 It
makes it look like you cheated on a test, and
everybody got the same
grade. The
Olympian
[click
above for images of the letters]
Olympia, Washington State, USA, Saturday, October
11, 2003 Many
soldiers, same letter Newspapers
around U.S. get identical missives from Iraq
Ledyard King
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE The
Olympian Online WASHINGTON -- Letters from
hometown soldiers describing their successes
rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers
across the country as U.S. public opinion on the
mission sours. And all the letters are the same.
A Gannett News Service search found identical
letters from different soldiers with the 2nd
Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment,
also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers,
including Snohomish, Wash. The Olympian received two identical
letters signed by different hometown soldiers: Spc.
Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois,
who is now a sergeant. The paper declined to run
either because of a policy not to publish form
letters. The five-paragraph letter talks about the
soldiers' efforts to re-establish police and fire
departments, and build water and sewer plants in
the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the unit
is based. "The quality of life and security for the
citizens has been largely restored, and we are a
large part of why that has happened," the letter
reads. It describes people
waving at passing troops and children running up
to shake their hands and say thank you. It's not clear who wrote the letter or organized
sending it to soldiers' hometown papers. Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through
their families said they agreed with the letter's
thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it,
and one said he didn't even sign it. Marois, 23, told his family he signed the
letter, said Moya Marois, his stepmother.
But she said he was puzzled why it was sent to the
newspaper in Olympia. He attended high school in
Olympia but no longer considers the city home, she
said. Moya Marois and Alex's father, Les, now live
near Kooskia, Idaho. A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter
until his father congratulated him for getting it
published in the local newspaper in Beckley,
W.Va. "When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he
said: 'What letter?'" Timothy Deaconson said
Friday, recalling the phone conversation he had
with his son, Nick. "This is just not his (writing)
style." He spoke to his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson,
at a hospital where he was recovering from a
grenade explosion that left shrapnel in both his
legs. Sgt. Christopher Shelton, who signed a
letter that ran in the Snohomish Herald,
said Friday that his platoon sergeant had
distributed the letter and asked soldiers for the
names of their hometown newspapers. Soldiers were
asked to sign the letter if they agreed with it,
said Shelton, whose shoulder was wounded during an
ambush earlier this year. "Everything it said is dead accurate. We've done
a really good job," he said by phone from Italy,
where he was preparing to return to Iraq. Sgt. Todd Oliver, a spokesman for the
173rd Airborne Brigade, which counts the 503rd as
one of its units, said he was told a soldier wrote
the letter, but he didn't know who. He said the
brigade's public affairs unit was not involved. "When he asked other
soldiers in his unit to sign it, they did,"
Oliver explained in an e-mail response to a GNS
inquiry. "Someone, somewhere along the way, took
it upon themselves to mail it to the various
editors of newspapers across the country."
Lt. Col. Bill MacDonald, a spokesman for
the 4th infantry Division that is heading
operations in north-central Iraq, said he had not
heard about the letter-writing campaign. Neither had Lt. Cmdr. Nick Balice, a
spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Tampa,
Fla. A recent poll suggests that Americans are
increasingly skeptical of America's prolonged
involvement in Iraq. A USA Today-CNN-Gallup Poll
released Sept. 23 found 50 percent believe that the
situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, down
from 73 percent in April. The letter talks about the soldiers' mission,
saying, "one thousand of my fellow soldiers and I
parachuted from ten jumbo jets." It describes
Kirkuk as "a hot and dusty city of just over a
million people." It tells about the progress they
have made. "The fruits of all our soldiers' efforts are
clearly visible in the streets of Kirkuk today.
There is very little trash in the streets, many
more people in the markets and shops, and children
have returned to school," the letter reads. "I am
proud of the work we are doing here in Iraq and I
hope all of your readers are as well." Sgt. Shawn Grueser of Poca, W.Va., said
he spoke to a military public affairs officer whose
name he couldn't remember about his accomplishments
in Iraq for what he thought was a news release to
be sent to his hometown paper in Charleston, W.Va.
But the 2nd Battalion soldier said he did not sign
any letter. Although Grueser said he agrees with the
letter's sentiments, he was uncomfortable that a
letter with his signature did not contain his own
words or spell out his own accomplishments. "It makes it look like
you cheated on a test, and everybody got the
same grade," Grueser said by phone from a base
in Italy where he had just arrived from Iraq.
Moya Marois said she is proud of her stepson
Alex, the former Olympia resident. But she worries
that the letter tries to give legitimacy to a war
she doesn't think was justified. "We're going to support our son," she said. But
"there are a lot of Americans that are not in
support of this war that would like to see them
returned home, and think it's going to get
worse." 
Previous comments by Stephen Sniegoski: 
The hunt
for weapons of mass destruction yields -
nothing-
Official Is
Prepared To Address Issue Of Iraqi
Deception
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