`Real World' cast member leaves for Iraq on Sunday

`Real World' cast member leaves for Iraq on Sunday
By ERIN CARLSON –

NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan Conklin, the impish, guitar-playing merry prankster of this season's "The Real World: Brooklyn," was packing his guitar to head off to Iraq on Sunday.

The former cast member of the MTV reality show was feeling more than a little anxious. "I want to get this thing started, because the sooner I do it, the sooner it'll be over," he said Wednesday.

"I'm kind of just getting antsy with time."

He hopes to serve a rotation of just nine months.

The 23-year-old Gettysburg, Pa., native was on the front lines three years ago. He received his deployment notice while living in the "Real World" house. It was one of show's most poignant moments: His brother called with the news, and Conklin's emotional reaction ran the gamut from denial to disbelief to tears.

Conklin, who voiced his opposition to the war and participated in a Veterans Day parade on the show, touched the hearts of viewers who sympathized with his predicament.
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`Real World' cast member leaves for Iraq on Sunday

'The Real World': Ryan Conklin talks about getting called back to Iraq"

'The Real World': Ryan Conklin talks about getting called back to Iraq
07:46 AM PT, Mar 18 2009
"The Real World: Brooklyn's" Ryan Conklin is only 23, but he's preparing to serve his second tour of duty in Iraq. He first enlisted after 9/11, when he was just 17, and several times since has narrowly escaped with his life. He also experienced the death of a close friend.
On tonight's episode, Conklin will get the call back into action, which he describes as devastating. (He's scheduled to go back on April 15.) Last week, he phoned in from Camp Shelby, Miss., where he's training with other military members of the Individual Ready Reserve, to explain how he's adjusted to the unexpected situation and why he feels lucky to have been selected to be on the umpteenth iteration of an MTV reality show.

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Real World looks at real cost to warriors

Why is it that MTV seems to be doing the best job of showing the real cost of combat on our soldiers? How is it that this music station is doing the bulk of the heavy reporting when the "news" stations offer basically nothing? They are covering PTSD and TBI, but CNN and MSNBC have pretty much ignored it except for a few reports here and there but FOX has totally ignored it. Some of the other national stations, CBS, NBC and ABC have done some work on these two signature wounds but it seems as if I'm posting a lot more about what MTV is doing. They are putting the "real news" stations to shame and it's very telling of the audiences they reach. Most of the MTV viewers are deeply involved in what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as paying attention to what happens to our warriors when they come home. The rest of the nation is detached from all of it focusing on their own problems as if Iraq and Afghanistan are not worthy of their attention. Pretty appalling. I wish the others would finally wake up and notice that the men and women serving, paying the price have a great deal to do with the way this nation will be when they come of age and hold power in decision making. After all, that's exactly what happened after every war. The warriors kept serving but within the war rooms of politics instead of battlefields of foreign lands.

We have this generation falling apart. What Americans must understand is that as this generation of warriors falls down, they take with them the future of the next generation just as the Vietnam veterans came home and suffered in silence and their children carried the burden their fathers passed onto them.

Congratulations MTV for putting the spotlight once again on the plight of our troops and our veterans.