people around me got quiet, but I think he’s
a minority. There was time when what I said would have alienated the
crowd to me, but it actually alienated it to his statement.

Q: Blackwater, which in 2004 was reportedly hired by the CIA "as
part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives
of Al Qaeda," has also been in the news of late. What has been your
experience with them, and does it make sense to put the country’s
fighting and reputation in the hands of mercenaries?

A: People don’t realize how many Americans or how many people are
on the American payroll that are in Iraq. I honestly feel that we’re
misleading the American people when we say there’s 150,000, 120,000
American soldiers there. That may be true, but the number of people
on the payroll, the missions that have been completed by contractors,
are a whole different thing. That to me is a point of concern. The
American soldier should be first and foremost, they step out from the
crowd, they do the training, because they know that they will take less
pay. They know that they’ll be held to different standards. They’re
doing it the right way. The rules contractors work under are totally
different. It gives the world a different impression of all of us. It
taints it.