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By an MP in Iraq I
thought you’d might like to hear about how my Army Reserve MP
company is going to be the only OIF1 unit still in theater as
late as August 2004.
We mobilized at Fort Lewis,
Wash. on March 15, 2003. We arrived in Kuwait on May 20, 2003.
On June 4, I landed at Tallil Air Base. We stayed there until
December 6. From that date until April 10, our company ran
convoy security missions from Balad to Scania (approx 70 miles
south of Baghdad). We were told initially to expect a
six-month deployment. By July that had been changed to a
nine-month rotation. Then in late November 2003, we were told
that we would be here for one year “boots on the ground.”
During this time, we were
running convoys from Safwan, Kuwait, to Tallil Air Base. In
late November 2003 we also got word that we were to move north
into the Sunni Triangle (Balad). We took over this convoy
mission that carried us along the most dangerous road in
Baghdad (MSR Sword). Our company earned the nickname, “The IED
Company” because we had been hit so many times. Even the
Apache pilots called us that!
During this time, we suffered
three minor injuries to enemy action, and lost about 30 other
soldiers to medical conditions that were aggravated by the
climate, conditions, etc.
When we were four days short of
redeploying home (our advance party was at the Air Force
terminal), we received a call instructing us to stay put for
another 90-120 days.
When will they stop lying to
us? Will they extend us for another 120 days at the end of
this one? How do they plan on using us when we have no
equipment left (we signed it over to the infantry company
taking over our Balad mission)?
No one seems to know the
answers to any of these questions, but if the new job is going
to be guarding a prison camp, just how long would my men last
before they started beating the crap out of the people who had
tried to kill us? Oh wow, guess they never thought of that
question either?
Am I wrong for assuming that
Reservists and National Guardsmen are part-timers? How is it
that the active duty troops like 1AD were only doing six-month
rotations while we are doing one year? If so then, why did all
of the active-duty units we saw coming in behind us leave
already? This it seems to me is completely backwards from
logical thinking.
It is an interesting side note
how the “active duty” (read garrison MP) can’t learn anything
from a lowly reservist, but then they lose soldiers during
their first month of operations, can’t find competent soldiers
to run emergency relay stations (using cooks that can't read a
map), and cause accidents by closing down 6-lane MSR's while
their patrol changes a flat tire on a truck.
Well at this stage my men can
only take so much abuse and contract-breaking from the Army.
You can rest assured that any retention issue that arises
after the return of these fine troops rests with the highest
levels of the command structure in Washington, D.C.
I have 1-1/2 years to go for my 20-year letter, I almost
expect to be here in Iraq the entire time.
Editor’s Note: The identity of the soldier
has been withheld by
Defense Watch
Our
American Casualties - The Fallen In Iraq
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