War veteran posts sign to honor fallen heroes, army angry

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Next-door display irritates Army recruiters

By Patrick Condon

Associated Press

DULUTH - Scott Cameron never thought his modest memorial to American troops in Iraq would transform a quiet downtown street here into the latest front in the country's tense debate over the war.

Cameron's sign tallying the war's dead and wounded rests just a few feet from the local Army recruiting office, and Cameron's refusal to take it down despite Army requests has drawn national attention. The fuss is giving the Vietnam veteran a chance to air a view he wishes he'd expressed long ago - and, he hopes, to raise some money for veterans besides.

"The way veterans have been treated in this country is shameful," Cameron, an Army veteran, said this week.

Irritates recruiters

But his tribute has irritated the half-dozen recruiters who work next door, who dislike the daily reminder of friends lost.

"They're saying, 'Why should we have to look at that? We lost people over there,'" said Staff Sgt. Gary Capan, the post's commander. "It's not just a number to them."

Of seven recruiters in the office, Capan is the only who didn't see action in Iraq. He said he asked for the sign's removal for his colleagues' benefit, not because he feared it would scare off recruits, as some of Cameron's supporters believe.

"You're a young kid and you see those stark numbers, you might realize there's a cost you didn't consider," said Gary Tonkin, a friend and fellow Vietnam veteran who's been helping Cameron juggle media requests this week.

It all started a month ago, when Cameron - a volunteer for Democratic candidate for governor Steve Kelley - posted a sign in the window of the campaign's small local office. It reads, "Remember the Fallen Heroes," and it keeps three tallies - the number of American troops killed in Iraq, the number wounded and the days passed since the war's start.

Cameron, 55, ran Capan's request past Kelley, a state senator from a Twin Cities suburb, who told Cameron he could leave it up.

"The sacrifices our troops and their families are making are an important part of Minnesotans' lives right now," said Kelley, one of several Democrats seeking to unseat GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty next year. "If this draws attention to that, it's all to the good as far as I'm concerned."

Media attention

Capan, 31, said he thinks this week's national media attention has made a big deal of nothing. (The neighbors have maintained a cordial relationship - Cameron even brought over a plate of cookies, which were refused, but he said he still chats with the recruiters during cigarette breaks from time to time.)

"You know, it's annoying, but that's what we fight for - the right to put up a sign or express a political opinion," Capan said. "We never made a big case out of it."

The sign hasn't hurt recruiting, he said. "We had three people sign up just today," he said earlier this week.

As of Friday, the sign reported 2,177 troops had been killed and 16,155 injured, after 1,017 days in Iraq.

It's far from the first domestic dustup over the U.S. military's continued presence in Iraq. Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed there, earned weeks of headlines for her protests near President Bush's Texas ranch, while colleges and high schools all over the country have drawn both praise and criticism for barring military recruiters from their campuses.

Duluth seems an unlikely location for the latest flare-up. A city of brick mansions and steep hills rising off Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota, it's a stronghold of blue-collar progressivism mixed with old-fashioned Midwestern patriotism.

Many residents seem slightly uncomfortable with the controversy, refusing requests to share their opinions with reporters visiting town.

One couple who passed by the sign this week stopped to chat amiably for a few minutes with Sgt. Capan, who was out on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette.

"You know, this really shouldn't be that big a deal," said Sam Johnson, who said he has many relatives who are veterans. Said his companion, Lisa Whitestone, "I think it's a fair thing to be reminded that there's a cost for us to be over there."

Cameron said it was never his intention to discourage recruiting efforts - but, he said, he's not particularly concerned if it does.

A native of Spokane, Wash., he went to Vietnam at 19. Before long, he was badly injured when AK-47 fire ripped through the floor of a helicopter he was riding in, hitting his spine and collapsing his left lung.

Since then, he's had nearly four dozen surgeries, he said, and supports himself with his disability pension. "It's been a long haul back," he said.

Cameron said he's always regretted not speaking out against Vietnam after he was injured. Now, he's hoping to steer media attention over the sign toward the problems of veterans. He wants Congress to pass a "Veterans Bill of Rights" that would prevent future cuts in benefits.
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http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/13521610.htm
 
Ya know, alonzo, we all read the news.

Do you have any insightful opinion on this subject or do you just like cutting and pasting news stories for posterity?
 
I post stuff to see if it gets a response. I always have an opinion on it, but I usually wait to see the direction it takes before saying much, if it gets any response that is.
 
Take a stand, it's free. The only thing you have to lose is.....well, nothing.


There is a certain stigma that comes with broadcasting death totals during a war. Doing so stimulates a negative emotion, as no one feels good about death, and correlating it to the war effort, creating a negative response to the war effort by the intended audience by association.

The same thing goes for the number of days. You're too young to remember this, but during the Iran hostage crisis, the lead comment in all the nightly news shows was always the day count of the crisis. Counting the days, as they grow larger, engenders a growing fear, like a swelling or a culture, for which you anticipate a bursting or cataclismic resolution, usually bad, in the future.

The recruiting office should post a similar board counting the number of Iraqis not tortured by Saddam, or number of schools or hospitals re-built in Iraq. Or, I think hanging a flag or a yellow ribbon would serve the same purpose and not be offensive to anyone. It's a free country, though. This guy may have good intentions, but somehow I don't think he's forthcoming with his real agenda.
 
This guy has every right to display the sign, not only being a wounded vet, but also as an freedom-loving American citizen. The army recruiters can move if they don't like it. It's a free country.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']Take a stand, it's free. The only thing you have to lose is.....well, nothing.


There is a certain stigma that comes with broadcasting death totals during a war. Doing so stimulates a negative emotion, as no one feels good about death, and correlating it to the war effort, creating a negative response to the war effort by the intended audience by association.

The same thing goes for the number of days. You're too young to remember this, but during the Iran hostage crisis, the lead comment in all the nightly news shows was always the day count of the crisis. Counting the days, as they grow larger, engenders a growing fear, like a swelling or a culture, for which you anticipate a bursting or cataclismic resolution, usually bad, in the future.

The recruiting office should post a similar board counting the number of Iraqis not tortured by Saddam, or number of schools or hospitals re-built in Iraq. Or, I think hanging a flag or a yellow ribbon would serve the same purpose and not be offensive to anyone. It's a free country, though. This guy may have good intentions, but somehow I don't think he's forthcoming with his real agenda.[/QUOTE]

You think giving young recruits an extremely rosy picture of the military and their potential future is any better? I think the reason the recruitment office hasn't complained that much is they don't think its effecting recruitment, but I think the potential for that is probably the main reason they're complaining.
 
I saw this on the news. Linked article doesn't have a pic, but the sign itself is fairly tacky IMO. Looks like the way they post last Sunday's attendance at church or maybe the winning lottery numbers. And if I were an Army recruiter operating next door I'd be pissed about it too.

Things like the large display of empty boots is a lot more powerful. Or even if the guy kept a poster with all the names of the fallen soldiers on it. (So he'd write the new names on it each day/week/whatever.) At least then you'd see it and know that they guy at least took a few seconds to write out the name of each soldier and not just a blip to update the overall tally.
 
It all started a month ago, when Cameron - a volunteer for Democratic candidate for governor Steve Kelley - posted a sign in the window of the campaign's small local office.
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I think we can all guess that the real purpose has more to do with the Democrat agenda of thwarting the war effort as this sign is in front of a democratic campaign office.
 
Kelley has no problem with it, but I doubt he's behind it. It doesn't exactly seem odd for this guy to put up a sign like this, reading the description of him and his past.

Though there is no agenda to thwart any war effort. Many don't think its winnable, to them the choice is cut your losses now, or suffer much heavier losses before eventually fleeing years later that will do nothing but create more hostility.
 
[quote name='alonzomourning23']
Many don't think its winnable, to them the choice is cut your losses now, or suffer much heavier losses before eventually fleeing years later that will do nothing but create more hostility.[/QUOTE]

That's pretty much the definition of thwarting the war effort.
 
No, if the war is lost regardless of what you do then its hard to say you thwarted it. You wouldn't normally thwart something that wasn't going to happen anyway.
 
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