\Unabashed patriot gets his wish to serve in Iraq
The Public Recruiting of Jon Alvarez
Everything Jon Alvarez has left is in a 10-by-16-foot shed that overlooks a pond full of bullfrogs in Hannibal. He cooks for two over a campfire -- the other diner is his yellow lab Sadiegirl.
He has no electricity, no running water. Just 54 acres and a plan to build a colonial up on the ridge of the hill when he gets back from Iraq.
Alvarez, the locally famous conservative, a hawk on the war, is finally leaving on the journey he begged to take four years ago. In August, he will be deployed with about 70 members of the 403rd Civil Affairs Battalion of the Army Reserves in Mattydale. The unit is heading to Iraq after two months of training at Fort Dix, N.J.
After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Alvarez went from a computer salesman who read the sports page to a man obsessed with patriotism. He was the guy who went to the peace rallies with his bullhorn. His public face was almost a caricature of the American patriot. He accused protesters of treason. He wrote two dozen letters to the editor in this newspaper, and dozens of others to papers across the country, about his support for the war and the president.
He ran a contest to build a papier-mache pig out of the Quran. It was advertised on his now defunct Web site (for PABAAH, Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood).
He ate from a bucket of chicken as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals picketed a Kentucky Fried Chicken. He hanged filmmaker Michael Moore in effigy. He was lampooned on "The Daily Show."
Alvarez's first letter to the editor was in response to one by Edwar A. Uceta Espinal. Espinal had just returned home from fighting in Iraq. The war was pointless, a "never-ending hell" created by a president who didn't know what he's doing. Alvarez responded: "I'll gladly take your place." At that point, Alvarez, then 38, had already tried to join, but he was too old. He'd written to Rep. Jim Walsh a few months earlier, asking for help to get into the Army.
Then his fate changed. There weren't enough other patriots willing to risk their lives for this war, so the Army raised its age limit from 35 to 39.
Alvarez went to basic training in the fall of 2005. His hearing problem kept him stateside. Then he received a waiver from the military, Alvarez said. In Iraq, his unit will work with the Iraqi people. It will repair water and electricity supplies and help train Iraqis as soldiers and police officers. And try to make friends out of a potential enemy.
The man staring down real war is different from the man who dreamed of fighting for his country. He squinted out into the sun, and threw a stick for Sadie, who was whining for his attention. He knows he will yearn for these days when he is his own boss on his own land with his dog.
"But they say time goes pretty fast," Alvarez said. You just hope you're busy, he says.
These days, Alvarez is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Prime Properties. He hasn't been to a protest since he joined up. His bullhorn, borrowed from a friend, has been retired. And he laughs when asked about the papier-mache pig. (No one was really going to do that, he says. He doesn't even know how to do papier-mache. He was just testing the hypocrisy of a news media that celebrates art that criticizes Christianity.)
Today's Alvarez says he's excited to go to Iraq. But he knows what it will cost him: His real estate business is finally moving, but he will have to turn over his listings and commissions to other agents.
And then there are the things that his dream has already cost him. His pursuit of patriotism became too much for his marriage of more than 15 years. He and his wife, Laura, separated this spring. They sold their house in Baldwinsville, where he ran for mayor on the promise that he would cut village government. He lost.
Jon and Laura bought the land in Hannibal together. They were going to build on it. But really, that was his dream. "Kind of like the Army," Alvarez said. He became someone different after 9/11. "We really went on two different paths," he said.
Laura Alvarez said she and their daughter, 19, were shocked when Jon told them he wanted to join the Army. "We didn't understand it," she said. He took the president's call for volunteering so seriously. She's had time to get over the shock of his enlistment. But Iraq -- that's entirely different. She and her daughter are scared for him.
"I'm proud of him for, I guess, stepping up and doing what he feels is right -- even though it was at a big personal cost," she said.
Alvarez is the grandson of Spanish immigrants. He grew up in Canton, Ohio, in a family where the ethic was work, not politics. He left home at 18 to live in Texas, where he worked as a liquor store manager before going to the University of Texas. He taught history before becoming a computer salesman.
"Are you nuts?" was his sister's response when she heard her baby brother was going to join the Army at 39. Sheri Dickerhoof also told him that she'll be praying for him -- and voting for Barack Obama, because she thinks he will end the war.
Dickerhoof, 10 years older than Alvarez, said he has always seen things in absolute terms, in black and white. If you say you are a patriot, you fight for your country. And once you say you're going to do something, you do it, she said. Even though it might cost you your business, your marriage. And even though the reasons behind the war might be crumbling.
Dickerhoof's secret hope? That the Army again decides her brother's hearing is too bad.
The absolutist who could stomach no criticism of the commander in chief no longer supports President Bush. He unenrolled from the Republican Party after he returned from basic training. The party has become too liberal. He's a man without a party.
He still writes letters to the editor -- the most recent one in April about the virtues of self-reliance in response to another letter about our country going down the wrong path. Some people ask if he will run for anything again. The answer is probably not.
Walt Filipkowski wondered on the editorial page whether Alvarez had the guts to enlist. He doesn't agree with the war or Alvarez. But there is something to be said for a man who follows through.
"I totally respect the hell out of him. He put his money where his mouth is," Filipkowski said when told about Alvarez's plans.
Now Alvarez's biggest worry is finding someone who will take care of his dog, Sadiegirl, while he's gone. Then he'll build that house up on the ridge. Maybe get some cattle. And Sadie will bring him sticks to throw in the pond.
A hawk circled overhead as Sadie dived into the pond after a stick.
"I just want to be in peace," Alvarez said.
Marnie Eisenstadt can be reached at meisenstadt@syracuse.com or 470-2246.
Frankly, it says a lot about the state of the military that he was allowed in' with his very public politics indicating a hatred for those who don't believe as he does- a serious liability for a job that brings in people from all walks of life.
PRFYNAFBTFCP
