Former resident offers tales of Iraq

Published 12:34 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

Biggest difference? Here, people can feel safe nearly all the time

By Brenda Sexton

The Courier-Herald

"The hardest part is talking to people about what it's like," said Tim Temples, just before addressing friends Thursday afternoon for the Enumclaw Rotary Club's weekly luncheon.

Temples, a former Enumclaw Rotarian and city councilman, was in town visiting after a 51-week stay in Iraq with the Army Reserve. He returned to his Longview, Wash., home in January. During his deployment, Temples often sent letters to The Courier-Herald, keeping friends in the area updated on his tour.

Temples talked to the group about business, or the effort to try and do business, in the war-torn country, where bribery and intimidation are often the norm and electricity and profit and loss sheets are rare.

He told stories of anti-coalition forces blocking bridges and how, when he arrived, there was a constant state of looting.

Temples, who was recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, traces his military career back 25 years. He has been in the Reserves since 1996 and said he never dreamed he'd be called up.

"We've totally underestimated how 9/11 will impact this generation," he said during an interview before the Rotary meeting. "It's changed the way we go to the airport, me and my family. Quite a defining experience for me and my family."

Temples, who was a Weyerhaeuser manager in Enumclaw before the mill closed, hadn't set up house in Longview a year when he was dashed off to Iraq.

In those seven months in Longview he worked with the Columbian-Cowlitz Railroad. This, he smiles, made him an expert to come in and help Iraq rebuild its system.

He went to Iraq with a 10-person unit of senior managers. He described his job as a civil affairs-type relationship.

"Two days in Iraq I experienced a thousand times more emotions than I've had in two months of being back," Temples said.

The constant state of fear, he said, is the biggest difference between here and there.

"I think that's what I missed the most, besides my family, was the feeling of not being safe," Temples said.

He said he prayed at every check point and he and colleagues would sit in the compound and listen to the "booms" of the nearby car bombings.

"If you hear on the news of two attacks, I know there are 40 to 50 other attacks across the country," he said.

He said it was never easy, but after a while people become desensitized.

"You start drawing lines and building a defense mechanism. You stop talking about it," he said. "You watch people die, but never talk about it."

Also on the list of "things no one talks much about," are the soldiers injured in Iraq. Temples came back with a shoulder injury suffered as a result of an attack.

"My hat's off to two groups," he said. "The boys and girls standing gate guard and the medics."

He also said the support of those here on the homefront was a bonus.

"The support is really overwhelming in the letters and cards from people," he said. The soldiers, he added, really appreciate it.

He's working his way back to a life in the United States. He's spending time with his wife Julie and his girls, but in the back of his head looms the near future.

He's still on active duty and he's sure the Army Reserves rules will change so he will have to go back.

Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.