BY CPL. GRANT MONGE, USMC
Bloody Hell
Tales from an Iraq surgical hospital morgue
T
oday I helped put another dead U.S. Marine
serving in Iraq into the morgue. Part of my
job entails taking off whatever gear or
clothing they have on, which was rather easy in this
case because he was missing everything from the
waist down, along with his right arm. In one of his
pockets was an unfinished postcard, covered in
blood and tucked away ever so neatly into his flack
jacket. All it said was, “Hey honey.”
It made me feel strange, angry, sad and helpless. If he
could have known he was going to die, what would he have writ-
ten? He assumed he would finish it after his patrol.
I felt compelled to share this vivid portrayal of what is really happening in Iraq
from this soldier’s viewpoint. I’m serving a second tour, this time guarding a surgical
hospital not far from the front lines.
We stripped him down and moved him from the bag he was in to the body bag. I
had the head section. As I lifted him, his mouth flew open, and all I could smell was
mint Listerine. I don’t think I’ll ever use that brand again. After putting what was left
of his body into the body bag, we had to scoop up his entrails with our gloved hands
and then put on his toe tag, which in this case went on his ring finger. Then we drove
the short distance to the morgue.
There are signs here that read, “Stay off the grass.” At first it seems comical.
Grass in the desert? And we’re to stay off? OK. Got it. Stay off the grass. But I had an
epiphany this day when reading the sign on the way to the morgue. Here’s this
grass. It’s there when we wake up. It’s there when we clock out. It’s there when we
sleep. The only thing here that’s guaranteed to be there tomorrow is this green
grass because we are ordered to stay off. It is said in parts of Africa the soil is
stained red from the blood shed from all the people who have died in the wars there.
If that’s true, why is this grass green here in Iraq? Oh yeah that’s right, we’re to stay
off of the grass. OK. Got it. Stay off of the grass.
We arrived in front of the morgue, opened the door and turned on the lights.
What bastards those lights are. Almost taunting — life and death only a switch away.
Life only waiting until we decide to flip the switch, and here we are with a man who
gave everything for his country, and there is no switch in the world that can turn
this brave American on. He is permanently off.
So, in goes the body, normally feet first, but this brave American soldier is miss-
ing that half, so we unzip the bag so he can be identified. Then the door is closed
and off go those infernal lights.
It’s time for a cigarette, which is more of a brief clemency for us before it’s on to
the next patient. “How is your night?” some patients in the hospital ask. I reply with
a lie, and I can tell they see it in my eyes, but I grimace a smile anyway to bolster
their and my morale.
A
fter a long night, I make the short walk to my room, making sure not to
step one foot on the grass, before I attempt to fall asleep. There will be no
sleep tonight. Another night of wandering around the hospital, trying to
find something good to do to rectify the feelings of hate I have inside. All the pa-
tients are already asleep and all the medical supplies neatly restocked and ready for
the next emergency. Off in the distance I hear another helicopter, and I get ready for
another tragic round to what seems to be a literal and figurative endless war.
Another sleepless night in my conscious nightmare as I collect megabytes of
horrific and undigested images of this living hell. I don’t know what I am more afraid
of: staying here or coming home and trying to process all that I have seen, endured,
ultimately trying to heal all the scar tissue I have accumulated.
Cpl. Grant Monge of Coos Bay serves with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq. This letter appeared on the blog
campusbug.com and is reprinted with permission of the author. Morgue photos taken by the author can be seen
on our web version of this commentary.
TO THE EDITOR
SPRAWL AWAY
Looking at the U.S. Census data compar-
ing Eugene to Springfield (cover story, 6/21),
I’m inclined to suggest that Springfield be al-
lowed to sprawl to its heart’s content while
Eugene makes the obviously better choice to
(at least attempt to) limit sprawl develop-
ment. We can all rest assured that
Springfield’s sprawl will only go so far. It is a
fact of physical reality that growth is unsus-
tainable. Period.
Unsustainable behavior will not continue,
but what Springfield and Eugene both may
wish to consider is that while achieving sus-
tainability now through bold leadership and
sacrifice may be somewhat traumatic for the
economy, it will ultimately be less difficult
than waiting for unsustainable behavior like
rampant growth and development to stop as a
result of reaching the natural limitations of
resources, energy or space.
As a footnote to this letter, when I refer to
sustainability, I mean genuine, meaningful
sustainability. This is distinct from what
politicians refer to as “sustainability,” or what
I call “sustainability light,” which in reality is
not sustainable at all.
Robert Bolman
Eugene
WHO YOU GONNA BLAME?
WRECKING CREW
EDITORIAL Editor Ted Taylor
News Editor Alan Pittman Reporter Camilla Mortensen
Arts & Music Editor Molly Templeton
Performing & Visual Arts/Copy Editor Suzi Steffen
Calendar Editor Chuck Adams
Contributing Editor Anita Johnson
Contributing Writers Bryan Andersen, Sara Brickner, Jason Blair, Joshua
Blanchard, Amanda Burhop, Jes Burns, Brett Campbell, Rachael Carnes,
Wade Christiansen, Michael Cockram, David Constantin, John Dooley,
Rachel Foster, Phillip Getty, James Johnston, Zach Klassen, Sarah Mazze,
Sharleen Nelson, Mary O’Brien, Aaron Ragan-Fore, Vanessa Salvia, Steven
Sawada, Sally Sheklow, Lance Sparks, Eva Sylwester, Adrienne van der Valk
Interns Erin Rokita, Deanna Uutela
ART DEPARTMENT
Art Director/Production Manager Kevin Dougherty
Graphic Artist/Webmaster James Bateman
Graphic Artists Shannon Browning,Barbara Cooper, Todd Cooper
Baby Samara Cooper
Contributing Photographers Kurt Jensen, Paul Neevel
ADVERTISING
National Sales Manager Mark Frisbee
Display Marketing Consultant Jennifer Donohue, Rob Weiss
Advertising Traffic Coordinator Geneva “Goddess” Miller
Classified Manager Jennifer Donohue Reception Jayme Fuller
Classified Marketing Consultant Janus Brezsny
BUSINESS Director of Sales and Marketing Bill Shreve
Circulation Manager Danica Stiles Baby Persaeus Eilah Zapata Stiles
Controller Paula Hoemann Distributors Bob Becker, Matt Bryson, Margaret
Garrison, Tobin Herrera, Susan and David Lawson, Tim Risch, Quick Draw,
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Eugene Weekly • 1251 Lincoln Street • Eugene, OR 97401 • 541.484.0519 • fax 541-484-4044
4 JULY 5, 2007
I do not support “our” troops in Iraq. I re-
alize most of them were too young to know
what they were getting into when they signed
up to be part of the Wrecking Crew, but what
they are doing is immoral. The only support I
would offer them is to bring them home and
give them adequate medical care and social
services.
We ought to raise the legal military enlist-
ment age to 21 so these stupid kids would
have to grow up some before they could vol-
unteer to be paid killers for the American im-
perial war machine. Almost no one at 18 or
19 has the faintest idea what American for-
eign policy is about, which is expanding the
American empire and making money for
large corporations. (I joined the Navy at 19, a
long time ago.)
In a recent article on www.counter-
punch.org an Army surgeon who treated sol-
diers wounded in Iraq is quoted as saying that
he “amputated the genitals of one or two men
every day.” Well, there go the grandchildren.
I don’t care how large a bonus they give you
to join, is it worth spending the rest of your
life with no sex?
Lynn Porter
Eugene
JAILING THE MESSENGERS
At a Senate hearing on “ecoterrorism,”
Sen. Jeffords stated succinctly: “In our cur-
rent state of fear, it is easy to get headlines by
using the term terrorism. But sometimes, a
criminal is just a criminal.” Unfortunately,
the motive for labeling the recently convicted
eco-saboteurs as terrorists is not simply to
grab headlines. Instead, just like with the
COINTELPRO, the label seemed to be in-
tended to discredit their important message
and downplay or dismiss the very real and
frightening environmental realities which
motivated these activists’ desperate acts.
Throughout the sentencing hearings, the
government attorneys flippantly quoted ELF
communiqués as if the messages contained
therein were the rantings of lunatics.
Sadly, their messages cannot be so easily
dismissed. Biologists estimate that by 2100,
half of the species on the planet will be ex-
tinct. Global climate change is already swal-
lowing populated islands. Genetically engi-
neered crops are irreversibly altering the ge-
netic integrity of biodiversity. Toxic chemi-
cals are building up in our bodies, in our soil
and in our drinking water. Humans, of course,
are causing these problems.
It is understandable that the young people
born into this ecological catastrophe feel
overwhelmingly deep despair because they
realize that our life support system is unravel-
ing. Indeed, it is not only young people who
feel this despair. A recent Gallup Poll indi-