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"I was fully supportive of it at first," he said. "It went from permissive to intense combat in a year a half. It caught me off guard."
The service men and women are some of the most directly affected by President George W. Bush's proposed surge of 21,500 U.S. troops which may be deployed to Iraq in the near future.
People who have served in the heart of the conflict, like Bowers, know first hand what a troop increase like the one Bush is proposing would mean for the war, and the troops fighting in it.
Bowers said an infantry increase would have been more effective earlier in the war and what's needed now are information specialists and intelligence groups to establish stability in Iraq.
Having served from January to September 2003 during the initial invasion of Iraq, Bowers traveled from Kuwait to Baghdad as a civil affairs official. He joined the reserve to help pay for college and attended GW after he returned from service. Bowers will finish his senior year at George Mason, the university he plans to transfer to this fall.
In addition to receiving serious wounds from combat, Bowers said that serving in Iraq made the conflict much more personal because of his interactions with Iraqi civilians.
"People see the numbers of them getting killed, but I put a face to each of those," he said.
In terms of the anti-war movement, Bowers said that the lack of support for the war can be difficult from a soldier's perspective.
"It's tough on morale, like it's all for nothing. But we are making sacrifices so that people can protest the war. It's rough to deal with, but it's what we're all about."
GW junior David Austin, who recently returned from Iraq, felt differently about troop support.
