Audio Moose Lake grieves, and reflects on Iraq (story audio) Photos Moose Lake Veterans Park Gerry Gobel and Greg Gamst Caleb Jeffers View full slideshow (7 images) Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Moose Lake grieves, and reflects on Iraq
by Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio
April 8, 2004

A sign at Moose Lake High School salutes Moy Langhorst, who was killed in Iraq. (MPR Photo/Stephanie Hemphill)

People in Moose Lake are grieving the deaths of two of their own, in the Middle East. Two recent graduates of Moose Lake High School died overseas in the past month. But the anguish and sadness about the deaths doesn't seem to be changing many people's minds about the war.

Moose Lake, Minn. — Moises Langhorst was killed Monday near Fallujah in Iraq. Last month, Matt Milczark died of a gunshot wound in Kuwait. The two were friends; they'd enlisted in the Marines together. They were active in high school and church, and nearly the whole town knew them.

At Art's Cafe, another pair of old friends meet up. They've known each other for years, and they're still friends, even though they have very different views about the war.

Gerry Gobel is a retired union executive.

	Gerry Gobel and Greg Gamst

"I strongly support the war effort," he says. "The whole community is devastated over the death of Matt and Moy, no doubt about that. But I strongly support the war effort. I support the war in Iraq. Should we stay the course and win that, I think it'll change the face of the Middle East forever and ever."

Gobel's friend, Greg Gamst, runs the local bowling alley. He says he voted for President Bush, but he's deeply disappointed in the president's policies.

"I'd like to see the troops pull out of Iraq," he says. "I think it's a no-win situation. At first I was for it, and now I'm really kind of against it, not just because of our two boys from Moose Lake, but all the innocent lives that are being destroyed because of this war, and I don't know what the gain is. I don't know if it's a war that we can ever win."

Everyone seems to know everyone else at Art's Café. Cheryl Fitzgerald waits on table here. Her other job is with the local ambulance service.

"I'm working so hard to save lives, I just hate to see our boys go over there and get killed," she says. "I just don't like it but that's just because I'm crushed by what's happening to our community. There's a lot of kids running around here that are in shock and tears, they're horribly upset and don't know what to make of it. And we have more boys that are going in in June, they enlisted a year ago, and they probably don't know what they're in for."

	Caleb Jeffers

At the hardware store, Caleb Jeffers stops in during his lunch break. He played football and ran track with Moy Langhorst. But he says his friend's death hasn't changed his view of the war.

"Because now we're involved, and we can't just leave," Jeffers says. "The situation would get worse if we just left, so I believe we have to stay there until the end now. And Moy died fighting for what he believed in."

Outside the high school, another classmate, Brandon St. George, disagrees.

"I don't think we went there to get Saddam out, I think we went there to get the resources from them," he says.

	Brandon St. George and Shawn Bigelow

St. George says he's sad about the deaths of his fellow-students. "I didn't know either of them personally but I've seen them around, and I don't think it should have happened. I think Bush should take the troops out of Iraq as soon as he can."

St. George says he opposed the war from the beginning. So did Candace Kirkedahlen. She says it reminds her too much of an earlier, unpopular war.

"As I hear of more and more losses, and certainly the ones closer to home are more heartwrenching," she says. "And having been there during the Vietnam time, and how much same this feels, wanting to honor the troops and why they're there, but believing that we're there for wrong reasons." But war is inevitable, according to Lois Duffy. Her husband fought in Korea, and her son-in-law served in Vietnam.

"These two young men, who are very brave, lost their lives, and we've got to honor them," she says. "There's a deep sadness about what's happened. But we have to go on, we can't give up"

At least one other young man from the Moose Lake area is serving in Iraq now, and several more will be enlisting after they graduate in June.

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