I agree with Gary C. Robinson (Letters, April 25). A lot of people say they support us being out here. But it seems that more and more people only say that to fit in with friends and co-workers. We get a lot of trash talk from people at airports, stores, heck, even when we are out and walking in town and shopping.

All they know is what the media wants them to see. You have people that will stand up and say that we are failing out here in winning the war. All they will show and talk about is how we are killing innocent people. What they don’t know is what we see and have to do every day. Even service members who do not hold a combat MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) still see more and do more then the armchair commando that voices his or her opinion without knowing anything.

They don’t know that more Iraqis are serving in the Iraqi police or the Iraqi army. They don’t see when a VBIED (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device) blows up a house and hurts and kills innocent people. Where Iraqi women refuse to leave the medical until they get to see their children who are in surgery, after the other three are flown off to Baghdad for even more help.

They don’t see the hundreds of people we search before they enter our base to be trained as IP’s or IA. My dad, who is retired Navy, even asked me what is really going on out here. People say it is for the oil, which shows how closed minded they are. People say that we are not winning. Not all wars end as fast as Desert Storm did. To me, I see a win for us when I get to go out to the front gates with male Army soldiers and search men who are joining the IP or IA. Watch as parents smile and wave and are happy when we talk to them, their children, give candy out to people (no matter how little we have) and try their food.

They are not here when the drive-bys happen and incoming go off. They don’t see when our service members plus the IP and IA that work with us both get hit and killed.

I love what I do out here, though we all have our ups and downs. We all meet bad people or people we don’t like out here. People can say that they don’t see a reason for us being out here. For me and my co-workers, every day we see our reason for being out here. That is to help this country out as much as we can. It may take a while to do it, but we are slowly getting there.

Cpl. Dugger, S.E.

USMC active duty

Camp Blue Diamond, Iraq