News commentary

Those who have been in combat will testify to the catastrophic insults to the body that modern weapons can inflict. War is horrifying, and nothing can prepare the novice for the destruction that it can cause. Nor do we easily get used to the images of it, and they stay with us forever.

Recently released by the Los Angeles Times, the grisly photos of soldiers posing with the remains of dead Taliban fighters  have raised a variety of observations: From the notion that they are similar to the harmless pranks of adolescents to the assessment that their publication will be a catastrophe for the American mission in Afghanistan.

As with most extremes, neither is the case. We should also reject the argument that this incident, the burning of Korans and the deliberate murder of women and children, such as those allegedly carried out by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, are all the same. 

No excuses
Here are the facts: The pictures are about two years old and were of Taliban fighters killed when a bomb they were putting into position detonated prematurely. The photos were sent to the Times by someone who said he wanted to highlight the threat to our troops caused by the poor leadership of the unit, a part of the 82nd Airborne Division.

But, although the Times suggested that the concern was merely inadequate physical security rather than a climate of generally weak discipline, it is the latter issue that is the most striking.

When the Times notified the Defense Department that it had the photos, the Pentagon asked the paper not to publish them, arguing that they would incite the enemy to attack Americans. The Times responded that it had an obligation to publish them, citing their readers' right to be informed.

In my view, both the Defense Department and the newspaper are full of baloney: The Taliban don't need any encouragement to attack us, and a big part of the motivation of the Los Angeles Times is to sell newspapers.

More nuanced has been comment from some quarters that the troops, who were mugging for the camera, were letting off the steam that accumulates under the duress of war; that their actions were in response to having lost buddies to the mindless ferocity of the Taliban.

While these are understandable reasons, they are not excuses, of course, and the paratroopers' actions were publicly decried by government officials. Many cited long-standing rules, promulgated after similarly embarrassing episodes, stating that such antics are impermissible.

Lack of leadership
But the truth is that you can't merely legislate against dumb behavior. In and out of combat, good units get that way because they are well led.

Poor leadership can create poor units in a very short period of time, particularly under stress. While good leadership can bring any organization through the most horrendous circumstances with only physical scars.

The leadership of the brigade in the 82nd that is at the center of this photo controversy was evidently already known as weak by the chain-of-command above it. There are many military organizations that have endured more harrowing circumstances with less damage to discipline.

It is not easy being a leader in uniform, but there is a responsibility attached to it that is found nowhere else in society. Military service is a sacrifice and those who volunteer for it are our patriots. But service is no game, and because so much is at stake, standards of deportment must be extremely high.

We are frequently reminded of it, but it bears repeating nonetheless: a commander is responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen in his unit, and it is he who sets the standards in his organization. Accepting less than professional behavior will minimize the service and sacrifice of those who have taken seriously their responsibilities as the guardians of our freedom.

Col. Jack Jacobs was awarded the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty” in the battle he describes above. His first assignment in the Army, in 1966-1967, was in Company C, 2nd Battalion (Airborne) 505th Infantry of the 82nd Airborne Division, the same division as the troops in this incident.

Click here to read the complete Medal of Honor citation. 

He is the author of a memoir: “If Not Now, When? Duty and Sacrifice in America’s Time of Need”

By Charles Hadlock
NBC News

DALLAS --  A volunteer program that has welcomed home thousands of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan at the Dallas-Fort Worth International airport has come to an end.  The last flight bringing soldiers home for two weeks of rest and recuperation landed Wednesday, greeted by a cheering crowd. 

As the drawdown of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan continues, the military is consolidating future R&R flights to the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where the general public will not have access to greet returning soldiers.

The end of the flights is bittersweet for Donna Cranston, the volunteer coordinator for DFW’s “Welcome Home a Hero” program.

“These troops are sacrificing and serving for us and I want them to know we are grateful,” said Cranston.  “The other side is, it means we don’t have as many troops that are deployed.  And that’s a good thing.”

Every day for the last nine years, a sort of patriotic flash mob has gathered at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.  Like clockwork, people from all over north Texas arrived at Gate B23 carrying signs, banners, balloons and, of course, American flags.

They stood quietly in a line near baggage claim until they saw the first soldiers emerge from their long plane ride from Iraq or Afghanistan.

Suddenly, the crowd erupted into applause and cheers.  A boom box played John Philip Sousa marching music.  The soldiers, who were still bleary-eyed from a 24-hour flight, seemed pleasantly stunned by it all.

Volunteers have welcomed home soldiers from each of the 2,700 chartered R&R flights since the very first one on Nov. 2, 2003.  The airport estimates that 920,000 soldiers have been personally greeted by volunteers.   The flight arrival times varied day by day and so did the number of volunteers who greeted each flight.  Sometimes there were as few as 30 greeters; sometimes there were more than 300.

Sgt. Hank Slaughter, 47, who returned from Kuwait earlier this month after serving in Iraq, smiled and shook hands with each of the 50 strangers who had come to greet his flight.

“This is great.  This is definitely more than I expected to see,” said Slaughter.

Larry W. Smith / EPA

Tom Downey, 71, who volunteers with the organization 'Welcome Home a Hero' greets a soldier with a rose on March 14, 2012 at the at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It's the last day soldiers returning home for two weeks of R&R will arrive to this kind of a homecoming now that all future Rest and Recuperation (R&R) flights will be routed through Atlanta where the general public will not have access to greet returning soldiers.

When Slaughter mentioned that he didn’t have a ride to his home, volunteer Pat Brown, 80, offered to take him.  “He’s from Fort Worth and I’m from Fort Worth, so I’m going to take him home,” Brown said, laughing.

Brown has been cheering soldiers at the airport every week for six years.  If she missed a week, she’d make it up by going twice the next week.

“It makes you feel great,” said Brown.  “I feel like it’s a blessing that I live here where it’s happening. They don’t do this anyplace else like this.”

DFW International Airport made it easy for the volunteers, providing them space and free parking each day.

“I’ve never met a more giving people in my life,” Jim Crites, executive vice president of operations at DFW, said of the volunteers.  “What they do is from the heart.  What they’ve given is off the charts.  This is what America is all about.”

Tom Downey, 71, arrived each day at the airport with flowers.  He would hand each female soldier a red or yellow rose.  “Many of these soldiers haven’t smelled flowers in months,” Downey said.  “You have to look at their faces.  There was one colonel who lifted me off my feet she was so surprised.”

Adam Sage came to surprise his fiancé, who was arriving on one of the last flights. Just a few months before, Sage had experienced the same welcome home greeting when he returned from Iraq.

“People just honestly don’t know what it means to all the soldiers who come back, especially single ones who don’t have a lot of family here,” Sage said.  “It means the world to them.”

By Gene Choo
NBC News

ESCONDIDO - On a sunny, crisp January morning in Southern California, 16 young veterans gathered to learn the finer points of organic farming: how to brew "compost tea" (an organic liquid fertilizer), irrigation, planting techniques and urban crop production.

As they pounded freshly ground compost in a plastic container, one of the students, Anthony Rohrbaugh, stopped to adjust his wool beanie. Rohrbaugh, 27, had completed two deployments with the Marines to Iraq where he fought in the Battle of Fallujah. He credits the farm’s program, Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT), for helping him deal with his post-traumatic stress disorder and transitioning back to civilian life.

"Coming out of the military, it's kinda like a shock," Rohrbaugh said. "[VSAT] is very therapeutic …coming from a combat environment -- I was under a lot of stress. And I suffered from brain trauma. Working with plants and soil really helped me connect not only to myself but also the environment around me."

VSAT, founded by Colin Archipley and his wife Karen, has taught agribusiness skills to more than 60 veterans since it was first established in 2006. These vets are all still working in the agriculture and farm industry.

"The military community has such great talents and work ethic," he said. "And it's not being realized once they leave the military."

Archipley, 30, should know. As a decorated Marine sergeant with multiple combat tours in Iraq, he grew increasingly frustrated with the number of fellow warriors who had honorably served their country only to come home to a nation lacking in opportunities and a coherent strategy to re-integrate these vets back into society.

"They are so much more than just trigger pullers," Archipley said, gesturing to a group of students learning about bioponic farming, an organic method of sustainable farming that recycles water using high-tech greenhouses. "If the American public knew how good these guys are-- I mean, they were in charge of millions of dollars worth of high-tech equipment and leading men in the most extreme environments under massive stress."

At the end of VSAT’s six-week "full impact" training course on the six acre farm known as Archi's Acres, each student must come up with a viable business plan as to how they will utilize their new skills.

"VSAT's idea is to train returning combat vets in agribusiness skills. We want to be an agribusiness incubator that allows these vets to create small businesses across the U.S.," Archipley said. "This not only helps them get back on their feet and make a living, it also contributes to the well-being of our country. It allows them to be a part of something bigger than themselves again."

It's an idea that has taken root across the country with similar programs sprouting up in San Antonio, Texas and Boston, Mass. With more farmers retiring than entering the profession, America's agriculture industry is looking for fresh recruits. According to a 2007 U.S. Department of Agriculture report, nearly 66 percent of small farm operators are over 55 years old and only 4.1 percent are younger than 35 years old. The USDA estimates about a million new farmers are needed over the next 10 years.

"We need this program and other programs like it to create food in this country,” said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. “The risk is, if we can't produce our own food, we'll be more dependent on importing food."

Coming home after combat: ‘We really struggled’

The journey from dusty Fallujah, Iraq to sunny Escondido, Calif., was a rough one for Colin Archipley. After three combat tours where he experienced some of the war's most brutal battles, Archipley said he felt lost and out of place upon leaving the Marine Corps in 2006 .

"I didn't have a mission anymore and everything I did in the military was mission driven," said Archipley, who suffers from PTSD. "Job opportunities when I got out were few and far between and the skills I learned as an infantryman didn't always translate directly into civilian life."

Getting the proper medical treatment also proved challenging.

"Colin had a lot of stuff from coming back from war," Karen Archipley said. "There were big issues with health and trying to get proper healthcare. We really struggled."

Archipley recalled, "Here you were, living in a ditch, getting shot at and making all these sacrifices and people here didn't even know anything about it.  It brought a lot of anger, a lot of frustration. I had to find an outlet, something I could engage in that was bigger than myself."

In 2006, he found that outlet via Karen's lifelong dream: to live on (and own) a farm. Originally, she had wanted to settle in the idyllic Italian countryside of Tuscany. But after spending so much time abroad, Colin wanted to stay at home.

By trading mortgages on Karen's home in Los Angeles, they bought a fixer-upper avocado farm in Escondido about 30 minutes north of San Diego on a bluff overlooking Camp Pendleton, a major Marine Corps base. Here, the young couple created Archi's Acres -- an organic hyrdoponic farm that was environmentally safe using 90 percent less water than a comparable conventional farm. They expanded their produce from avocados to kale, lettuce, and their signature product, basil.

But Archi's Acres was more than just a profitable source of income. Colin found solace in the soil and the farm's tranquil surroundings.

"The farm gave me a mission statement," Archipley said. "It allowed us to feel good at the end of the day-- we were helping to feed America."

Colin also wanted to give back to his fellow Marines and service members -- even more so now, after a 2011 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics study that reported an unemployment rate of over 30 percent for veterans ages 18 to 24, double the comparable civilian rate.

"These guys were heroes and they were falling through the cracks when they came home," said Archipley. Loyal to his brothers (and sisters) in arms, Archipley and his wife, Karen, decided to take action and created VSAT by securing grant money from the Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit veterans organization through Mira Costa Community College where VSAT's curriculum is accredited and part of the school's agriculture program.

Success story: Mike Hanes, once homeless, finds his calling

One of the program's most memorable graduates is 36-year-old Mike Hanes, a highly decorated Force Reconnaissance Marine who had spent more than eight years engaging in hazardous special operations missions on the distant battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon coming home, Haines said he suffered from depression, a classic symptom of PTSD triggered by a traumatic brain injury sustained in combat.

"I had major anger issues. They were off the charts," Hanes said.

Unable to secure a job, Hanes became homeless for two years.

"I would avoid populated areas and go into the hills where I would find the thickest brush and camp out,” he said. “I would hear voices and animals at night -- it was scary at times. As a Recon Marine, I was used to sleeping with one eye open.”

When his wife divorced him and sought sole custody of his young daughter, Hanes said he knew he had to turn his life around: if not for him, then for his daughter.

While homeless, he enrolled himself in college and got his degree. One day in April 2009 , while walking through Balboa Park in San Diego, he stumbled upon an Earth Day Festival and came upon Archipley's VSAT booth. Hanes liked what he heard -- especially the words of encouragement coming from a fellow combat vet Marine. "But it took him nearly a year to actually come to the program," said Karen Archipley. "He really had trust issues."

"The farm definitely changed the direction of my life," said Hanes. "I mean, if it wasn't for the farm -- I honestly don't know where I would be right now."

After attending the VSAT course, Hanes came up with a business plan to bottle and market his own brand of hot sauce: Forager Mike's Dang!!! Raw Superfood Sauce. The concoction was so good that local Whole Foods grocery stores now stock it on their shelves.

"I never would have thought this would have happened," Hanes said. "I never thought -- sleeping out in the bush, being homeless -- I would have a product there sitting on a shelf in a store!"

Now, as a single father who runs his own company, "When I take my daughter to Whole Foods and I share with her my creation -- she looked up there on the shelves and see my picture next to the bottles and says, 'Hey! That's you!' You know, that definitely brought a smile to my face," said Hanes, his face lighting up. "Made me feel proud again, you know."

For Colin Archipley, that’s what VSAT is all about.

"If we can just help one person be better off than he was before -- then mission accomplished," he said.