Life After Combat in Iraq
Communique , September 17, 2003

"A soldier is the most holy of all humans," writes John Steinbeck in East of Eden, "because he is the most tested - most tested of all."

"Holy" is not exactly the first adjective that comes to mind when meeting former Marine Roland Tomforde who just returned from Iraq . Yet certain reverential qualities can be found in him, exceptional focus, unlimited patience, and disarm­ing humility.

During an interview, the 31 year old Tomforde looks at nothing but you. Sitting outside SIPA's sixth floor, he is not distracted by the constant march of students and their conversa­tions. Tomforde listens carefully to basic queries on the military and pro­ceeds to work on my ignorance by taking a pen out of his shirt pocket and drawing explanatory charts. Three hours and a hundred questions later I have discovered the details in his background, including, rather incongruously. that he sang as part of a choir for Mother Theresa in Calcutta while an undergraduate at Yale. Yet he is far from a stereotyp­ically diminutive choirboy. With his crewcut, colossal neck, strong hands and muscular calves, one does not need much imagination to picture him in the Marine Corps.

Tomforde was called to duty in January 2002 and sent to Kuwait shortly after, for "homeland defense" reasons. On March 20, 2003 , the first day of the war. Tomforde crossed into Iraq with the 1st Marine Division.Unknown to him at the time Tomforde had already been accepted to the MIA program. On the eve of the assault. ABCs Peter Jennings gave him the opportuni­ty to use his cell phone and enquire about the result. "I told him no," says Tomforde, "I did not want to incorpo­rate a rejection before going to war. I'd rather not know than know of a negative answer"

Tomforde recalls the goodwill of Iraqis when his unit entered towns along Route 7 on their way to Baghdad , but is quick to point out the dehumanizing aspect of liberation. "We go on reconnaissance throughout the town and make contact with the civilian and religious leadership," he explains, "but the unit has to leave and go forward. How many more units will pass through and make contact?"

Wary of the images transmitted by the media, Tomforde believes much of the media coverage to be, by nature, out of context. "There is a lot of over­reacting and confusion in combats... Journalists are trying to show some­thing clear out of things that are not. Once back. I watched the coverage. It seemed much worse than it really was.”

Tomforde does not go into details of what he saw and did as part of the war. He remains grave, "You under­stand how much power and force are part of this world, and that you are responsible for it. It develops both your crudeness and compassion."

What about feelings of doubt, anxiety, fear, I wonder. "Motivation lies on idealism and discipline," says Tomforde, "once the adrenaline disappears and the ideal falls to pieces, only discipline can hold things together. That' s why a military unit should only be about procedures and function."

Articulate and practical, Tomford hides a philosophical dimension behind his severe face and austere comments. "So how did you live through a war and become spiritual?" I enquire. He laughs and pauses for a few seconds before answering, "The process of combat is similar to that of life. You try to determine the meaning of it."

Roland Tomforde was born in Queens from German immigrant parents, both very liberal teachers. As a history and German literature major at Yale, Tomforde read extensively about German war literature. He became increasingly interested in the experience of war through the work of author Ernst Jünger who served in World War I, and the poetry of his great grandfather, drafted during the same period. "I joined the military not because of patriotism," explains Tomforde, "but out of a quest for per­sonal experience and adventure."

His mother, who took part in Washington 's January peace march, also had a role - although unconscious - in leading her son into that path. "When we watched a James Bond movie she used to say 'you could never do that Roland you're too nice a boy'," he remembers.

Tomforde joined the Marines after graduating from Yale in 1994. During the five following years, he took part in the 1997 evacuation of the American Embassy in Albania , and in various training exercises with units in Japan , Korea , Spain and Sardinia .

Transferred to the reserves, Tomforde moved to California and worked as a production adviser on the movie "We Were Soldiers" until recalled to duty in 2002. "Most of the movies on the mili­tary get technical details wrong. Like the uniforms, the haircuts…” says Tomforde, “It really bugs the shit out of me!”

Tomforde's days in the frivolous world of Hollywood and the draconian universe of the Marine Corps are over. "I do not want to go back to the movie industry. I do not want to hold a gun anymore," he asserts, "I want a job that stresses intellectualism and is conducive to a normal life."

  A self-described "practical idealist,” Tomforde concludes "the army is not there to develop your individuality and there is no place for intellectual discourse. Paradoxically, my love for indi­vidualism and intellect was devel­oped through the lack of it."

Our encounter is over. Tomnforde in shorts and sandals, aimed only with his backpack, proceeds towards the computer lab and I am left reflecting upon Steinbeck's words. "A thing so triumphantly illogical, so beautifully senseless as an army can't allow a question to weaken it. Within itself, if you do not hold it up to other things for comparison and derision, you'll find slowly, surely, a reason and a logic and a kind of a dreadful beauty. A man who can accept it is not a worse man always, and sometimes is a much better man." Á