Many of Omar Torres’ friends at The Ohio State University were opposed to the war in Iraq. But when he went to fight, they supported him and kept their reservations to themselves. Then, on August 22, 2007, Torres stepped on a homemade bomb, killing him instantly. His friends were devastated and angry.
His friends have not been moved to protest as young people were during Vietnam. “I used to have arguments about the war with Omar,” said Julian Valencia Suescun, a friend of Torres and current Ohio State student. Valencia went on, “I’m confused myself as to whether it’s respectful to protest in his name. I believe they practically brainwashed him, but I don’t think it’s fair to put words in his mouth.”
As the Iraq War drags on for the fifth year, college students have been actively helping their friends and strangers who served and were injured overseas. They hold memorial services for their peers who are killed, and help returning soldiers adapt to campus life again. But unlike students in the Vietnam era, they haven’t been quick to hold massive protests against the war. Political professors give many reasons for the lack of public outcry regarding the current war. But many students, including Torres’ friends, say they are worried that protesting the war means turning their backs on the troops fighting in Iraq. “I didn’t support the war before. But while Omar was overseas, I couldn’t say that because I felt it degraded what the soldiers were doing. So I’d just say, ‘I support the troops,’” said Alexandra Morales, Omar Torres’ girlfriend and sophomore at Ohio State. During the Vietnam War, spirited war protests dominated college campuses, and the peace message spread from there. But the message was interpreted as not only anti-war, but also anti-troops.
Omar Torres studied Political Science and Chinese and was part of the ROTC program at Ohio State. He decided to leave the National Guard and join the active army in late 2006. “He and his family are very social service oriented. His dad’s a firefighter, his mom works in the public schools... He wanted to be a politician,” said Valencia. “I said, ‘Graduate first – do it for your parents.’ He said, “No, they are my brothers over there and they’re dying.” Omar’s mother, Doris Torres, 48, was on the cusp of adolescence during the Vietnam War. She remembers her father watching it on the news. “They only had negative media,” the Chicago resident said. “It’s our responsibility to treat these soldiers better than the Vietnam vets were treated.”
That’s a realization Baby Boomers came by the hard way, said Chuck Underwood, president of the Generational Imperative, a consulting firm based in Cincinnati that studies the characteristics and differences of generations. “Baby Boomers learned a lesson - as an American citizen, it is your right and responsibility to protest loudly if you disagree with your government’s action in military combat, but you always, always support the men and women wearing the uniforms,” he said. Instead of protesting, students have been working to honor Torres and help troops who return.
In November, Torres’ friends at Ohio State held a memorial in his honor. They are raising money to buy books for the university library, where Omar Torres worked, with his name, story and photo on a plaque in each one.
For more information or donations, please contact Julian Valencia at
valencia.14@osu.edu
