Mission: Afghanistan Recovery—Part 1

War has a way of shaping generations. World War II drained Grinnell of its civilian men and spurred the College to offer military training to its remaining students. Vietnam triggered protests and brought about the end of the campus Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program.

The Afghanistan war, our nation’s longest, illustrates the diversity of Grinnellians’ service before, during, and after conflicts. Some enlisted in the armed forces. An award-winning photographer documented the conflict. Others helped with redevelopment planned for post-war Afghanistan.

Sarah Purcell ’92, director of the Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights, and history professor, says Grinnellians are diverse in their approaches to issues, including war. She regularly hears from students who want to pursue military careers. At the same time, a larger number frequently protested the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at the height of those conflicts.

For a handful of Grinnellians who served or worked in Afghanistan, the war provided insight into global conflict, an opportunity to serve, and a doorway to personal and professional growth.

As the United States brings its armed forces home and prepares for a post-combat era, we examine their perspectives.

The Journalist

Robert Hodierne ’68 serves from behind a camera lens. Originally a member of the class of 1967, he took a year off to work as a freelance photographer in Vietnam before returning to graduate.

He took up photography in the ’60s. Eventually, he worked for the armed forces newspaper Stars and Stripes while enlisted in the Army, then for a series of print, online, and broadcast news organizations — often with a military or defense focus.

“Through all of this, I developed a concern for the well-being of the young people we send to fight our wars,” Hodierne says. “When President Obama announced his Afghanistan surge, I came up with the idea of following the units that were being sent.”

The Marine Corps allowed Hodierne to film a platoon in Camp Lejeune, N.C., and then to follow the troops to Afghanistan and back. He had a full view of military service many of us don’t get. He learned of the dedication of those who serve in dangerous and challenging conditions.

Hodierne’s platoon went to Helmand Province, and he followed them through remote villages that lacked electricity.

“It was primitive beyond belief,” he recalls. “There was no electricity. I don’t think there were even any radios in the village.”

Hodierne had witnessed rural isolation and poverty during his earlier travels in Vietnam. Those southeastern Asian communities five decades ago had higher literacy rates and more access to the outside world than the Afghan villages he visited in 2010.

The bulk of his time in Afghanistan was spent with American Marines, not the local population. He found them “quite remarkable young people.”

Hodierne told their stories in Afghanistan: The Surge, the documentary that emerged from his time with the Marines. Broadcast on more than 100 PBS stations, the work won top prize in the Military Reporters and Editors 2013 television journalism competition.

The Veterans

Tommy Jamison ’09 found that service sometimes means reflecting on one’s experience. He recalls traveling to a small base to speak with an Afghan National Army officer in 2013.

As a U.S. naval intelligence officer, Jamison was part of a detachment responsible for gathering information that U.S. military leaders used to develop operational plans. The Afghan officer did not want to talk.

“This guy was literally killing Soviets when I was in diapers,” Jamison says. “There was no disguising the inherent arrogance of us interacting as peers. I remember thinking, ‘I am way, way out of my depth here.’”

He was in for an education. Jamison says the lessons he learned in seven months at Bagram Air Base went beyond the facts he gathered for the U.S. Navy.

For all the resources of the United States and its NATO allies, Afghanistan still belongs to the Afghan people — and their involvement is key to any counterinsurgency efforts, he says.

“Afghanistan checked my sense of American political and military capabilities,” Jamison says. “With all the money in the world and the best of will, fundamental limits constrain what we can and can’t accomplish.”

As he spoke from his latest post in Guam, Jamison was preparing to leave the Navy to embark upon a doctoral program in history.

Lillian Tortora ’03, who entered Navy Officer Candidate School in 2007 after earning a master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown University, anticipates serving in the military a long time.

Tortora, like Jamison, works in naval intelligence.

She found her Grinnell liberal arts education an important influence in her career.

“There’s a lot of value in a liberal arts education, something many in the military tend to dismiss,” she says. “I think that spending those four years in Iowa gave me a better all-around perspective as a naval officer … and by making me more well-rounded, benefited me and, hopefully, the Navy.”

For Tortora, service meant getting the right information to the right people. “My job was to consolidate and coordinate information and intelligence from the battlefield and make sure it got to the people who needed it,” she says.

The Development Worker

A single class at Grinnell College helped set Margaret Orwig ’01 down a path she might never have anticipated.

“I remember taking Political Economy of Developing Countries with Eliza Willis, and that class changed how I saw the world,” says Orwig, who now owns and runs a research company with an Afghan partner. “To discover that a discipline existed to study the hows and whys of development — that set me on my current path.”

Orwig had worked at other firms that contracted for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) when she and her business partner identified a gap in the market — most contractors lacked in-depth local knowledge. In 2010, Orwig co-founded RSI Consulting.

RSI is a for-profit company, but its motives are idealistic, Orwig says. “We see our role as bringing real voices of rural Afghans to policymakers.”

Before starting RSI, Orwig lived in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, from 2008 through 2010. She later was based in Kabul, the country’s capital.

Living in the country for so long and working closely with Afghan-based colleagues has given Orwig access and experiences that many Americans never have, but she also remains intensely aware of security risks.

Friends and colleagues have been killed during her time working in the country, and kidnapping is a real concern.

“Afghanistan is a wonderful country, but in terms of culture and security, it is quite restrictive,” she says. “Anyone coming to Afghanistan must be ready and willing to live indoors and find their own sources of entertainment.”

Opportunities — and Cautions

Even as they consider the future of Afghanistan, Grinnellians who’ve spent time in the country say they see opportunities there for today’s students, as well as for older alumni. But they also urge caution. Hodierne says the risk of injury or kidnapping is significant in Afghanistan.

Grinnellians with an interest in international development and research can also find opportunities in Afghanistan, Orwig says. Her firm welcomes interns from the College and also provides remote work opportunities for people with an interest in the country.

“Our best-kept secret is that we regularly use Grinnell alums for our remote analysis,” she says. “Their reports often get kudos from USAID. The alumni network has been an amazing resource when we need top-notch analysis.”

Tortora says it is important for Grinnellians, and others, to serve.

“It’s dangerous for our society when a small percentage of people fight our wars,” says Tortora. “It creates a perception that wars are someone else’s problem… .”

Some Grinnellians are willing to boost that percentage, even if conflicts draw protests on the same campus.

“There are a fair number of faculty and staff who are veterans,” says Purcell, the Rosenfield director. “I also have a lot of students who have gone into the military. There are military recruiters who come and sit in the [Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center] and talk to students. Many faculty members have counseled students through going into officer candidates’ school and other types of military training.”

It’s a matter of service.