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Sgt. Zach Stoppenhagen and Sgt. Joseph Sorg, two area soldiers with the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (BCT), are working as medics in the Balad Hospital 40 miles north of Baghdad.
Stoppenhagen, 23, is a resident of Decatur and has been a member of the U.S. Army for six years. He is the son of Stan and Tammy Stoppenhagen of Decatur. His two brothers, Josh and Jacob, are with him in Iraq.
Sorg, 26, is originally from Ossian but now lives in Indianapolis and has been a member of the U.S. Army for nine years. He is the son of Joseph and Karen Sorg of Markle. His wife, Jennifer, is in Iraq with him.
Both Stoppenhagen and Sorg have been in Iraq for three weeks. Their deployment will last until at least December.
Both men work in the emergency department of the hospital. In a telephone interview with the News-Banner last week, Sorg said they “take care of everything from common colds to gunshot wounds and everything in between.”
This is the first deployment to Iraq for both men, although Sorg has previously served in Afghanistan.
When asked what they missed the most from home, Stoppenhagen said, “My family and my fiancee.” His fiancee is Heather Kohn, and the two plan to marry in Sept. 2009.
Sorg said, “Where do we begin? Of course, I miss my family. I love the small things, just being able to take a walk in a park. I miss my co-workers. The everyday freedoms that individuals back home take for granted sometimes. It’s the small things you miss.”
Besides being away from family, the two said there were other difficulties being in Iraq.
“Just with the job we do, it’s hard anytime you have a fellow soldier or a local national or anybody who’s hurt,” said Stoppenhagen. “It’s hard to take all that in, but we just help them as much as possible.”
Sorg agreed. “It’s not just seeing the wounded soldiers coming in day after day, it’s seeing the local people who were walking in a marketplace or bazaar with their children and they get hit by an insurgent with a suicide vest. In one bed, you see who they (the insurgents) were going for, which was my brother-in-arms, but in the one next to it you see a mother and in the next one you see a child. It’s really hard to see that because they were innocent and in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Do they think the troops have made a difference in Iraq?
“Absolutely,” said Stoppenhagen. “I think we’ve made great strides in Iraq, helping the local economy and helping the local government stand up on its feet.”
He added, “I know they’ve got their elections coming up this summer and that’s gonna be an exciting time for them to elect new government officials and continue on with building their democracy and getting a solid government going.”
Sorg added, “Every once in a while, I get to watch the news on the television in the dining facility, and they haven’t touched base with anything. It’s always ‘Senator Obama this,’ ‘Hillary Clinton this,’ ‘John McCain this.’ But they’re not talking about the elections that are going on [in Iraq], which is the real reason why we’re here. It’s for them to get a government to stabilize everything over here, then in turn, we can redeploy back home.”
Stoppenhagen went on to say, “the local nationals seem to be happy the U.S. is here and happy they (the U.S.) are helping get rid of the insurgency. The Iraqis don’t want them here anymore than anyone from the United States does. We’re here to help them and we are making a difference.”
Sorg agreed. “Everything from the soldiers who leave the wire everyday, doing everything from route clearance where they may come upon injured locals to the soldier who are out in villages doing humanitarian missions, giving them everyday necessities like food and clothes and clean water, to the soldiers here on base.”
He added, “Today we helped three local nationals who were pretty bad off. If we weren’t there, then they probably would not have lived. To see them look at us and not look at us like we’re monsters or someone who’s coming in to take over their area, but looking at us with compassion. They’re not able to say it, but in their eyes, they want to say ‘thank you.’ That’s why a lot of us are here doing the mission we’ve been given.”
As for what they themselves are doing to help, Stoppenhagen said, “I just hope to help as many fellow soldiers and local nationals we get in [to the hospital].”
Sorg said, “The biggest thing is letting the local nationals know we’re here for them.”
He added, “My biggest fear in life is that I will die driving home and get hit by a drunk driver. Not that people who die like that die for no purpose, but God forbid something happened to somebody over here, that they died making a difference in someone else’s life. I want them (the Iraqis) to enjoy the everyday freedoms we all take for granted.”
When asked what impact being in Iraq has made on them, Stoppenhagen said, “My career in the military has given me more discipline and a different perspective.”
He added, “I’m glad I joined the military so I can finally come over here and do my job.”
Sorg said, “That’s a tough question. When I went to Afghanistan, I saw a lot of this before, so I got pretty much what I expected.
“Now, some of these other soldiers who came over here for the first time expected to see what you see on the big news media where you see constant violence and how ‘everybody wants us out of here.’ But now they’re able to see the people in Iraq care that we’re here and that we’re giving them jobs, [that] they’re happy we’re able to put money in their economy. This helps them get jobs they would have if we were not here.”
Stoppenhagen wanted to make sure he thanked everyone from home for the support they give the troops.
“It’s amazing how much support we get from the care packages to the farewell ceremonies. We’ve had an amazing amount of support from local people from where I’m at in Decatur to the families who know most of our guys are from Indianapolis.”
“The families back home are always the ones who take it the hardest,” said Sorg. “We’re busy most of the time, but a lot of those families are stuck. If they have downtime, that’s a lot of time to think about what [their] family members are doing over here. So, we want to thank them from the bottom of our hearts. We’re really happy they’re able to do everything they can for us.”
If you’d like to see more of the 76th BCT in action, you can see videos of them on http://www.dvidshub.net, keyword “strader,” or go to the 76th’s website, www.76bct.org.
nathan@news-banner.com
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