War Vets Show Unity, But Not on Iraq

War Vets Show Unity, But Not on Iraq
June 06, 2008
Knight Ridder

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- Inside Building 31 at the Veterans Affairs hospital, Zarcus Gore finds men who have been to a place he can't leave behind.

For him, it's Baghdad. For them, it might be Normandy, Inchon or Dien Bien Phu. Different wars, different eras, but shared experiences, they are brought together in a city whose decision Nov. 4 on the nation's next commander in chief will be closely watched.

Chillicothe, a near-perfect predictor of Ohio's overall election results in 2000 and 2004, also is a place that has lost three of its sons in Iraq. Here can be found in microcosm a nation wrestling with an unpopular war and in search of a president who knows how to end it.

And here, on the sprawling grounds of the VA hospital, Gore, 22, has found what he couldn't back home in tiny Madison, W.Va. -- veterans who have been in combat, who have seen buddies blown up, who know how to deal with the nightmares.

"I'm trying to get where I can cope with society," said Gore, whose yearlong stint in Iraq with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division ended in April 2007. "I'm having a lot of problems dealing with day-to-day life. I didn't get any physical injuries, but I got a lot of mental ones."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/war-vets-show-unity-but-not-on-iraq-.html