Somber reflection on Guardsmen lost in Iraq

Volunteers pull the standard-issue military boots from the bags and arrange them in neat rows -- alphabetically by state. Some are weather-beaten; some brand-new. Some still have mud caked into the sides, while others' toes have been worn down to the steel. They're brown, black and every shade in-between.


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	Volunteers John-Otto Liljenstolpe, left, and Chris Greenway fold bags after placing boots representing the state's fallen National Guardsmen in formation on the floor of Seattle's Plymouth Congregational Church. The boots make up a traveling memorial titled "Eyes Wide Open," which is on display at the church through Friday.

Soon the boots fill the entire room.

In the "Eyes Wide Open" memorial organized by the American Friends Service Committee, each boot represents a military life lost in Iraq, with civilian shoes illustrating a fraction of the Iraqis killed. Although some families donate boots actually worn by the service member, most are bought from a surplus store. On tour since 2004, the memorial has 2,580 pairs of boots and is in-between cities. It also takes two trucks and a lot of time to set up.

Only one big passenger van was required for the free exhibit at Plymouth Congregational Church downtown, which focuses on the National Guard, citizen soldiers who may have figured they'd help out in a natural disaster, not fight on the other side of the world in a war with nothing but frontlines.

In this room: 410 pairs of boots, 410 lives interrupted.

They were students who were looking for money for college, carpenters and construction workers who felt the pull of duty and volunteered to go back to Iraq, sports staffers at major universities hoping to start a family.

Washington has about 8,300 guardsmen in the Army and Air National Guard. About 300 of the 450 overseas are stationed in Iraq, according to Maj. Phil Osterli, a Guard spokesman. Guardsmen typically spend a year in Iraq, though their tours can be extended.

"They all joined thinking it'd be a way to make some money, and for a weekend a month, do something good for the country, maybe even help out at a catastrophe like Mount St. Helens," said Rep. Jim McDermott, a Seattle Democrat and outspoken critic of the Iraq war who visited the exhibit Wednesday. "They had no idea, no clue, they'd get pulled into this."

These people, McDermott said, were just living their normal, non-military lives when, "Suddenly, you're over there in the middle of this hellacious stuff going on. Suddenly they're right in the thick of it. That had to be a rude shock."

For three days until 7 p.m. Friday, this version of "Eyes Wide Open" will be on display at Plymouth Congregational Church. The smaller exhibit representing the National Guardsmen killed in the war has been in 20 cities since March -- many in the Gulf states, where National Guardsmen would have been called to duty for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. In Washington, it's toured in Chelan and Wenatchee, and will go to Spokane in September.

By the time the exhibit arrived in Seattle, there had been 366 Guard deaths, including five from Washington. The exhibit added 44 pairs of boots -- most new, as they've already exhausted the supply of used boots at the store they contract with -- representing the rest of the Washington's military casualties in Iraq.

By the Seattle P-I's count -- which includes not just natives and residents but soldiers stationed here -- the state has lost 125 men and women in uniform.

"Just seeing all these boots is overwhelming. Already it makes me cry," said Barbara Campbell of Phinney Ridge, a Plymouth member and the first non-volunteer visitor to the exhibit Wednesday morning.

"It's so senseless and so useless. I cannot imagine losing a child," said Campbell, a mother and grandmother.

Alongside the regimented formation of boots are 50 civilian shoes representing a fraction of the estimated 100,000 Iraqis killed in the war. A tiny pair of patent leather Mary Janes represents one of the youngest victims, a 4-month-old Tabarek Hamzaa Taleb.


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	The memorial to Washington state's lost National Guardsmen is accompanied by a small collection of civilian shoes representing the Iraqi men, women and children killed in the Iraq war.

"It was very powerful just to set it up. You feel some of the weight of the loss," said Michael Ramos, spokesman for the Church Council of Greater Council, which joined with the American Friends Service Committee to bring the exhibit to Seattle. "These are people like you and me, not expecting to be deployed and redeployed and suffer the greatest sacrifice. We need to take stock and see if we can find a different path to peace."

Some military families object to loved one's names being used in the exhibit. When they've asked to have the name removed, exhibit curators oblige.

"If we were using people's death to make a political statement, I wouldn't be part of it," said Scott Aaseng, curator of the National Guard memorial, who sees it as a way to honor the dead. "But we do have an anti-war stance as a Quaker organization. I want to be clear on that."

The boots are spaced apart about the same distance they would be if the guardsmen were in military formation. McDermott stared at the neat rows of boots. He said it reminded him of the poster he keeps outside his office in Washington, D.C. There, on an easel, he updates photos of the fallen from his state.

"This is a way to make it impossible for you to forget," McDermott said.

"We say every life means something, but we get inured to that unless we're constantly reminded."

The Washington members of the National Guard represented by the boots include: 1st Lt. Jaime Campbell, 25, of Fort Wainwright, Alaska; Sgt. Damien T. Ficek, 26, of Pullman; Spc. Jeremiah W. Schmunk, 21, of Warden; Spc. Jeffrey R. Shaver, 26, of Maple Valley; and Spc. Nathan W. Nakis, 19, of Sedro-Woolley.

The Washington National Guard doesn't count Campbell as one of its casualties, but does consider Shaver, Schmunk and Ficek among its fallen, as well as Cpl. Glenn James Watkins, 42, a carpenter and construction worker from Tacoma.

"There are a lot of dreams in this room," McDermott said.

IF YOU GO

"Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War National Guard Memorial" organized by the American Friends Service Committee

Free

From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., through Friday.

Plymouth Congregational Church, Hildebrand Hall, 1217 Sixth Ave. at Seneca Street.

P-I reporter Mike Barber and The Associated Press contributed to this report. P-I reporter Athima Chansanchai can be reached at 206-448-8041 or athimachansanchai@seattlepi.com.

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