Auggie's Video

View a video made in Iraq by Edward August "Augie" Schroeder

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Loss, urgency surround war in Iraq

Published April 27, 2006
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer

CLEVELAND - Rosemary Palmer and Paul Schroeder watch the last video their son sent home from Iraq before he was killed.

The 10-minute laptop video shows ``Augie'' and other Marines knocking down doors in Iraq, posing in groups and fooling around during time off from patrols.

``He's dead,'' Paul Schroeder says, pointing to a Marine on the screen. He points to another group of Marines: ``All those guys are dead.''

Augie sent the video in June. The 23-year-old lance corporal died Aug. 3, 2005, along with 13 other 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines when their amphibious assault vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.

Ever since, Schroeder and Palmer, both former newspaper reporters, have been voicing their views of the war. Palmer appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC.

And since the launch of their Web site in November 2005, Families of the Fallen for Change has been pushing a nonpartisan plan to withdraw troops from Iraq.

Edward August ``Augie'' Schroeder II graduated from high school in New Jersey in 2000 before the family moved to Ohio. He attended Ohio State University and later worked for Deluxe Corp. in Streetsboro.

He joined the Marine Reserves in 2002 and was sent to Iraq in January 2005 with other Marines from Lima Company in Columbus.

His father said he and his wife knew their son was opposed to the United States being in Iraq before he left for the war. But Palmer, a high school Spanish teacher, said her son enjoyed the first part of his tour and reported heartening encounters with Iraqi people.

After his unit took casualties, his views began to change. Schroeder, managing director of East-West Trade Development Ltd., recalled his last conversation with Augie: ``He said simply, `It isn't worth it.' ''

After his death, his parents spoke out at first on the way the war was being managed -- too few troops on the ground, they felt. Later, they sought a reasonable way out.

Their site advocates a withdrawal of U.S. forces as quickly as the situation on the ground permits it. It says each troop withdrawal should be followed by a decrease in military and civilian casualties before another withdrawal can take place. And it says U.S. economic aid for reconstruction should be tied to ``defined progress in Iraqi government protection of minority rights, power sharing and equitable distribution of oil revenues.''

After some national news media mentions of the Web site, the number of members jumped to 700 in one week. By April 2006, there were about 1,200 members, including 53 family members of fallen troops, Schroeder said.

The Web site includes a sample letter to Congress outlining the group's positions. It also links to a video tribute to Augie.

John C. Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said the site ``is a very good example of how Internet technology can influence politics.'' At a practical level, Green said, ``it means activists can be recruited and deployed more quickly and effectively than in the past.''

One of their supporters is Edie Deyarmin, mother of Lance Cpl. Daniel Nathan Deyarmin Jr. of Tallmadge, a Marine who was killed on Aug. 1, 2005. She complimented Schroeder and Palmer for the stance.

Another supporter is Betty Landrus of Madison, mother of Army Staff Sgt. Sean G. Landrus, who was killed in January 2004. ``The ideas put forth are sensible,'' she said. The proposal puts ``some of the burden of sending home our troops on the shoulders of the insurgents,'' she said.

But Peggy Buryj of Canton, mother of Spc. Jesse Buryj, 22 -- who was killed by friendly fire in May 2004 -- doesn't support the site. ``It must be sad for them to think that their son didn't die for a noble cause. But soldiers don't have an option.''

Buryj said there is ``probably never a good enough reason when you lose a son, but that was the job they chose. You have to respect it and the risks that go along with it.''

Schroeder said that after his son died, he never asked God why Augie had to die. He said he asked, ``What now?''

His wife said her faith has been greatly affected.

``As Christians, the story of God giving his son knowing his son was going to die and the fact that he could do that shows how powerful he is,'' she said. ``Because if I had known that we were raising our son only to have him killed in Iraq, I couldn't have done that.''

Schroeder said he feels the lives lost in Iraq, including his son's, have been wasted. But ``they did not die in vain if Americans remain strong enough to tell our leaders don't ever do this again,'' he said.

As Schroeder and Palmer continue to watch the video their son produced, the music playing is Social Distortion's Reach for the Sky.

``Reach for the sky 'cause tomorrow may never come,'' the band sings as the images of Augie and his fellow Marines, most of whom are dead, flash on the screen.

At the end of the video, Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World accompanies other images from Iraq.

``Everything has been moving forward to honor Augie,'' the Marine's father said. ``If he were here, he would be applauding this.''