City couple read son's stories of war events

COLUMBUS - The map of Iraq is a huge one. Spread out, it covered the large kitchen table.

John R. Koopman pointed to where his son has traveled in the past month, starting in Kuwait at Camp Coyote, then heading north to Baghdad.

His son, John David Koopman, an embedded reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle, has written about the journey for the past several weeks.

"He's not at the front, but he's damn close," John R. said.

In an e-mail to the Telegram dated Saturday, John David said he and the Marine troop he's with are on the move constantly.

"So we stay busy and, I guess, that sort of takes your mind off things," he wrote.

Those things have moved John David close enough to watch the toppling of a Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad last week and to have been caught in an enemy ambush in which his Humvee driver with the 7th Marine Regiment was killed.

Death can become surreal in war, according to John David.

"I will say this, the more ugliness you see the less it affects you," he wrote.

"I didn't want to look at the first dead body I saw (although I've seen plenty as a reporter)." John David wrote. "But after a while, it's not that big a deal. Still kinda odd and I'd rather not look, but I do. Primarily because I think it's wrong to cover a war and not stare the ugliness in the face. I suppose that's a large part of my job, to convey that to readers."

His stepmother, Lucy Koopman, said John David has always assured her and her husband that he is safe.

"That is what he emphasized. 'I'm safe and I'm dirty," she said. "I'm fine."

The senior Koopmans live in Columbus. John David is a 1976 graduate of Howells High School. His mother, Greta Chleboun, lives in Clarkson. His wife is Isabel and they have an 8-year-old son, Jordi.

After serving a four-year tour with the Marines right out of high school, John David earned a University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism degree. He has worked for a Florida newspaper, the Omaha World Herald for several years, the Contra Costa Times in the San Francisco Bay area and the San Francisco Chronicle for about the last 11 years.

Earlier this year, after a week of training at Fort Dix, N.J., the 44-year-old reporter with a Marine tattoo on his left bicep left for Kuwait.

"As an embedded reporter, I see my job as being the eyes and ears of readers," John David wrote in the e-mail. "I'm not here to make judgments about war or fighting or the Marines. I just try to tell honestly what I see and hear, so people can know what's going on and make their own decisions about it. The embedding thing just makes it easier, and gives some of us more access to the Marines and soldiers and the fighting."

A week ago, John David's story in the Chronicle told about Marines fighting to capture a bridge leading into Baghdad.

"You can't hear an incoming artillery shell when it's headed your way. Aerodynamics and the properties of sound are such that there is little noise ahead of it. 'You never hear the one that gets you,' is an old adage among military men. ... The blast sent a white wave of heat over a brick wall, knocking down Marines who were waiting to advance on a key bridge into Baghdad. Hot engine oil and bits of flaming debris rained down."

In his e-mail to the Telegram, John David said he and the Marines he's traveling with don't get a lot of rest.

"Sleep varies. No one gets much. Sometimes two or three hours in a night, sometimes a bit more. All on the ground in a sleeping bag. Not much fun. I usually doze off once or twice a day in the back of the humvee."

Back in Columbus, the elder Koopmans keep track of him through e-mails, phone calls from John David's wife in California, the newspaper stories he writes and the television coverage of the war.

Last week, John R. and Lucy turned on their television and were surfing channels when a Fox News anchor said he'd be interviewing John David. That's when the Columbus couple learned about the close call he had during the ambush that killed John David's driver as the Marines were clearing out an area so other units could enter Baghdad.

"Well, I cried," John R. said. "He didn't put it in the newspaper, but he put it on national TV."

In today's online edition of the Chronicle at www.sfgate.com, John David writes about the young age of some of the Marines he is with.

"Some have baby faces, and some have pimples. They like Game Boy and fast cars. They're just 18 or 19 years old, fresh out of high school. And now they're members of an elite fraternity: combat veterans."

They belong to 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, a part of the Marine unit, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, that stormed into Baghdad last week and helped topple the statue of Saddam Hussein, John David wrote.

"The platoon has a lot of young guys in it. Just before the war started, 3rd Platoon was seriously undermanned. Kilo Company got a lot of new Marines, fresh out of boot camp and infantry school. They put them in the platoon and added some seasoned, veteran sergeants to help bring them along."

In Columbus, the Koopmans have a three-ring binder with copies of their son's stories. They are proud of him and his work.

"He's a hell of a writer," John R. said. "He can really write."

Reach Jean Wilson at 563-7542 or jwilson @columbustelegram.com