2008 Woodie Awards
Five years after US invasion, Miami students reflect on Operation Iraqi Freedom
Erin Bowen
Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: Campus
Five years. One thousand eight hundred and twenty five days. Four thousand American soldiers lost. Hundreds of thousands of troops deployed. Approximately one million Iraqi lives affected. Five years.
Many watched with wide eyes as white explosions pierced the black and gray smudged sky the night of March 19, 2003. With mouths open and hands clenched, national television networks broadcast the "Decapitation Attack" as U.S. and coalition forces launched a missiles and bomb attack on Iraqi targets. It was a Wednesday night.
Like fireworks, the explosions crackled and fizzled at targets aimed at former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his top officials.
With a shiver of excitement, fear, horror and confusion, the first war that many of this generation will remember began.
Katie Beth Tonnies, now a sophomore, was fourteen when the Iraq War began. Tonnies said that at the time, she was preoccupied with high school soccer, dancing with friends to Christina Aguilera music and catching episodes of "Lizzie Maguire." But when her parents tuned in to the March 19 telecast of the bombings, she paid attention.
At the time, Tonnies said the idea of war did not seem real.
"My idea of war was still limited to history books and movies," Tonnies said. "I imagined Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor heroically going off to war. I don't think anyone thought the war would last this long."
Now Tonnies is nineteen, a psychology major, and preparing for her MCAT. Growing up with five years of U.S. involvement in Iraq has destroyed her jaded image of war.
Unlike Tonnies, Sarah Pace, interim president of the Blue Star Mothers of Oxford, knew what war could mean for her family. Blindsided by the news of the 2003 attacks, Pace said she was shocked as she watched a broadcast of the bombings.
"I think everyone saw it," Pace said. "You couldn't miss it. It was so hyped up. I watched in shock and awe. I don't even think a word can describe my emotions. I just thought, 'What happened here?'"
Many watched with wide eyes as white explosions pierced the black and gray smudged sky the night of March 19, 2003. With mouths open and hands clenched, national television networks broadcast the "Decapitation Attack" as U.S. and coalition forces launched a missiles and bomb attack on Iraqi targets. It was a Wednesday night.
Like fireworks, the explosions crackled and fizzled at targets aimed at former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his top officials.
With a shiver of excitement, fear, horror and confusion, the first war that many of this generation will remember began.
Katie Beth Tonnies, now a sophomore, was fourteen when the Iraq War began. Tonnies said that at the time, she was preoccupied with high school soccer, dancing with friends to Christina Aguilera music and catching episodes of "Lizzie Maguire." But when her parents tuned in to the March 19 telecast of the bombings, she paid attention.
At the time, Tonnies said the idea of war did not seem real.
"My idea of war was still limited to history books and movies," Tonnies said. "I imagined Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor heroically going off to war. I don't think anyone thought the war would last this long."
Now Tonnies is nineteen, a psychology major, and preparing for her MCAT. Growing up with five years of U.S. involvement in Iraq has destroyed her jaded image of war.
Unlike Tonnies, Sarah Pace, interim president of the Blue Star Mothers of Oxford, knew what war could mean for her family. Blindsided by the news of the 2003 attacks, Pace said she was shocked as she watched a broadcast of the bombings.
"I think everyone saw it," Pace said. "You couldn't miss it. It was so hyped up. I watched in shock and awe. I don't even think a word can describe my emotions. I just thought, 'What happened here?'"
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