After U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld officially approved a 120-day extension in Iraq Thursday for the Wisconsin National Guard’s 32nd Military Police Company, family and friends of soldiers in the brigade decided to drop their attempts to reverse Rumsfeld’s decision.
A number of families launched a website, www.weneedtobehome32ndmp.com, in hopes of changing military leaders’ decision to extend the unit’s stay in Iraq over the summer. The web page lists the telephone numbers of Wisconsin congressmen whom concerned citizens could call and urge to cancel the extension.
U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and U.S. Rep. Jerry Kleczka, D-Wis., all sent letters to Pentagon officials Wednesday requesting the 32nd be allowed to return to the United States rather than stay in Iraq for 120 more days.
The unit, which is based out of Madison and Milwaukee, was expected to return within the month after serving in Iraq since May 2003.
Aaron Schutte, 25, the boyfriend of UW sophomore Ashley Gehrke, is currently serving in the 32nd brigade. Gehrke said learning her boyfriend’s duty in Iraq would be extended was difficult, particularly after being promised the 157-member unit would return within the month.
“I was really shocked. [The news] came two days after the phone call Michelle Witmer had died, and it came right after an e-mail saying they would come back,” Gehrke said.
Witmer, 20, was killed in action April 9 while serving in the brigade.
Witmer’s two sisters, who are also serving in Iraq and one of whom belongs to the 32nd brigade, returned with their sister’s body for funeral services last Friday. Witmer’s parents appealed to political and military leaders to keep their daughters on American soil after learning of Witmer’s death and the unit’s unexpected extension.
“We trust that those in charge of making such a decision will realize that we have already sacrificed enough and that our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden,” a statement from the Witmer family reads.
Michelle Witmer was the first woman in the history of the Wisconsin National Guard to be killed and the first member of the state’s National Guard since WWII to be killed in action. She is the 16th Wisconsin resident to die since the war in Iraq began in March 2003.
Schutte has served on active duty for two years, after serving an extended tour in Bosnia before he was shipped off to Iraq. Although Schutte expressed dismay for the extension, Gehrke said he was “hopeful” in successfully serving out this summer and then returning home.
“He was really, really disappointed. But he bounced back right away. He knew there were no one-way planes out of there,” Gehrke said, adding that Schutte believes in the war despite the sacrifice it requires of his unit.
“He definitely believes he is there serving a purpose,” she said. “All the soldiers [believe in the war], and I think they have to.”
