President Obama’s announcement that U.S. troops in Iraq will be home by the holidays hit home for thousands of soldiers and families across the country. After 8 years and 4,400 American deaths, the U.S. will completely pull out of Iraq by the end of the year, with the exception of a force remaining to guard some U.S. facilities in the country. The conflict in Iraq changed the definition of what it means to be a soldier in the U.S. military, and what it means to be a reservist. More reservists were used in combat and support roles in Iraq than ever before in history.
U.S. Troops to Leave by Year’s End: One Soldiers’ Mother Reacts Rossana Cambron, whose son, Army Sergeant Arturo Cambron, is currently on his third tour in Iraq, and John Kamin, who was in the Army when he was deployed to Iraq with the Louisiana National Guard back in March of 2010, both react to ending the war in Iraq.