ALEX CHADWICK, host:
From the studios of NPR West, this is DAY TO DAY. Madeleine Brand is away. I'm Alex Chadwick. And coming up, the Texas primary on Tuesday, signs of change there, really big change.
First, central Texas, the sight of the largest active duty armored post in the U.S., Fort Hood. On average, two soldiers deployed from there have been killed in Iraq every week for the last five years.
Sure, for the election in many places and for good reason, it is still the economy, stupid, but around Fort Hood it's the war. From Killeen, Texas, here is NPR's Alex Cohen.
ALEX COHEN: Easy to tell that Killen is a military town. Most of the men here sport crew cuts, stickers in just about every size and shape that say support our troops appear on the back of many cars. Red, white and blue are the primary colors in Killeen and they decorate almost every poster, tablecloth and bar napkin at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post 9192.
Vets sitting at the bar were tight lipped about politics, but post commander and Vietnam veteran Guadalupe Lopez insists most of them feel like he does. They like Republican candidate John McCain.
Mr. GUADALUPE LOPEZ (Vietnam Veteran): I sort of went for McCain initially because of his service to our country. You know, he was a POW for many, many years.
COHEN: Lopez has stuck with McCain because he likes the Senator's position on immigration, and, Lopez says, he agrees with the candidate's stance on Iraq.
Mr. LOPEZ: My personal belief is that we've got to fight them over there. If we leave early out of Iraq and Afghanistan, they're going to follow us back to the States. I think we're doing a great thing there. It's just going to take time.
COHEN: But not every military man in town sees it that way, which is why some Fort Hood residents are turning to other candidates.
Representative RON PAUL (Republican, Texas; Presidential Candidate): ... properly. We weren't threatened. There were no weapons of mass destruction. It had nothing to do with 9/11. In those...
COHEN: Republican Congressman Ron Paul came last weekend to Killeen, where he called the war in Iraq a serious mistake. A few years ago a comment like that might have caused the audience to walk out. But heard now, his words drew standing ovations.
Rep. PAUL: Not seeing an end in sight, I would say it's time to come home. Time to come home.
(Soundbite of cheering)
COHEN: One of the soldiers applauding that sentiment was 28-year-old Kevin McKeegan(ph), who per military policy came to the political event dressed in civilian clothing.
Mr. KEVIN MCKEEGAN (U.S. Soldier): We just got back from Iraq. And it wasn't that I was against it then, but it doesn't seem to make any sense. There's really no end in sight, I don't think.
COHEN: Also in the crowd was a 22-year-old tanker named Brandon Yund. He also just returned from Iraq, his second tour. Yund says he has seen some improvement there, especially since the surge. But he too likes Ron Paul's plan to have U.S. troops focus on the border of this country rather than the border of Iraq.
Mr. BRANDON YUND: I don't think we should be in 100 different nations with hundreds of thousands troops all across the world. Maybe if we stop policing the world the rest of the world will police itself.
COHEN: I asked Yund if Fort Hood soldiers talk much about presidential politics.
Mr. YUND: It comes up every once in a while in idle talk, but we keep politics out of work kind of, because we've got to listen to the president no matter what.
COHEN: But that same policy doesn't necessarily extend to the wives and husbands of Fort Hood soldiers. In fact, one wife is calling on spouses to become more politically active.
Ms. CARISSA PICARD (Military Spouses for Change): Connor, what's daddy doing?
Mr. CONNOR PICARD (Child): Working.
Ms. PICARD: Working? What's he - where's he at?
COHEN: Carissa Picard is married to Fort Hood Medivac pilot, Canan. They have two young sons, Caleb and Connor. Canan is scheduled to head to Iraq in a few months.
Last spring, Carissa says, she started a group called Military Spouses for Change. The inspiration came about shortly after Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that tours of duty in Iraq were being extended from 12 months to 15.
Ms. PICARD: You know, all these spouses, they're all just complaining about that extension. They knew then that their husbands were going to miss Christmas, and that's when I realized there's this disconnect. There's this talk within our community, but that we're not taking all this talk, talk, talk to each other and we're not turning around and sharing that with the public, with the people who could exert influence on the elected officials.
COHEN: As a leader of a group she wants to keep non-partisan, Carissa wouldn't say which presidential candidate she's supporting. But she does want all spouses to be educated about the election. That's why Carissa launched a Web site listing all of the presidential candidates' positions on the war in Iraq and on veterans benefits.
Cindy Thomas is a member of Military Spouses for Change. She sees one candidate as a clear choice.
Ms. CINDY THOMAS (Military Spouses for Change): With Hillary, I do like her and everything, but for some reason I feel like we will not be out of Iraq soon enough. So I am throwing my cards in with Obama and hoping for the best.
COHEN: Cindy says she cares about issues like immigration, the economy, and health care too, but with her husband Tim on his third tour of duty, the war is the number one issue on her mind at all times. Cindy says being politically active and supporting Senator Obama doesn't always go over well in Killeen.
Ms. THOMAS: It's almost like if you speak outside the community you're betraying our community. And it's not like that at all. It's just, you know, for me what triggered it was that my stepson at 19 informed us that he is leaving college and he wants to join the Marines.
And to me it was like this light that said, oh my God, you know, our children are going to be fighting this war. And it's just a really bad time.
COHEN: So how crucial is this presidential election to you? How much do you...
Ms. THOMAS: Very crucial. Survival crucial for me.
COHEN: Cindy, Carissa and the other members of Military Spouses for Change have asked each of the remaining presidential candidates to personally meet with military families in Killeen. So far no candidate has taken them up on the offer.
Alex Cohen, NPR News.
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