Reservist to walk across Utah in push for troops withdrawal

Army reservist Sgt. Marshall Thompson hopes that taking a very long walk — from the top of Utah to the bottom of the state — will help bring home U.S. troops from Iraq sooner than later.

He's certain there is plenty of military backing for his cause.

"I think a lot more soldiers support a withdrawal than they will tell you," said Thompson, who returned home to Logan last month after serving a year in Iraq as a military journalist for the Army.

Thompson, 27, has purchased two new pairs of walking shoes for the estimated 500-mile trek. He'll start his walk Oct. 2 near Franklin, Idaho, and follow U.S. 89 south for most of the planned 26-day trip. His wife Kristen, daughter Eliza and his in-laws will be his support crew.

Thompson plans to maintain a diary of his trip on www.asoldierspeace.com.

The idea for the walk started during a church service just before Thompson left Iraq in August. Soldiers were being recognized for completing their deployment when someone stood up and said, "When you go home, don't forget about us," Thompson recalled. "He was almost in tears."

Thompson told himself he had to do "something." He was inspired to do his walk after reading about a man walking across the country to lose weight.

What Thompson really wants is for "the people" to order Congress to initiate a "responsible" withdrawal from Iraq. "If they have a mandate from the people, they'll have to do something," he said.

Thompson is inviting people to walk with him and is hopeful for public support in one of the country's "reddest" states, which he notes has harbored more support for President Bush's plans in Iraq than most places in the United States.

"If we could show that even people in Utah support the withdrawal of troops, then that would be the last straw," he said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington are using phrases like "cut and run" and "stay the course" to make their arguments for what to do in Iraq, Thompson said. And when Bush says something about how troops will stay until the United States wins the "war on terror" in Iraq, Thompson would like to know what that means.

"We were just trying to survive over there," he said. "Does that mean winning?"

Thompson noted that Utah has one of the lowest per capita rates of troop deaths in the country, which he said makes it harder for Utahns to connect more personally to the war. Since 2003, 18 Utah military members have died in Iraq, including two last month.

"Unless it happens personally," he said, "it's hard to remember the cost of war."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com

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