As a theatre and drama major, UW-Madison senior Ricky Berlin spends much of his time working as a stage electrician, programming lighting fixtures to make for a perfect performance. But just three years ago, Berlin found himself center stage in a very different scene - as a member of the U.S. Army securing sites of suicide bombers in northeastern Iraq.
When you're knee-deep in violence like that, it personifies the things that you see on the news and it makes you realize how bad things really are,"" Berlin said. ""It's a lot more than just a 30-second news clip.""
On a campus with about 500 student veterans, Berlin is just one of them who feels his civic duty extends beyond his tour of duty overseas. With the presidential election rapidly approaching and the war in Iraq a particularly hot-button issue, many student veterans are anxious to hit the polls and make their voices heard.
After graduating from Marinette High School in Marinette, Wis., in 2001, Berlin joined the Army to help pay for college and served in the Iraq War for 14 months from 2004 to 2005. Berlin, now 26, said he aligns his political beliefs with those of the Democratic Party - an affiliation he proclaimed long before he experienced the war firsthand.
""My political views [didn't change after fighting in Iraq] because I was a Democrat before, but my outlook on life did,"" Berlin said.
After experiencing some of the most gruesome bloodshed of the Iraq war, Berlin said his beliefs about bringing the troops home intensified. He said he feels the United States is fighting cultural differences rather than making progress in stopping terrorism.
""It's my belief that what we're doing over there is just killing a lot of people but not solving any problems,"" he said. ""Things didn't change from the time I got there to the time I left.""
Berlin said he supports Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's policy of ending the violence in Iraq and withdrawing troops over a period of time. By transitioning the United States' efforts from a military campaign to a political one, Berlin said he thinks the troops can help the war-torn country rebuild itself on their way out.
""The people that hold together an economy are your white-collar workers like teachers and doctors '¦ and all those people have fled, so we need to start up infrastructure to bring them back, because that's the only way we're going to stabilize that country,"" he said.
Experiencing the effects of war does not always produce the same political outlook on the war. Take 31-year-old Michael Trepanier, a student veteran in his second year of law school at UW-Madison. A 1996 graduate of Fond du Lac High School in Fond du Lac, Wis., Trepanier describes his political views as moderate but said he is leaning toward supporting Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the election, mainly because of McCain's stance on the war in Iraq.
While serving as an Army nuclear biological chemical specialist in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, Trepanier said he experienced one of the bloodiest months of the war and that it was ""random luck"" he was the only person in his unit who did not kill anyone.
Despite the atrocities of war he encountered, Trepanier said he is opposed to Obama's plan of pulling the troops out of Iraq and instead favors McCain's approach of staying until a U.S. victory is declared.
""It's like drawing up a football play and telling the other team '¦ It's a bad strategy to sit there and draw timelines,"" he said of Obama's war policy.
Trepanier said his direct experience with Iraqi citizens made him realize there are Iraqi citizens who appreciate the U.S. presence - an aspect of Army life he feels is distorted in the media. He said staying in Iraq until the war is won is the most effective way to continue to help the Iraqi citizens who need it.
""Just leaving right now while not figuring out what it is that has created less violence now I think would be a travesty, because it's possible we could be on the verge of creating a lasting peace there,"" Trepanier said.
Political differences aside, student veterans agree the upcoming election is a monumentally important one for America. For those who have seen the chaos and carnage of overseas combat firsthand, voting is a crucial part of sharing their experiences with a nation on the verge of change - something Berlin and Trepanier will both accomplish on Election Day.
