Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Houston Chronicle
February 11, 2007
By Michael Hedges, Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Through tinted windows in his Pentagon office, former U.S. Rep. Pete Geren occasionally can see the burials of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan unfold on the slopes of Arlington Cemetery.
"Funeral after funeral, many of them right there," the tall, soft-spoken undersecretary of the U.S. Army said as he pointed across a highway to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier amid a vast crop of white crosses.
"And then you go out to Walter Reed (Army Hospital) and see those (injured) young men and women and their families. And you realize how amazing it is to have people who are willing to do so much."
The sacrifice by active duty military soldiers has inspired Geren through long days that have stretched into years, keeping him at the Pentagon and away from his Texas home longer than he intended.
"We planned to spend three years, through the first term," said Geren of the decision to uproot his family and come to Washington at the bidding of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who offered him a post early in President Bush's administration. "We thought it would be a great experience for our kids."
Under attack
Geren, who represented the Fort Worth area in Congress as a Democrat for eight years until 1997, started working at the Pentagon in September 2001 — exactly one week before the terrorist attack there.
"I was down in a (Pentagon) breakfast with Secretary Rumsfeld when he got the word that an airplane had crashed into a building in New York," Geren said. "Then to have the building you were in hit. There was an air of unreality to it."
Geren recalled feeling a dull thud, then seeing a huge column of smoke rise over the Pentagon during the initial evacuation. After that, the images became striking and surreal.
"I saw people pushing baby strollers and cribs out of the child care center," he said. "We still didn't know exactly what happened. There was an officer working in here who had big, bloody handprints on his blouse, apparently from helping somebody."
Since 9/11, Geren said, he has found his commitment to staying at the Pentagon intensify.
"There really is a bond that you feel working in an environment like this," he said. "The example that the uniformed military, seeing all that they do, it draws you in. It's hard to leave."
Three Pentagon posts
Geren, 55, has held three different Pentagon posts, culminating in his present job, where he holds a critical responsibility for assuring the well-being of the Army.
"My job is not particularly well-understood by people," said Geren. "We've got to supply the troops. We've got to recruit them, we've got to train them, make sure they've got the equipment that they need. If something gets broken, we've got to fix it. So, it is really the business side of the war effort."
Critics in Congress and the Washington think tank world have called the Army overstretched or even broken by Iraq and Afghanistan.
Geren conceded the strains but dismissed talk of a broken Army.
"I don't know what the term means, frankly. The Army is performing. It is doing what it is being asked to do," he said. "Is the Army stressed? It absolutely is ... and somebody might say, on paper, it is broken. But the soldiers always respond and get it done."
'Step up to the plate'
Asked if the so-called surge of an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq would complicate his job, Geren said that, after talking with top U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus, he is convinced it is the right policy. "There is no doubt it is stretching the system," he said. "It is asking a great deal of our families, but Army will step up to the plate."
Part of Geren's role is outreach to Congress. While in Congress, he advocated for military weapons programs like the F-16 Falcon and the V-22 Osprey, both built in Fort Worth.
A colleague from those days, former Texas Rep. Charlie Stenholm, said Geren was an effective and conscientious legislator.
"It was a great loss when Pete decided to hang 'em up, but he did it for the right reasons," said Stenholm. "He is a great father and family man. I can recall his concern about his separation from his family. That is the mark of a good man to me."
Geren was raised in Texas and attended college and law school at the University of Texas-Austin.
He said he and wife Beckie and their three daughters are headed back to the Fort Worth area, probably at the end of the Bush administration.
"Most of our family lives in the same zip code," he said. "We're a very close family. That's what we miss the most. ... My kids think spending time with their cousins in Texas is as close to heaven as you can get."
Misses Texas food
Like a lot of Texans transplanted to the East Coast, Geren jokes that he misses decent barbecue and Mexican food. He can solve that problem when he gets back at the Railhead Smokehouse, a restaurant owned by his brother Charlie, a Texas state legislator.
His brother gives discounts to uniformed military, which has given Geren even more cachet with the troops.
"One time in Iraq, and another time in Afghanistan, I met airmen who were really impressed that my brother owned the Railhead," he joked.
Geren's children would like to be back in Texas already, he said, but they understand the need to stay in Washington for now.
"One of our kid's cousins went to Iraq in the Army. We say to our kids, 'The country is at war, your cousin is in Iraq, and we've got to to anything we can do to help him,' " he said. "Any inconvenience we as civilians entail pales to what they have taken on."
February 11, 2007
By Michael Hedges, Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Through tinted windows in his Pentagon office, former U.S. Rep. Pete Geren occasionally can see the burials of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan unfold on the slopes of Arlington Cemetery.
"Funeral after funeral, many of them right there," the tall, soft-spoken undersecretary of the U.S. Army said as he pointed across a highway to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier amid a vast crop of white crosses.
"And then you go out to Walter Reed (Army Hospital) and see those (injured) young men and women and their families. And you realize how amazing it is to have people who are willing to do so much."
The sacrifice by active duty military soldiers has inspired Geren through long days that have stretched into years, keeping him at the Pentagon and away from his Texas home longer than he intended.
"We planned to spend three years, through the first term," said Geren of the decision to uproot his family and come to Washington at the bidding of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who offered him a post early in President Bush's administration. "We thought it would be a great experience for our kids."
Under attack
Geren, who represented the Fort Worth area in Congress as a Democrat for eight years until 1997, started working at the Pentagon in September 2001 — exactly one week before the terrorist attack there.
"I was down in a (Pentagon) breakfast with Secretary Rumsfeld when he got the word that an airplane had crashed into a building in New York," Geren said. "Then to have the building you were in hit. There was an air of unreality to it."
Geren recalled feeling a dull thud, then seeing a huge column of smoke rise over the Pentagon during the initial evacuation. After that, the images became striking and surreal.
"I saw people pushing baby strollers and cribs out of the child care center," he said. "We still didn't know exactly what happened. There was an officer working in here who had big, bloody handprints on his blouse, apparently from helping somebody."
Since 9/11, Geren said, he has found his commitment to staying at the Pentagon intensify.
"There really is a bond that you feel working in an environment like this," he said. "The example that the uniformed military, seeing all that they do, it draws you in. It's hard to leave."
Three Pentagon posts
Geren, 55, has held three different Pentagon posts, culminating in his present job, where he holds a critical responsibility for assuring the well-being of the Army.
"My job is not particularly well-understood by people," said Geren. "We've got to supply the troops. We've got to recruit them, we've got to train them, make sure they've got the equipment that they need. If something gets broken, we've got to fix it. So, it is really the business side of the war effort."
Critics in Congress and the Washington think tank world have called the Army overstretched or even broken by Iraq and Afghanistan.
Geren conceded the strains but dismissed talk of a broken Army.
"I don't know what the term means, frankly. The Army is performing. It is doing what it is being asked to do," he said. "Is the Army stressed? It absolutely is ... and somebody might say, on paper, it is broken. But the soldiers always respond and get it done."
'Step up to the plate'
Asked if the so-called surge of an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq would complicate his job, Geren said that, after talking with top U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus, he is convinced it is the right policy. "There is no doubt it is stretching the system," he said. "It is asking a great deal of our families, but Army will step up to the plate."
Part of Geren's role is outreach to Congress. While in Congress, he advocated for military weapons programs like the F-16 Falcon and the V-22 Osprey, both built in Fort Worth.
A colleague from those days, former Texas Rep. Charlie Stenholm, said Geren was an effective and conscientious legislator.
"It was a great loss when Pete decided to hang 'em up, but he did it for the right reasons," said Stenholm. "He is a great father and family man. I can recall his concern about his separation from his family. That is the mark of a good man to me."
Geren was raised in Texas and attended college and law school at the University of Texas-Austin.
He said he and wife Beckie and their three daughters are headed back to the Fort Worth area, probably at the end of the Bush administration.
"Most of our family lives in the same zip code," he said. "We're a very close family. That's what we miss the most. ... My kids think spending time with their cousins in Texas is as close to heaven as you can get."
Misses Texas food
Like a lot of Texans transplanted to the East Coast, Geren jokes that he misses decent barbecue and Mexican food. He can solve that problem when he gets back at the Railhead Smokehouse, a restaurant owned by his brother Charlie, a Texas state legislator.
His brother gives discounts to uniformed military, which has given Geren even more cachet with the troops.
"One time in Iraq, and another time in Afghanistan, I met airmen who were really impressed that my brother owned the Railhead," he joked.
Geren's children would like to be back in Texas already, he said, but they understand the need to stay in Washington for now.
"One of our kid's cousins went to Iraq in the Army. We say to our kids, 'The country is at war, your cousin is in Iraq, and we've got to to anything we can do to help him,' " he said. "Any inconvenience we as civilians entail pales to what they have taken on."