Vets for Freedom Captain Says Success in Iraq is Paramount
September 21, 2008
Veteran still serving country
Vets for Freedom captain says success in Iraq paramount
Rachel Gallegos
Iowa City Press-Citizen
When Ben Hayden was deployed with his U.S. Marine Corps unit in 2004, Fallujah was “considered hell on Earth.”
But when he returned to the Iraqi city during the first two weeks of August this year, he was “amazed how much things have changed.”
Hayden went back to Fallujah this year as part of Vets for Freedom. The organization, made up of combat veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, uses the veterans’ first-hand experiences to educate the public about the importance of a strategic victory in Iraq.
The “Back to Iraq” tour sent eight Iraq war veterans back to the areas they once patrolled for the first two weeks of August as a policy assessment tour to see how things had changed.
While on the tour, the veterans did written and video updates for different Web sites. When they returned, Vets for Freedom issued a report to elected officials and the public with findings and recommendations.
“When I was there in 2004, there was no one in the city,” Hayden said.
Now, he compared one of the marketplaces to Iowa City’s pedestrian mall.
“That’s how busy it was,” he said.
Four years ago, the city largely was a deserted battle area. Now, there are children playing, people mowing lawns, markets and developing businesses.
“People now aren’t worried about terrorism,” he said.
He said he was impressed by developments in Fallujah, such as the city adding solar panels to the street lights to reduce power usage and a business development center and women’s center each providing small business loans to boost the economy.
“I thought it was neat to see that,” he said. “It’s working. Everything is going in the right direction.”
Hayden said he joined Vets for Freedom in September 2007 because when he returned from deployment, what he read versus what he saw firsthand in Iraq was “two completely different things.”
“It’s almost discouraging,” Hayden said. “Nobody can hear the good things that we’re doing.”
As the Vets for Freedom Iowa captain, Hayden does a lot of media interviews and talks to others, including at community events such as parades this summer.
Hayden said he joined the Marines in the summer of 2002, between his junior and senior years of high school.
“I had a pretty strong desire to serve,” he said, also following in the footsteps of his brother, Matt, who also became a Marine.
Based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in southern California, Hayden served with the First Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. He was first deployed in February 2004 to Camp Korean Village in Iraq, close to the Syrian border, serving all over the Anbar Province, he said. He was involved in the first battle of Fallujah and came home in October 2004.
He left again in August 2005, serving in the same area, and returned April 2006. During both deployments, the main point was “to find the bad guys,” he said, through lots of raids, sweep and clear missions and vehicle checkpoints. He got out of the Marines in 2007 to go to school and start a family.
Hayden’s mother, Linn, said she believes her son’s involvement in Vets for Freedom is “his way of still serving his country.”
“I’m absolutely so proud of Benjamin,” she said of his work with the organization and the August trip. “I think it was something that needed to be done.”
Hayden said he thinks with the United States’ involvement, things are moving in the right direction in Iraq, but are not complete.
“Iraqis want Iraqi solutions for Iraqi problems,” Hayden said. “We just have to allow them that chance.
“The most successful way to end the war is if Iraqis stand alone.”
The end of the war and troop removal “has to be based on conditions,” he said.
“We want people to understand that success is paramount,” he said. “Everybody wants to end the war. We just need to do it in a responsible way.”