AP Interview: Capitol Hill aide and Iraq vet times two

March 4, 2006

WASHINGTON - Nineteen months in Iraq spread over two tours of duty. Two Bronze Stars. The commander of 15 pilots who himself flew some 600 hours in a combat theater in a single year.

"We were shelled quite frequently," Maj. Jerome "Jerry" Clarke recalled of his most recent time in Iraq, stationed about 40 miles northwest of Baghdad. "Some days we wouldn't be shot at, at all. Some days we'd get shelled three or four times a day."

With that kind of experience on his resume, Clarke is the kind of person some folks might try to lure into politics.

Forget it. Clarke is already a political veteran and chief of staff to an Illinois congressman.

After his second tour, he returned to work Feb. 21 overseeing the business of a sprawling congressional district for Republican Tim Johnson and was even invited to brief House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., on conditions in Iraq.

Clarke went to war as a supporter of U.S. involvement in Iraq. He's even more devoted to the cause now.

"After seeing the Iraq people and what they were going through, I'm absolutely convinced that they are better off today, with the fact the U.S. went to war in Iraq and then stayed," he said. "I feel that we need to stay until a time when the Iraqis can feel secure on their own."

Clarke is a respected former policy director for Republicans in the Illinois House and a member of the Republican State Central Committee. Clarke was campaign manager for then-Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan when he won the GOP's 2004 gubernatorial primary.

He's also a pilot in the Army Reserves. He has served 21 years in the military, first in the infantry and for the past 16 years as a pilot.

Clarke, 40, first served in Iraq from March to October of 2003. He was assigned to a unit as an airspace coordinator, helping determine where the aircraft in the unit were supposed to be while in flight during their mission.

The second time he was called up, it was with his own unit to command - C Company, 2nd Battalion, 228th Aviation Brigade, based at Fort Bragg, N.C. He served for a year, ending just last month.

Clarke has been Johnson's chief of staff since January 2001. Johnson said losing him for such long periods has been difficult.

"We had to bite the bullet without him, but it was a small price to pay," Johnson said.
Clarke says there was no question about whether he would return to Iraq, even if he did have the political connections to avoid a second tour.

"That never even entered my mind, actually," he said. "I was the commander of the unit. How was the unit going to go without a commander?"

The second time, however, Clarke was married. His wife of one year, Lanae, a lobbyist for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, had only four months earlier given birth to their daughter, Madison Olivia. His only contact with them from Iraq was through the Internet or an occasional phone call.

Clarke flew an eight-passenger C-12 aircraft, a military version of the Beechcraft King Air twin-engine turboprop.

Clarke and his fellow pilots returned with no major injuries.

"I was shot at one time by a surface-to-air missile going into Baghdad International Airport," he said. "And, in our battalion, we had a couple airplanes that took quite a bit of ground fire and had to make precautionary landings."

But danger did not come just from flying.

"The place that we were living in, in Balad, got shelled a couple times, and they were very, very close," he said. "They hit some of the hootches around where we lived, within 20 or 30 yards."

For security reasons, Clarke declined to say what earned him his Bronze Stars other than "meritorious service." He stressed that much of the time his duty was just plain boring.

"You pick somebody up in Baghdad. You'd fly him someplace and you may sit on the ground six or seven hours and then fly him back," he said.

Lt. Col. Andrew Doehring worked with Clarke in Iraq and noted that Clarke won an Achievement Air Medal for eluding enemy fire on one flight.

"He was very mission-oriented. He wanted to fly every mission that came," Doehring said.

Clarke and his unit flew generals of the United States and other coalition partners as well as visiting dignitaries. The pilots were in and out of 19 countries in the Middle East region and Europe during their 12 months there, Doehring said - adding that the unit flew more transportation missions in 12 months than the two previous units over a combined 24 months.

One thing Clarke saw from flying regularly was the methodical progress that is coming to Baghdad, with more electricity running and more lights dominating the sky each passing night.

"A lot of people in Iraq never had any electricity or running water and now they are getting basic things they need to survive," he said.

"I would say at least 70 percent of the people in Iraq to 75 percent are happy and thank God every day that we're there," he added. "I'd say another 15 percent of the people are indifferent; they could go either way. Then you get 10 percent of the people shooting at you, and a lot of the insurgents are not Iraqi - they're from different countries."

He argues that setting a timetable for American withdrawal would not be appropriate, given that the United States has lost some 2,000 soldiers and victory has not been achieved. "Why would we do that in vain?" he asked.

On whether he might take what he has learned to make a run for some elective office, Clarke did not rule it out.

"I guess never say never," he said. "We'll see how it goes."