War veteran grateful for the daily grind
Student spotlight: Joe Henry

-- Carin Mangimeli

Joe Henry is one of the few students not dreading finals. A human services major, Henry, 27, is enjoying being back at school after a seven-month deployment in February 2003 at the Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad, Iraq.

Henry, a sergeant in the 13th Psychological Operations Battalion HSC, recently honorably discharged from the Minnesota National Guard after nine years of service and now working in security while finishing his bachelor’s degree at Metropolitan State University, has hopes of teaching high school history and possibly running for political office in the future.

Of his recent deployments, he says it made him appreciate his life here even more and caused him to look at things differently. "It [deployment] helped me appreciate that I have the opportunity to go to school and become more educated. We, as a country, tend to take this elementary right for granted…it puts things into perspective. You realize what matters and what doesn’t really matter. I no longer agonize over trivial things that, prior to my deployment to Iraq would have seemed important. But now I see they are rather trivial and unimportant compared to real problems people face. I am more sympathetic and empathetic to the problems other people have….I am much more aware of what is happening in the world around me. I tend to analyze things more than just accept what is told to me by others. I’ve learned to read between the lines and figure things out myself."

Henry joined the Army Reserves shortly after high school to prove to himself that he could do it. "...If I could make it in the military, I could make it anywhere." He was assigned to the Psychological Operations unit, part of the 4th Psychological Operations Command, or PSYOP. According to Henry, enlistees are assigned to the unit that needs the skills you have and the enlisting soldier does not have much input as to which unit they are assigned.

As a Psychological Operations Specialist, he and his unit specialize in working in enemy prisoner-of-war camps; the ultimate goal being to mentally defeat the enemy and win the hearts and minds of the civilian population. In laymen’s terms, Henry said his unit would traditionally have been referred to as propaganda, their mission being to "find out and understand the particular beliefs and culture of our target and exploit it to our [U.S.’s] advantage. It can be used to inform, confuse or deceive, but not necessarily in that order…for gathering passive intelligence by integrating in a fashion that does not appear to be integration…by asking questions that don’t appear to go together to get an idea of what is going on, using a mix of psychology, sociology and marketing."

Henry gives an example of this process, "...prior to the First Gulf War, PSYOP units dumped a bunch of leaflets over Kuwait depicting a tidal wave with the words 'coalition forces sweeping over Kuwait'...[in an effort] to convince the Iraqi Army the coalition would be attacking by sea... PSYOP units are small and there are very few of us, because we typically use small teams with maybe three to four people on a team to accomplish our mission, where as an infantry squad or team would need 60 people to accomplish their mission...We are being used more now, because military commanders were impressed by the role of PSYOP played in the First Gulf War and peacekeeping missions. We are a fairly young branch of the Army. I am sure as time goes by you’ll start to see more PSYOP units."

Unfortunately, because it is such a young branch, its members face multiple deployments. Some on their third deployment since Sep. 11, 2001.

Due to the nature of his unit, Henry had a unique view on the war and the debate regarding torture being used while interrogating suspects. "Torture does not work. It accomplishes nothing except for making detainees despise you and it makes them more unwilling to give up anything that might be of any use. If you torture someone long enough they are going to say whatever they have to, to make the torture stop. Why some individuals decided this was a good idea, I’ll never understand. Torturing makes us no better then Saddam Hussein."

As far as the presence of U.S. military in Iraq, Henry says, "I have mixed emotions about the war. On one hand I agree with the liberation of the Iraqi people, but on the other hand I question whether or not it was worth the over 2000 lives of our military service members...I have friends that are either in Iraq currently or preparing to go to Iraq...[and although] I fully support our military service members, I do not agree with the continued occupation of Iraq. There is a major misconception that if you are against the war, you are, by default, against the troops. This simply is not true. It is possible to be both against the war and still support the troops. Just like putting a magnetic ribbon on the back of your car doesn’t actually make you a patriot either; it may make you feel better about yourself, but it really accomplishes nothing when it comes to supporting the troops."

"I think it’s great that the Iraqi people may now get the opportunity to determine their own futures. I feel we need to start thinking about how and when we want to leave Iraq. When I was over there, one of the biggest concerns the Iraqis I spoke with had was how long the U.S. intended to be in their country. I was told many times, ‘We love you for getting rid of Saddam Hussein, but the Iraqi people need to solve their own problems ourselves to be truly free.’ The longer we stay there, the more we look like an imperial occupation army. I do not believe we should withdraw tomorrow or even next month, but we need to start planning. I feel once a date is set, the civil unrest there will begin to become less."

For those students considering a career in the Army, Henry has this advice for you, "I would neither encourage nor would discourage someone from enlisting in the service. It is a personal choice with rewards and consequences. I would though tell that person to really think about it, because it is a major decision. You need to decide if you are willing to give up your needs for the needs of your country. It’s a very personal decision…I would like to quote Paul Wellstone, 'The future belongs to those who are passionate.'"