Steve Mortillo thinks the world of the leaders of his platoon in Iraq. “They’re some of the most honorable people I think I’ll meet in my life,” he says. “I’ll never forget the camaraderie and the tough times we went through together.” So it hit him hard when he returned from r&r in the United States and was told that while he was gone, his platoon leader was critically wounded by an IED. “The first thing I said, the first thing everyone says, is, ‘Stop lying to me! I don’t want to hear that.’ There’s this feeling of guilt: while you’re living it up back in the States, one of your comrades got hit.” A few weeks later, he was awakened in the middle of the night to be told another comrade had been killed.
Mortillo says the military’s willingness to stage house raids based on flimsy intelligence contributed to the growing American casualties. “I hope the American people can understand the impact that this occupation is having on the military,” he said. “It’s tearing us apart.”