Where Things Stand: Indiana Knows Sacrifice of War After Five Years

March 18, 2008— -- After five years in town squares around Indiana, those yellow ribbons are fading. But traverse the state on its winding two-lane roads and you will see there are still many places where Iraq and Indiana intersect.

Like in the small town of Decatur, just outside of Fort Wayne, is the home of the Stoppenhagens. In the window hangs a banner with three blue stars. One for each son now deployed to Iraq.

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned," said Stan, father to the young men.

"Concerned for sure. All three of them going into the battlefield together. There's real risks, there's real dangers," added mother Tami.

The Stoppenhagen brothers all joined the National Guard and will serve in the same brigade in Iraq. The middle son, Zach, signed up four months after 9/11. He was only 17. His unit had not seen combat since Vietnam.

"I would have never guessed that we'd be going to Iraq." Zach told us recently at Ft. Stewart, Georgia. "That he would be going to Iraq," he gestured to his brother, Josh.

Off to War, All of Them

Older brother Josh, now 24, enlisted a month after Zach. He's already been to Iraq.

"I'm kind of a little bit more at ease that all three of us are going because I've already been there once."

The youngest Stoppenhagen brother, Jake, was only 14 years old when the war began five years ago. He joined the guard just over a year ago and will be a medic in the 76th Infantry brigade.

"We're doing a good thing helping to keep the country safe so other people don't have to do what we're doing."

The brothers are among 3,400 Guardsmen called up now, the biggest deployment of the Indiana National Guard since World War II, and their mission is a dangerous one. We visited the 76th Infantry Brigade training at Ft. Stewart before they shipped out to the Middle East.

Col. Corey Carr will command the 76th. In civilian life he works in a two-person office in Columbus, Indiana. Here he will lead the 3,400 men and women of the National Guard as they protect supply convoys. Carr says the role of the guard has changed over time

"I think our soldiers all recognized when they signed up or re-enlisted that they would be going to war," Carr said.

There are 92 counties in the state of Indiana. Someone from each of those counties is now deployed with the 76th.

In Terre Haute, Lola Roberts knows the personal sacrifice of war.

"It didn't really touch us till it takes your kids away."

Her daughter, Sgt. Samantha Fulk is a military police officer — a single mom of three — and on her way to Iraq for the next year.

"I've got three kids at home so they kinda miss me. I miss them," Fulk said before shipping out.

"She told me she would be back," said Lola as the grandchildren she now helps care for played near by.

In the tiny towns like Bloomfield, population 2,500, the war is still very much news and front and center. Standing outside the Pepperoni grill on Main Street, Kristi Bladen, who coordinates a family support group, talked about her town and the deployment.

Lives Left on Hold

"There are currently 15 soldiers," she said serving with the 76th brigade from Bloomfield.

Their names are on signs attached to telephone poles along main street.

Inside, Bladen continued over coffee. There are stories of spouses who do not know how to read a military paycheck. Or the wife who had the hot water heater go out the cold night before.

"We're not an Army base. We don't have that support of all these families living together on a base," she said while explaining the difference between guard life and full-time military.

Support for the guard is strong in Indiana. While almost everyone we talked to felt the war had slipped from the national headlines, they say it is impossible to live in Indiana and not know someone affected.

In the economic development office in Columbus where Carr works, they hold his job. And it will be here when he returns.

"When he's back and ready to go, this office is his and the job is his;" said Ted Dawson, who is doing Carr's job while he serves.

Harold Force, who works with Carr, talked about the impact of people being removed from their community.

"Taking 3,400 people out of a state like Indiana, that's a lot." He said, but "they're remembered, they're talked about, though, because in this town people ask about those who are not here."

Indiana has known loss over the last five years. More than 130 of its soldiers, including 13 National Guardsmen, have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It's war. And that's the bottom line. The enemy's out there to kill us. And it is our job to not let that happen," Zach Stoppenhagen said calmly as he sat by his brothers in the barracks.

The Untold Cost of War

Dan Dahling is the Stoppenhagens' pastor. He confirmed all three of the boys. Sitting in his church on a quiet afternoon he reflected.

"What does it take to send all three of your sons?" he asks out loud. "It takes a lot of sacrifice. You're giving of yourself. You're giving your whole family away."

Lives all across Indiana are on hold for the next year. At the Stoppenhagen home it means a wedding postponed, college delayed, a car waiting to be worked on.

So, five years later, the war has left a hole in Indiana bigger than anyone knows.