Veterans take their war views to the trail

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - Joshua Denton steps onto Aldrich Road for his first day canvassing for Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards. He carries campaign literature in his Army-issued green canvas map case and wears a bracelet etched with the name John L. Hartman, a comrade killed in Baghdad on Nov. 30, 2006. Denton returned from Iraq in August, moved to Portsmouth in September, and a few days later volunteered at Edwards's local headquarters.

"I have a tough time trying to figure out why I'm alive and so many people aren't," says Denton, 25, an Army captain on leave before his scheduled discharge next month. "I've known plenty of good people who've been killed over there, and it's not worth it."

Denton, who helps the Edwards campaign when he's not working at Banana Republic, is among a small cadre of Iraq veter ans aiding candidates in New Hampshire's presidential primary. Some came home convinced the war can and should be won, and some lament what Denton calls a "lost cause." Informed and impassioned by their wartime experiences, they aid candidates whose views on Iraq mirror their own.

Though few in number, they are the face of what could be an important force in this small New England state. Together with their brothers and sisters in arms who informally share their opinions around kitchen tables and water coolers, they are the eyes and ears of a controversial war. Campaigns covet those with the time and inclination to work for a candidate. Indeed, the day may come when this divisive war produces veterans-turned-politicians of its own. "You really don't have to look very far to find someone affected by the war in a state like New Hampshire. These are communities where people know one another, and if you're a military mom or a military spouse, or an employer of a soldier your life is completely changed by that reservist's service and it has a ripple effect throughout the community," says Jennifer Donahue, senior adviser at Saint Anselm College's New Hampshire Institute of Politics. "When a veteran speaks who's been in this war, everybody listens. I've seen people change their minds when they've listened to a veteran. It's a very persuasive voice to have in your corner."

Brad Newbery, a Concord firefighter and part-time carpenter, is an ex-Marine sergeant who led a squad up the Euphrates River in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. A decal on his Ford pickup says "Freedom is never free." Newbery helps Senator John McCain's bid for the Republican nomination for president by writing newspaper opinion pieces and appearing on radio.

"I definitely see things differently now. I realize how important life is, and I realize how important the guys over there are and what they're giving up," says Newbery, 26. McCain's mantra - "I'd rather lose an election than lose a war" - resonates with Newbery. "A lot of brave people have died for it, and it would be a shame for it to go to waste," he says.

The campaigns of Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Dennis Kucinich all have at least one Iraq veteran lending a hand in New Hampshire. Former senator Mike Gravel, an afterthought in the polls who would immediately withdraw from Iraq, travels with the outspoken antiwar veteran he hired as head of security. On the Republican side, McCain - Vietnam veteran, former prisoner of war, father of two sons in the military - counts more Iraq vets among his New Hampshire volunteers than do his rivals. "His family's not too good to fight this war," says Newbery.

Newbery returned from a war mission that capped a four-year career in the Marines. "It helped me define who I am, what I stand for," he says. Every winter he and some Marine Corps buddies visit the graves in Arlington National Cemetery of friends who didn't come home.

"The war weighs heavily on most people who were there, coupled with the fact that I have friends who've gone back for the fourth or fifth time, and I'm out working in this gorgeous state," Newbery says, nodding to the view of Mount Kearsarge from the house in Wilmot he's helping to build. "Even if I get one or two votes swayed," he says, "that's a lot of helping."

William Hopkins, a graduate student at Plymouth State College, returned in 2005 from war duty he still thinks of daily. Some men from his company, he says, are being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. "There are a few guys in prison because they couldn't readjust," he adds. Now the former National Guardsman tries to garner student support for Kucinich, who voted against authorizing the war.

"I've had to do some things that I would rather not have done. I've certainly had to put out quite a few rounds from a variety of different weapons on a variety of different occasions. I prefer not to go into detail," Hopkins, 26, says. "I don't want to see anyone else have to go through what I've been through without legitimate reasons."

Harold Naughton, a Massachusetts legislator from Clinton who supports Clinton, recalls being wooed, too, by the campaigns of Obama, Richardson, and Senator Christopher Dodd. The Army reservist returned from Iraq in 2006, after an eight-month tour with the Judge Advocate General corps. He lauds Clinton's efforts to increase funding for veterans' benefits. "These are life-changing events physically and mentally for the veterans who are returning," says Naughton, 47. "It's our obligation to recognize that sacrifice."

Naughton spoke recently on Clinton's behalf at several veterans' posts. "I talked a little bit about my experience in Iraq - why I'm proud of it," Naughton says. "We talked veteran to veteran. People almost compare notes on what your experiences were."

Navy veteran Charles Mooskian, 44, was one of 12 to 15 people who heard Naughton at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Pelham. "It was nice to hear from an Iraq vet," he says. "It's great that she's got guys like him out there."

Kurt Webber, 50, a former Army lieutenant colonel and West Point faculty member who helps McCain, retired in 2001 after 22 years in the military. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he volunteered to return to active duty and went to Iraq three years later to train the Iraqi army. In letters home posted online, Webber blasted "the idiots in Congress who are asking for a fixed withdrawal date."

"McCain is committed to succeeding there," Webber says. "The reason is we have accomplished a lot of good things there that the average American is not aware of."

Denton, a 2003 University of New Hampshire graduate who studied political science, says he registered 150 soldiers to vote in 2004.

Now he knocks on doors for Edwards, who proposes leaving Iraq within 10 months.

"I'm curious if at this point you have any one issue that's most important to you," Denton asks one voter.

"Well, yeah, the war is most important to me."

"I just got back myself," Denton says. "That's why I'm here, out campaigning."

Irene Sege can be reached at sege@globe.com.