Veterans explain on campuses why they serve

0 Comments | USA TODAY, December, 2007 | by Heather Collura

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The auditorium was packed and quiet as Marine Cpl. Sean Henry described how on his second tour of duty in Iraq, he met a family of 12 Iraqis in the city of Al Habbaniyah who were forbidden by local insurgents to leave their house.

They were not allowed to get food, go to school or even take an injured child to a hospital, Henry said.

By the end of his seven-month deployment, he said, the United States had gained control of the city and he could hear children running around and playing soccer.

"We really did make this place so much better when we came," Henry told a standing room only crowd of more than 500 students, staff, faculty and community members at Syracuse University last week. "Nothing can replace that."

Henry,...