Soldiering On

Meet the people who fought — and continue to fight — our wars in the Middle East.

by Charles Cieri

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Published: Jul 1, 2009

Neal Santos

This Fourth of July weekend, 22-year-old Raheem Rowell will be cooking out with family he hasn't seen since his deployment — he spent last year shuttling detainees all over Iraq in Blackhawk helicopters. Tim Stanton, who just turned 20, will enjoy the Fourth at the Jersey shore before he ships out to Baghdad to train Iraqi police. And Northeast Philly's Dave Marris, 50, will be thinking about his wife and kids this weekend while drinking tea with locals in western Afghanistan.

More than 1.5 million Americans have fought in this country's two ongoing wars. While public interest and news coverage in Iraq and Afghanistan have waxed and waned, these volunteers have continued to stream to and from the battlefield. They'll continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Much (although not enough) attention has been given to the fallen soldiers of Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Military suicide, and those suffering traumatic injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, are also, rightfully, topics of interest. But there are others who've served, and sacrificed. They're struggling to re-establish their lives under the threat of being called back; they're working to re-engage with a civilian world that we, their neighbors, take for granted.

Here are 13 such people from the region. Our thanks to these vets for their time, the photographs you see here and, of course, their service.

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Rob Pomroy
Byron Roth
Laura Golembiewski
Jose Quinones
Dave Marris
Raheem Rowell
Matt Brennan
Tim Stanton
Carl W. Notter
Roberto Brabham
Lilliam Bernal
Tim Johnson
RJ Ernst