Sacrifice
Kevin Sites tells the story of Captain Scott Walton of the 6th Civil Affairs Group from the 2nd Marine Division. Walton is a reservist who oversees investment projects in battle-scarred Fallujah. Sites follows Scott through the city, from one place in need of infrastructure investment to another.
[Walton] says the Marine Corps understands how important the civil affairs component is to eventually ending the conflict in Iraq, and when he submits a project for funding, they rarely say no.
“I get just about everything I ask for,” Walton says. “But, yes, I’d like to have a whole battalion of civil affairs Marines out there backing me up. I wish there were more of us so we could be the main face of the Marine Corps that people see here.”
What I found most moving was this (emphasis mine):
“We want to build Iraq’s capacity to take care of its own problems,” Walton says. “It’s like the mother who holds the bottle for the baby. How long are we going to hold onto the bottle?”
Watching him work his way through town, he seems to be energized by the process, rather than burdened by it. That optimism may be the fresh outlook of a Marine in-country for only two months so far, or from one who truly believes he can help in Fallujah’s rebuilding.
Regardless, he says he has had to pay a personal price for his decision to come back to Iraq. He has three children and recently got a letter from his eldest, a 13-year-old daughter, who told him he “needed to concentrate more on being a father than going off to all these wars.”
“I told her I understood, but I couldn’t promise anything. I have a job I have to do” — a job where he is reminded daily what is at stake.
