Trying to make ‘real world’ sense of the Iraq war experience

Susie has three apples costing six cents each. Johnnie has two oranges costing ten cents. What is the total cost for their purchase of both apples and oranges?

“Mommy, can you check my answers to see if they’re right?” Matthew asked.

Simple third grade word problems designed to practice multiplication and addition in real world scenarios seemed challenging for me tonight. I did OK in school, but math was never a favorite subject of mine. Thankfully, most problems usually made sense, at least conceptually. I could understand and appreciate the reason for the exercises because there was a real-world connection. There were always a few word problems, however, that seemed incomprehensible and unsolvable using the information given. It always seemed like there was a key piece of information missing. You know the ones: “If a train leaves Chicago at 7:14am traveling at 58 miles per hour...”

A CH-46 helicopter lands near a field hospital and mortuary unit at an American base in Iraq. RIH photo/Sherri Snively

I was pleased that my eight-year-old son zipped through the page of simple word problems with ease, and I recalled my own childhood word problem homework. I got lost in my own thoughts, remembering word problems from years ago and then musing on recent ones. Matthew shook my shoulder and with just a little whine of urgency said, “Mommmeee, check my work.”

Refocusing to the present, I read each one. But my thoughts soon wandered again, and the word problems got me thinking: Math problems mirror life. The problems are easy, relatively speaking, in third grade, but they get harder as the years progress. The third grade problems are challenging for third graders, but the children learn and build skills so they can do the ones in fourth, fifth, sixth grade and beyond. I looked ahead to being the parent of a middle schooler and then a high schooler and thought about having to check THAT homework. I’ll have to review and brush up on my skills before I’m ready for that. The good news is, I have a little time. The other good news is that maybe Matthew will learn it by re-teaching me.

I returned to the present again and said, “You did a great job. You got every one right, and you did it so fast!” Matthew beamed, obviously pleased not only at his performance, but also because it got Mommy’s attention. Active duty and mobilization have made that scarce over the last couple of years.

I smiled back, a sort of mischievous smile. He saw it and asked, “What?”

I hesitated for a moment and then decided to go ahead and ask him my word problem. He’d heard the story once before, so it wouldn’t be a total shock to him. But it is one of those puzzling, mind-bending, nearly unsolvable word problems.

“Okay, I have a word problem for you,” I said. “But it’s a little harder than the ones you just did and I haven’t figured out the answer yet. Maybe we can solve it together.”

He smiled and said, “Okay.”

So I went on, “Okay, ready? It goes like this…”

It’s about midnight, a clear, cool, moonless night. Staff Sergeant Rivera and Lance Corporal Alden of the Personnel Retrieval and Processing unit pull up in their tired old vehicle, some kind of green mongrel crossing a truck with a van. The transmission is persnickety but they’ve been lucky tonight – the old beast cooperated, although it complained all the way to and from the flightline. You never want a breakdown either way. The helicopter crew cannot be left waiting; they drop their packages and quickly go. They have people to meet and places to go. On the way back a breakdown is no better because the packages in the back of the vehicle must be processed, refrigerated and sent on as quickly as possible. So, back at the building Lance Corporal Beam and Corporal Sweet meet the truck/van and help carry the delivery inside the old concrete bunker.

Inside, the bright lights and warm heater defend against the winter cold. The Marines lift one heavy black body bag onto the simple wooden table. They unzip the zipper around the length of the bag and fold the flap back, exposing the entire contents. Here are their word problems, the ones for which they’ve been training since the third grade:

Inside the body bag they find 1 torso, 5 feet (3 left feet and 2 right), 3 hands (2 right and 1 left). What is the minimum number of American flags Corporal Barnes should iron and prepare? What is the maximum number of reports Lance Corporal Gerlach will fill out tonight? Earlier in the day, Corporal Moody prepared 4 transfer cases with flags neatly and tightly stretched across the cold aluminum covers. Will this be enough for tonight? “March 1985” is the manufacture date stamped on a transfer case. Which is older, the transfer case or the 19-year-old lance corporal now lying in it?

Most word problems have multiple parts. In order to solve them I remember isolating the parts, taking notes in the margins of the page, and realizing that some information is extraneous and is not helpful in solving the real question. Sometimes the challenge is to find what the question is really asking without getting lost in the weeds of detail.

The mathematical questions posed by these word problems are solvable. The other questions that arise are solvable only to a point. Who will now get the awful news? A mother, a wife? Where are they?

Who’s who? Which parts go to whom? Those questions do get answered, and answered amazingly fast. People need to know, and so other people who care, fellow Marines and others who work with them, provide technical skill and compassion to help find answers and closure in a difficult situation.

There are other questions, however, that the word problems pose. Why did this lance corporal die now? Why here? There are so many answers…and really no answers at all to these questions. Yes, word problems are more challenging to me than ever before, and I can’t figure this one out. Maybe you are better at word problems than I – can you solve it?

(Sheri Snively is a Quaker Chaplain in the Naval Reserve who splits her time between California, Prescott Valley, Alaska – and Iraq.)