There will be no more 17-hour truck rides through the hot Iraqi and Kuwaiti deserts for Eric Campbell.

The Marine corporal returned to Lawrence a week ago and will spend another week at the home of his mother, Laura Finan, before leaving again for Camp Lejeune, N.C.

“I’m really glad to be back,” Campbell, 22, said in an interview last week. The Free State High School graduate drove various vehicles in resupply convoys.

While Campbell can now relax without having to worry about his convoys being ambushed by Saddam Hussein loyalists, the same can’t be said for the Lawrence parents of Staff Sgt. Jon-Marc Thibodeau.

Joe and Sharon Thibodeau anxiously watch the news and await letters from Jon-Marc, who is with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division somewhere near Baghdad.

The Thibodeaus are well aware of the ambushes that have taken place against American soldiers and the rising casualty rate. A few of those casualties have been in the 101st. Joe Thibodeau admits he’s more concerned about his son’s safety now than earlier in the war.

“I think he’s been going out on patrols,” Joe Thibodeau said of his son. “I don’t want the soldiers to get complacent. It’s harder to tell who is friend and who is foe right now.”

Morale, at least among Marines, doesn’t seem to have suffered even as the ambushes have increased since May when President Bush declared major combat was over, Campbell said.

He thinks most of the Iraqis still welcome the Americans. He said it was evident from the people lining both sides of the roads as his convoy passed by.

Eric Campbell, of Lawrence, recently returned home from a tour of Kuwait and Iraq. Campbell serves in the U.S. Marines Corps.

“They’d give us the ‘V’ sign or thumbs up,” Campbell said. “They made it clear to us that they were glad to see us.”

Protests, rallies decline

In Lawrence, war protesters for months have held Saturday peace rallies in front of the Douglas County Courthouse, 11th and Massachusetts streets. But their numbers have steadily dwindled. On one recent Saturday it appeared there were at best a dozen protesters at the midday rally.

Likewise, little has been heard in recent months from those supporting the Bush administration’s decision to go to war.

On the same Saturday that saw only a dozen anti-war protesters at the courthouse, across the street to the north were two people holding up a sign saying “Bush in 2004.”

¢ Past local coverage of the war with Iraq¢ Past national coverage of the war with Iraq

Last Saturday, however, the anti-war group was considerably larger.

Get Saddam

Yet those who took part in the earlier rallies for both sides said the sentiments hadn’t changed. Don Dalquest, past commander of American Legion Post No. 14, 3408 W. Sixth St., said the guerrilla ambushes by Saddam loyalists were expected.

“Until they get Saddam Hussein this is going to happen,” Dalquest said. “We know that most of the Iraqi people support us.”

Local efforts to show support for the troops hasn’t stopped, Dalquest said.

The Legion recently obtained new bumper stickers that say “Welcome Home.” Legionnaires hope people will put them not only on bumper stickers but on trees, doors and windows to be seen by returning military personnel like Campbell.

The stickers can be purchased for 50 cents — enough to cover the cost of production — at the Legion.

Convictions strong

As for the war protesters, Allan Hanson, one of the leaders of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice, said he wasn’t sure what path the group would follow.

“It’s hard to tell,” he said. “We haven’t been emphasizing the rallies on Saturday.”

But coalition members are stronger than ever in their convictions that the war is wrong, Hanson said. He said they were buoyed by the fact that Bush’s claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq haven’t been substantiated.

The coalition may hold an event in conjunction with the July 20-22 dedication ceremonies for the new Dole Institute of Politics at Kansas University.

Hanson said he didn’t understand why the emphasis of the Dole dedication was on the fighting of World War II instead of the peace aspects, such as formation of the United Nations. The event will feature war re-enactors and the likely arrival in town of thousands of war veterans.

“Dole was recognized more as a leader in the Senate during the 1970s and ’80s,” Hanson said. “We’re just going to remind people that peace was an issue of great importance during and after World War II.”