Honoring Darrell Birt, Ohio Soldier and Hero

I saw this article about an Ohio soldier, now home from Iraq, in the Columbus Dispatch last year and I had to do something besides cut the article out and hang it on my fridge. I don't usually read the newspaper let alone collect newsclippings but this one called me into action. I pulled out the phone book and looked up Darrell Birt's number. I left a message, trying not to cry, because I get all emotional when it comes to our soldiers, having grown up on Air Force bases during the Vietnam war. I always wonder about a soldier when he returns from a tour. I want them to know someone out there noticed he'd come home. I wanted him to know I was glad he was home safely and that I support him 100%, I'm very proud of his ingenuity which lead to such heroic efforts to protect the troops in his unit, and I'm very sorry for all he went through just trying to do his job.

My phone rang. To my amazement, the voice on the other end of the line was that of Darrell Birt. I spoke to Darrell and to his wife and it moved me even more to want to help this family. I have been known to meet Senator's at the Statehouse when it's an issue I'm passionate about but this time I went straight to the phone. I called Senator Voinovich's office and they hadn't heard of Darrell Birt. I called Senator DeWine's office and his aid had heard of Darrell Birt, he could vaguely recall as I got him up-to-date on the details. This vaguery was not good enough for me. He told me they were working on it. It sounded like a line. I said "How long have you been working on it?" He said "Since we heard about it." Please, not so specific!. I said "Well, how far have you gotten on it? How far up the chain of command have you gone? Who have you spoken to seek clemency for this soldier?" He retorted with "Are you family of Darrell Birt?" I said "No. I'm just someone who cares." He said he couldn't discuss it with me anymore.

The next day it was all over the news: "Senator Mike DeWine Seeks Clemency for Ohio Soldier". I couldn't believe it. The news went as far as Japan. I checked in with Senator DeWine's office, with Darrell Birt and with television reporters regularly to keep this story in the news and find out the latest developments. The more coverage the story got, I hoped, the faster something would get done.

Senator DeWine only acted on this because a brave soldier the week before, in a press conference that was aired around the globe, told Rumsfeld that the soldiers didn't have adequate body armour and equipment. Rumsfeld made the famous reply "You go to war with the army you have not the army you wish you had." If our politicians had the courage that these soldiers had to speak up and make things right, and not just do it to get their name in the headlines.

Darrell Birt was caught in quagmire going with the army we had. He had to make do for the mission. It won him a bronze star and jail time in Kuwait in 120 degree tents for six months plus jail time in another military prison in Germany, I think he said.

I had the pleasure of meeting Darrell Birt shortly after I called him the first time. We met at a McDonalds. I shook his hand and I'll never forget it. In that handshake I could have been in Iraq shaking every soldier's hand. Solid. Strong. Proud. Brave. Dignified. It was a complete honor to be in this man's presence. How could this nightmare be happening to such a good man and his wife who voted for the very administration that was letting them down?

We talked about his military court proceedings and imprisonment (I don't know which was worse) over french fries. I try to avoid McDonald's as a rule but it was his suggestion and I would have met him at a sewage plant if he asked me. I wanted to pay for his meal. He wouldn't allow it. Instead he kept offering me more of his fries and I felt guilty eating them, thinking of the dehydrated meals he'd eaten when he was doing time in the desert, and because he was between jobs. The company he worked for before shipping out to Iraq fired him when he returned home because "he had stolen." Meanwhile in their company newsletter it said "We support our troops". His wife, an at-home-mother, had to return to work to make ends meet because the military cut the family off from all pay and benefits. This was the thanks they got.