The United States currently has about 40,000 troops still in Iraq.
Major General L. Scott Rice, Commander of Massachusetts Air National Guard, seen in September during services in Springfield to mark the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, says the time is right for American troops to leave Iraq.WESTFIELD – Veterans Day will be observed throughout the region Friday with the knowledge that the war in Iraq is nearly over.
President Barack H. Obama last month ordered that all troops stationed in Iraq will be home by the end of the year.
That order has been met with overwhelming support from area veterans who have served there either as part of Desert Storm in the 1990s or Iraqi Freedom that has been ongoing since late 2002.
They say it is time for the Iraqi people to take ownership of their own fate now that the United States has completed its mission in the Middle East country.
“It is admirable to withdraw from a place where our job has been done,” said retired Massachusetts Air National Guard Col. Michael R. Boulanger.
Boulanger led the 387th Air Expeditionary Group as part of Iraqi Freedom from December, 2002 to May of 2003. That 1,300 member group built its own fighter base and flew 892 successful combat missions during that five-month period.
While Boulanger supports the military withdraw, he questioned the wisdom of a public announcement of U.S. plans to withdraw.
“It is never a good thing to let your adversary know your game plan,” the former commander of the ANG’s 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Regional Airport, said.
Air Force TechSgt. Christopher D. Wiggs, now stationed in Germany, also supports the president’s order to withdraw. “He makes the decisions but personally I am glad we are pulling our people out of Iraq,” the son of Westfield’s Emergency Management Director Jimmie D. Wiggs, said in a telephone interview.
Wiggs served in Iraq in 2008 in a maintenance support unit for helicopter combat search and rescue. “Once the job is finished, it is time for us to get out of there,” he said.
Army Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey A. Baillargeon said “It is time for the Iraq to fight its own war. It is definitely time for the United States to remove our assets, all our combat elements, from there,” the Westfield police patrolman said.
Baillargeon was a combat soldier in the first Gulf war in 1991 and has already served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, a member of the 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry.
Jared A. Rondeau, of Ludlow, called his Iraq deployment as an Army Sergeant in 2003-2004 as “quite an experience. The first day there I wished we had been called back.”
“There was a lot to be done when we got there. But, if our job is done then is it time for us to get out. I do believe there will continue to be a U.S. presence in Iraq, maybe not a combat presence, but a presence for some time to come,” said Rondeau.
Air National Guard Maj. Gen. L. Scott Rice, commander of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, also support’s the withdraw of military troops from Iraq.
The Southampton resident said “I am very much in favor of the withdraw. Now is the time to allow the Iraqi people to take ownership of their future. Our departure will make them responsible for their fate.”
Rice was Boulanger’s deputy commander during their Iraqi Freedom assignment.
At age 90, Westfield’s Robert A. Greenleaf did not serve during either Iraq conflict but he has been outspoken about this country’s combat missions there.
Greenleaf, the city’s only living survivor of Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, has said on several occasions that the United States should not have invaded Iraq.
“I believed that when it first started and I believe it even more today. We had no business being there and we need to get out of there,” he said.
U.S. military presence in Iraq is currently about 40,000 troops. More than 4,400 military men and women have been killed in Iraq since 2003.
The Massachusetts National Guard earlier this year had an estimated 1,400 of its members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Presently there are 152 guard members from Massachusetts serving in Iraq, 150 Army and 2 Air National Guard, according to Lt. Col. James Sahady, state public affairs officer.
Massachusetts Army National Guard has suffered seven fatalities in Iraq, Sahady said.