Private Soldiers in the News
Private Soldiers show Iraq photos at Wisconsin Historical Museum
Kenneth Burns on Friday 01/18/2008 4:21 pm What does the war in Iraq look like? When I conjure up snapshots in my mind, I think of dramatic images: The toppling of the Saddam statue, a Humvee blasted to bits by a roadside bomb, Iraqis weeping in the street. But there are calmer moments, too, and some of them are captured in Private Soldiers: A Year in Iraq with a Wisconsin National Guard Unit, an exhibit at the Wisconsin Historical Museum on the Capitol Square. Private Soldiers collects photographs from a new book about the 2-127th Infantry Battalion, whose members arrived in the Iraqi theater in August 2005. Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, the book is by Capt. Benjamin Buchholz and photographers Lt. Nathan Olson and Staff Sgt. Joseph Streeter. In the first of the 18 photos, the soldiers train in Mississippi and Kuwait. One shot from Kuwait captures the sight of a few Humvees dwarfed by an achingly beautiful desert sky. Other photographs show the heavily armored members of the 2-127th as, on Iraqi highways, they guard semi trailers in kilometer-long convoys. Still another shows soldiers at their leisure, smoking cigarettes in front of rows of sand-colored tents. The photographers also turned their cameras on Iraqis. In one picture a man leading a camel wears a quizzical expression, and in another two soldiers talk to a boy of about ten. He looks away, clutching a bottle of water. His feet are bare in the sand. The captions accompanying the pictures are matter-of-fact, though some have wry humor. "Anytime our convoy stopped, even in the most inhospitable desert," one says, "merchants appeared to sell us knives, cigarettes, Viagra, and movies." Perhaps the most poignant image is one Buchholz took of a clay pot made by his five-year-old son. In the captain's tent, the pot sits amid everyday items: a deck of cards, a paperback dictionary. The picture, Buchholz writes in a caption, "made me wonder how much I had been changed by the experience of being deployed." "Private Soldiers" runs at the Wisconsin Historical Museum through March 8. http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=20002 Recent video interviews for Private Soldiers WISN-Channel 12 News (Milwaukee) WLUK-Channel 11 News (Green Bay/Fox Cities) Fond du Lac native to share experiences in Iraq at signing fdlreporter.com, published November 7, 2007 Goodrich High School graduate and commercial photographer Joseph Streeter will share his experience serving in Iraq during a book-signing at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, at Bookworld, 85 S. Main St. Streeter, a member of the National Guard for 12 years, will sign copies of "Private Soldiers: A Year in Iraq with a Wisconsin National Guard Unit," according to a press release from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. The soldiers of the 2-127th Gator Battalion of the Wisconsin National Guard came from all over Wisconsin. They were (and are) citizen soldiers, with civilian jobs and families unaccustomed to long separations. Streeter put his commercial photography skills to use while deployed in one of the most dangerous regions of Iraq. Brandon resident, Benjamin Buchholz, with photographs by Streeter and Nathan Olson, tells the story of the 2-127th's mission in one of the most dangerous regions of Iraq. Letters and e-mails home, personal interviews, and photos of heartrending clarity and perspective reveal the human side of the 2-127th's mission in Iraq. Streeter now runs a sports photography business in Madison. The book was published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Reader Review: Book honors soldiers without the politics By Janice Dibble
Reader Review
Posted October 28, 2007 Private Soldiers is a 2007 publication of the Wisconsin Historical Society Press certain to garner much statewide attention. Family, friends, neighbors and communities will appreciate the words and pictures that chronicle the one-year deployment of the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 2-127th Infantry Battalion. Author Buchholz interviews soldiers of all ranks who share their personal thoughts about what they miss about home and what life is like to live in tents. He honors those wounded and killed. Photographers Streeter and Olson wonderfully capture candid moments, such as the soldiers relaxing at a pool at Anaconda base, nicknamed "Mortaritaville" while documenting mission activities. The book's focus is an insider's look at the lives of this Guard Unit rather than a political discussion of the Iraq War. If you go What: Photographer Joe Streeter discusses "Private Soldiers" and shows photographs. When: Saturday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. Where: Oshkosh Public Library. Cost: Free. Apple Blossom Books will sell copies of the book. http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071028/OSH05/710280528/1168 Footnotes Wisconsin State Journal :: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT :: G3 Sunday, October 14, 2007
William Wineke From May 2005 until August 2006, Capt. Benjamin Buchholz, of Brandon, served with the Wisconsin Army National Guard in Iraq as part of the 2-127th Gator Battalion, served in battle, served with men and women who were killed in action, served with men who were wounded and who fought to rebuild their lives. His story, documented in photographs by Staff Sergeant Joseph Streeter, Madison, and Lt. Nathan Olson Columbus, tells the tale of that deployment in "Private Soldiers: A Year in Iraq With a Wisconsin National Guard Unit" (Wisconsin Historical Society Press: $29.95). "Nathan, Joe and I have done what we can to document how soldiers lived, how we performed our unique mission, how we trained and how we bonded as a unit," Buchholz writes. "These bonds are difficult to capture on film, more difficult yet to describe in words. The true testament to their strength will come 50 years from now, when we still number among our best friends the men with whom we rode into battle this year." The book basically takes the reader through the deployment, beginning with an "alert script" used to notify the National Guard soldiers that they are about to be called to active duty, including the warning that "this would be an involuntary activation. Members of the unit would be ordered to active duty with or without their consent." It includes an account of training in Wisconsin and in Kuwait. "The entire military experience, from basic training until you cross the border into a war zone, is nothing but training. It all adds up, every experience, into preparation for that moment when you undertake to perform a live mission, with live bullets, in a land where law and order are not the norm ..." Buchholz describes convoy duty; he describes sand; he interviews officers and he interviews enlisted soldiers. He also tells the story of the fallen. The deaths, obviously, moved the unit, Buchholz writes. "No longer was this training or an easy mission, a routine. No longer were deaths a statistic heard distantly on the news. These (men) were friends, comrades, close as brothers to many in the battalion. We'd been on the ground for less than a month and everyone, to the man, questioned how many more deaths those months would hold." Buchholz tells a moving story. He tells it in a matter-of-fact manner that requests only that the reader respect the dedication of some brave soldiers. http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/wsj/2007/10/14/0710100320.php Sharing the Story of "Private Soldiers" Oct 12, 2007 05:56 PM CDT By Elizabeth Ries "A Year in Iraq with a Wisconsin National Guard Unit." That's the premise of a new book called "Private Soldiers" authored by three members of the Appleton-based 127th Infantry. The soldiers chronicled their time serving on the border of Iraq and Kuwait between 2005 and 2006. Operation Enduring Freedom has taken thousands of Wisconsin soldiers away from their families to a land that's completely foreign. "A lot of these I was there for when the photographs were taken," Captain Ben Buchholz shows us, "and if I look at it, I'm standing there again, I can smell what Iraq smells like again, which is horrible." But it was a photograph that motivated Buchholz to put a year's worth of experiences into a book. It's a photograph of Buchholz's bunk scattered with trinkets he picked up along the way, covered in a fine film of Iraqi dust. "I'd been doing this just as a, man, I don't want to miss this, I want to have something of this to take back." Buchholz recruited two soldiers who are also photographers to help. "Joe said at one point, 'If we get bombed on this mission, you'll find me curled around my camera so that it doesn't get destroyed.' He was just in love with that thing." It's a story that ranges in emotion. During downtime, fellow soldiers lounge by an on-base pool or get creative with markers. But their friendships make loss even more difficult. Three members of the unit were killed. That section of the book was hardest to work on, Buchholz says. "It was really very emotional. I was very close to the guys. I was their company commander before we went, and I just had a real hard time with it." It also tells the story of the Iraqi people through interviews. "One guy, we were just driving through the market and we saw he was wearing a U.S. Army T-shirt, and we said, oh, we've gotta stop and talk to him, so we found out about his business. He'd just been starting a welding business, having a hard time getting a hold of iron." But most of all it's a journey back home to Wisconsin, a place he now sees with new eyes and hopes you will, too. "Coming back and sitting on a street corner like this with green grass and a safe community, it's just something that most of the world doesn't have, and I think we're way under-appreciative as Americans of what we have here." All royalties from sales of the book go to a memorial fund for the soldiers who died and to the unit's family support group. The book is published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press in bookstores and online. http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?s=7207454 WISCONSIN SOLDIERS' BOOK TELLS INSIDE STORY By SAMARA KALK DERBY The Capital Times, Wednesday, September 26, 2007 They can sum up their year in Iraq in one word: Hot. In their new book, "Private Soldiers: A Year in Iraq with a Wisconsin National Guard Unit," writer Benjamin Buchholz and photographers Joseph Streeter and Nathan Olson provide a coffee table yearbook from their experiences as soldiers of the 2-127th Gator Battalion. Buchholz, Streeter and Olson began their on-the-job training as soon as they reached Kuwait in August 2005. In the book, which was released this week, one soldier described stepping off the plane in Kuwait. "Imagine opening an oven when you're making pizza. Stick your head inside, and then have someone turn on a sandblaster so you get the feeling of hot sand pummeling you." During the first weeks of training in Kuwait, the soldiers' main concerns were hydration and acclimatization, getting their bodies used to 130-degree temperatures. The nature of their mission, convoy escort, made travel through the most dangerous regions of Iraq unavoidable. The soldiers faced hostile action daily. But mostly it was dull, the men said. "People get the impression from the movies that combat is like a nonstop adrenaline rush, that you are constantly engaged with the enemy and fighting. That's not what it's like," said Buchholz, who was the 2-127th infantry battalion's civil affairs officer during deployment. He works full-time for the Wisconsin Army National Guard as the 2-127th's training officer and lives in Brandon, Wis. "It's long periods of pure boredom punctuated by short periods of sheer terror," added Streeter, who's been a member of the Wisconsin Army National Guard for more than 12 years. While deployed in Iraq he served as a squad leader in the 2-127th's C Company. He lives in Madison. Buchholz said that he spent eight hours one night getting EOD, or explosive ordinance disposal, to bring a robot in to blow up a concrete block. "Most everything is a dud but it kind of keeps you on your toes all the time. And the trick as a leader is to keep your soldiers on their toes through all that down time when nothing is happening," he said. The 620 soldiers of the Gator Battalion served in Iraq after training at Camp Shelby, Miss. While on their tour, they provide armed convoy escort and route security throughout the country, from Umm Qasr in the South to Mosul in the far north, a distance that men estimated was equivalent from driving from southern Illinois to northern Wisconsin. Their missions took them into the most dangerous regions of Iraq. The battalion saw dozens wounded and three killed in action. All royalties from sales of "Private Soldiers" will go to 2-127th's family support groups and to funds established in the memory of the battalion members who gave their lives in the Iraq war: Andrew Wallace, Michael Wendling and Ryan Jopek. "We are very honored to be able to publish this book, one of the only books I know of that is about the guys themselves. It's not about the politics of the war. It's about Wisconsin men doing their job," said Kathy Borkowski, editorial director of the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, which published the book. skalk@madison.com Brandon soldier chronicles service of Wisconsin National Guard unit By Colleen Kottke
The Reporter ckottke@fdlreporter.com June 26, 2007 Crammed together with a group of grown men living in a tent eight time zones away from home set Capt. Ben Buchholz to thinking. "It made me wonder how much I and the men around me had been changed by the experience of being deployed," said Buchholz, who served as the civil affairs officer of the 2nd Battalion 127th Infantry in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Cradling a photo that he had taken of a keepsake sent to him by his young son in February 2006, the Brandon resident brainstormed ways to chronicle the images and experiences from the perspective of young soldiers. "I wanted to document how different we were living. From patrol convoys moving through dangerous terrain to eating in the mess hall or checking e-mails from home," Buchholz said. After sharing his idea with the chain of command, Buchholz, began interviewing fellow soldiers and local Iraqis, weaving their perspectives and experiences into his book "Private Soldiers: A Year in Iraq with a Wisconsin National Guard Unit." The book—published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press—also features candid images taken by two professional photographers, Lt. Nathan Olson and Sgt. Joseph Streeter, also deployed with the 2nd Battalion 127th Infantry. Buchholz said Olson and Streeter toted their own cameras with them while on missions, sometimes holding a gun in one hand while cradling a camera in the other. Citizen soldiers To strengthen troop numbers overseas in the Middle East, the United States began tapping National Guard units all across the country, including the Red Arrow 32nd Infantry Brigade. The unit had not served overseas since World War II. Called up from jobs behind desks, from courtrooms and classrooms, construction companies and factories, this band of citizen soldiers was assembled. Soldiers were sent to Iraq to escort and provide security for troop and supply movements through some of the most hostile terrain. Buchholz said the U.S. has gone from using the National Guard as a strategic reserve to building it up and sending it into the battlefield and beyond. "We're in an unusual environment where we're trying to rebuild a country," Buchholz said. "Here you have a plumber carrying a .50 caliber gun. A sewer line in an Iraqi house springs a leak and he can apply his civilian skills to make a difference right on the spot. The Guard is able to bring different skills to the battlefield." Rising to the challenge In his book, Buchholz talks about the many challenges faced by young soldiers tasked with fighting an unseen enemy and dealing with language barriers. Day and night, 24 Humvee teams (three soldiers each) from the unit provided armed escort for convoys of up to 50 civilian-contracted and military semis moving throughout the country. Manning three armored Humvees, two groups of soldiers headed up the front and rear of the three mile convoy while the third vehicle ran back and forth along the entire length, on the lookout for potential problems. "This was one of the most dangerous missions. Traveling with the highly visible convoys, we were like large targets rolling down the roads," Buchholz said. "It was a lonely mission and required tremendous maturity, responsibility and tactical know-how from junior soldiers. The decisions of those soldiers determined not only the success of the mission but the safety of the crews and vehicles." In addition to watching out for IEDs (improvised explosive devices) along the roadside, soldiers had to deal with equipment breakdowns and the antics of non-English speaking drivers. In his book, Buchholz refers to the convoy as a "Rolling Tower of Babel." "Communication was a big issue. We also had drivers falling asleep at the wheel and running into each other or Pakistani and Indian drivers who don't like each other, racing and passing one another on the road," Buchholz said. "There was a lot of strangeness." Soldiers also had to be on constant alert for hijackers. Of 44 attempts to steal vehicles, 16 were successful, he said. "When you have a truck worth $40,000 filled with $20,000 in goods, that's pretty damned good money for someone making $350 a month," Buchholz said of the thefts. Testament of courage Buchholz's aunt, Waupun Mayor Jodi Steger, said the book will provide citizens and family members insight into the sacrifice and duty performed by the soldiers. "It's about the day-to-day events of what actually happens, things that the TV news cameras don't catch," Steger said. All royalties from sale of the book will benefit the Battalion's family support groups and memorial funds for fallen battalion members—Sgt. Andrew Wallace, 25, of Ripon, Pfc. Michael Wendling, 20, of Mayville, and Sgt. Ryan Jopek, 20, of Merrill. http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070626/FON0101/706260388
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