March 20 marked the sixth anniversary of the United States’ initial invasion of Iraq and the beginning of an uncertain fight to establish stability and peace in a divided country. Despite President Obama’s promise to withdraw troops by August 2010, the day was greeted with anti-war protests in Washington and U.S. flag-burning in Baghdad. This week, The Kansan takes a look at the students who have already returned, and what they took away from their experiences in the war in Iraq.

Photography and Video by Ryan McGeeney and Web Production by Chris Hickerson

The explosion that shattered the leg of Army Capt. Gates Brown wasn’t anything like the theatrical blasts he’d pictured at home. There was no cloud of fire or dramatic chaos depicted in Hollywood movies and that he had come to expect before his deployment to Iraq.

Brown, Lansing graduate student, was traveling in a convoy in the southern part of Baquba, Iraq, when suddenly his Humvee jerked and jolted to a stop, surrounded by a showering cloud of dust and sand. An Improvised Explosive Device, or IED, had been planted underneath the road and exploded beneath the captain’s feet.

“It felt like our Humvee had just fallen off a six-foot drop,” Brown said. “At first I looked over at the driver and was like, ‘Dude, what the hell did you just do?’ Then I looked around and it slowly sunk in what had happened.”

Animation by Matt Bechtold

Although he didn’t know it at the time, the pressure forced outward from the anticlimactic bomb had fractured Brown’s lower right leg in seven different places. It was only after a dull pain began throbbing in his feet that Brown said he even considered he was hurt, and it never crossed his mind that he would never be able to run again.

The reality of the explosion that would keep Brown from his dream of competing in the Boston Marathon is just one of the many misperceptions he said the public had about violence and warfare in Iraq. The romantic or gory views of soldiers’ lives don’t tell the whole story of everyday life in the military, something veterans said they wished would change.

Meredith Kleykamp, assistant professor of sociology, said society’s lack of exposure to the military was part of the reason behind mistaken views about troops’ daily lives. When a military is volunteer-based, fewer people are exposed to the military lifestyle than when a draft is in place, she said.

“It would be nice if the general public had a better overall sense of what the military is, how it operates and what the rules are,” Kleykamp said.

One technicality Brown said most civilians didn’t understand was how IED-related injuries occurred. According to globalsecurity.org, most injuries caused by IEDs aren’t caused by shrapnel, but by a pressure wave given off by the primary blast, which usually has the power to shatter bones and inflict severe internal damage.

But technical knowledge wasn’t the only aspect of war Brown said the American public didn’t understand. He said the belief that soldiers and Marines had Rambo-esque attitudes of kicking in doors and shooting M-16s was far from the truth, and troops with that outlook of heroism and bravery were quickly disabused.

“When something happens that’s real, whether it’s an IED or shots fired at you, that’s when you realize that the thing you see in the movies, something that’s just going to ‘make a man of you,’ it’s actually for real,” Brown said. “You realize that people don’t come back, and your priorities shift from proving yourself to making sure you and your guys get home alive.”

It was after watching a piece of a Humvee fly through the air from an IED explosion early in his 2006 deployment that the seriousness of the situation sunk in.

The violence came in short bursts. Although the platoon was hit by five or six IEDs during his time there, Brown said he was the only casualty it suffered. During the stretches of calm, Brown said it wasn’t uncommon to see troops playing football or taking advantage of the satellite internet the base provided.

Brown’s wife Marty, a physical therapist and KU Medical School graduate, said it was the humdrum of everyday life in Iraq that surprised her the most.

“I was expecting him to be in the thick of things all the time,” Marty said. “That’s what I thought of war.”

Dan Parker, McPherson senior and former Marine, said the public didn’t know how low the level of intensity was in the majority of the country because media coverage focused on the violent areas.

“It doesn’t make good copy to show people sitting around Skypeing or playing football. It doesn’t make headlines,” Kleykamp said.

Brown said he was open to questions about his time overseas, but only if students were open to different answers.

For more coverage on Iraq veterans’ views after the fact, check tomorrow’s Kansan.

— — Edited by Casey Miles