Father, son find peace despite differences on war

Bob Law drives a cherry-red hybrid sedan. His son, Bobby Law, has a shiny, dark SUV, tagged on the rear with a Christian fish and a yellow "Support Our Troops" ribbon.

The elder Law reads The Nation and the Sunday edition of The New York Times and remembers his years in the Peace Corps. The younger has two sons himself, home-schooled for now, who will go to a private Christian school next year.

One is a Democrat who believes with all his heart that the Iraq war was a mistake. One is a Republican who says he doesn't know.

But this is reality: Bobby Law, 41, a U.S. Army major, got his marching orders.

He is headed to Iraq to serve a yearlong tour. And that's why one Winston-Salem father has tried to forget that his oldest son is going into a war zone. On Friday, Bobby Law was flying to Europe, then Kuwait, and would eventually make his way to Baghdad, courtesy of a heavily fortified Army bus called The Rhino.

The Rhino, muses his father, the Peace Corps alum. An interesting name. He just hopes that Bobby doesn't get shot. Or blown up. Or shoots anyone. Or blows up anyone.

"Some people are interested in saying, 'Hey, my kid's a hero,'" Bob Law, 72, likes to say in his brash voice. "But I'm not one of those people."

Bobby Law joined the Army right out of Reynolds High School. He spent his high-school years in the ROTC and vividly remembers a 10th-grade trip to Fort Bragg.

"I really spent my whole career trying to get to Fort Bragg," he said.

He didn't feel as though he was ready for college, but his father wanted him to have the option of going, so the Laws made the rounds, talking with different recruiters. The Army offered the best financial-aid package. In exchange, the Army wanted three years of service. It was supposed to be a means to an end - that's it.

Bobby Law graduated from Western Carolina University in December 1991. He considered law school, but he was still in the Reserves, and he didn't forget his Army years. He's not the type who craves the front line, but he likes the order, the structure, the fraternity of Army families, how he felt as though he was part of a larger machine.

That's where he felt he belonged. So he went back. He is with the Army's Special Operations Command, and in Baghdad he will help the Army sign contracts for construction equipment and other supplies.

His father takes some comfort in the fact that his son will be in the Green Zone, an area of central Baghdad that is considered one of the safest parts of the city.

Bobby Law has made a career in the Army. He spent a year in Korea and put in time in Germany and Saudi Arabia. Until now, he hasn't been to Iraq.

He's watched as friends have gone off for tour after tour. It's earned him a nickname among his wife's friends back home in Fayetteville - "Rent-a-Dad" - because he watches kids when another mom has to take a child to the hospital or run other errands.

Last week, he spent the days before he shipped out visiting family. His wife, Melissa, and his two sons, Jordan, 13, and Andrew, 11, stayed at his father's modern, light-filled house in the Robinhood Road-area. They saw the Tar Heels, their favorite team, trounce Eastern Kentucky and Michigan State whip Marquette in the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

They avoided talking politics, but they couldn't entirely avoid the elephant in the living room, as sun-filled and peaceful as it was that March afternoon.

"Have you known many people who have not gone?" Bob Law asked his son.

Bobby hesitated. "Ah, not a whole lot."

"I mean, you know, you read the papers yourself, you know, we're pressed for people," Bob Law said. "I mean, I don't know, but I would think that almost everybody has to go."

There's some part of Bobby that's relieved to go to that hot, dry, dusty and dangerous part of the world.

"I feel it's my turn," he said, buzz-cut and matter-of-fact and somehow still spit-and-polished even in a polo shirt, jeans and socks on his father's living room couch. "I don't feel bad about it all. I'm in the military. I'm called to serve, and when you're called to serve, that's what you should do."

But father and son at least can agree on basketball. And they have the same blue eyes behind their wire-rimmed glasses. And their mouths curve downward in the same thoughtful frown.

"I love my son very much," Bob Law said, "and I don't look for things that drive us apart."

• Laura Giovanelli can be reached at 727-7302 or at lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com.