‘Tough things to see’ | 20 years later former Georgia general reflects on Macon-based National Guard unit’s Iraq tour
Former Brigadier General Stewart Rodeheaver recalls the 48th Brigade’s 2005–06 Iraq tour.
EATONTON, Ga. — Twenty years ago, Brigadier General Stewart Rodeheaver led the 48th Brigade into Iraq. The Macon-based unit served in one of the war’s most dangerous sectors, facing massive roadside bombs and near-constant combat.
More than 5,000 Georgia National Guard soldiers went on that tour, but 26 from the 48th Brigade were killed in action. Rodeheaver says he still vividly remembers the sights and sounds of war.
“It’s both good and bad, brings back some memories,” Rodeheaver says. “We have people that we saw on the videos yesterday that did not come back and those are real tough things to see.”
He points to photos and footage from the deployment as reminders of both pride and loss.
“This is some of the fallen soldiers there. We were paying tribute to them,” he said. “That’s one of our artillery guns firing out there.”
Rodeheaver calls it a hard deployment, arriving at the height of the fighting.
“This was a real hard deployment because by the time we got there is at the height of all of the fighting and everything that was going on,” he said. “We had the, the fall and capture of Saddam Hussein.”
Two decades have passed, and he still catches himself reacting to those memories.
“You’re walking through a mall and all of a sudden you can’t stand crowds, you can’t stand cars that backfire. The Fourth of July is not a fun, happy time,” he said.
Despite the cost, Rodeheaver says their time in Iraq had positives.
“We shepherded the first election in our, in our territory,” he said. “We had everything from if you drew a line across the country from Syria to Iran through Baghdad, everything south of that line belonged to me.”
He says Iraq was his most challenging deployment, but he would do it all over again if his country called.
These days, Rodeheaver works in Eatonton. He owns Vizitech USA, which builds 3-D, augmented-reality and virtual-reality training programs for the military and schools.