Another Tour Done and On My Way Home!!!Sep 27 '06 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line "We Gotta Get Outta This Place....." (Title to a popular anti-war song during the Vietnam War). It's done, over, complete, fini, behind me! I get to leave this place and head back to the world and hopefully, even before getting home to the States, I'll be able to have a really obscenely rich meal, topped off by great big steins of German beer! I hope we fly into Germany on the way home. If not, I'll settle for Italy or just about anywhere else that doesn't have an active war going on. Say good night, Gracie, colonialpara has completed another event filled tour in the dirt and is headed home. I'm returning to the USA filled with a sense of wonder that I made it through what was a very trying tour of duty and this time, I did so without receiving a scratch. Along the way, I ate too many MREs (meals rejected by epinionaters), put up with constant gunfire and explosions, incredible heat, no choice in what clothes or colors to wear, the weight of a kevlar helmet and flak jacket, taking my M-16 and 9 mm pistol everywhere (including the john), not to mention one of the most riled up bunch of people this side of World Cup Soccer Finals. And hey, these folks were and are more lethal! Once again, I served alongside the Army's groundpounders and I went on too many patrols with them. But, that's my job and there's no point in complaining. And unlike Army troops, who will be rotating in and out of this truly God-forsaken place, I hope that I never have to come back. Twice was two times too many. For obvious reasons, one of which is that I am still on active duty (despite being a member of the Air National Guard), I cannot be too critical of governmental policy like the rest of the folks here who think W is the Anti-Christ. Rest assured, he's not. But I do think this war is going to tie us down for quite a while to come. I'm glad I'm leaving for other reasons, though. Some of them border on the downright silly and stupid and include the various local regulations and directives issued by military bureaucrats who have far too much time on their hands. One thing that rankled me was the REMFs who ran the chow halls. There were too many times that I'd come back off a patrol, especially one where a firefight ensued. When that happened, we were almost always covered with dust, dirt, smoke streaks and sometimes the blood of friendlies or the maniacs trying to kill us. Dining hall hours are generally posted, but like military dining facilities in the States, the hours are limited. Some of the folks with too little real work to do were employed 'stopping' real soldiers from entering the facilities in dusty/dirty uniforms. We'd be told by some low ranking PFC or Specialist or a civilian contractor that we couldn't enter unless we went back to our quarters, took a shower and got into a clean uniform. Well, if we did that, many times we'd miss the meal and have no choice but to go hungry. Some of the big offenders in this department were rear area Sergeants Major not associated with line infantry units, whose only concern was keeping the facilities neat and tidy rather than doing what was right by genuine, a$$ in the grass troopers patrolling in Indian country. Yep, I just love self-important military bureaucrats who spend their days trying to pick the fly-sh*t out of the salt shakers. Never saw any of them outside of the wire, but I knew more than a couple who wrote themselves and their cronies up for Bronze Star Medals as testament to their status as 'combat veterans of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.' On the other hand, I did have ample opportunities to write up for awards, the real heroes of this conflict. Care to guess who they were? Any ideas? Okay, they were the young soldiers I served alongside. For the most part they were infantrymen, but there were also dismounted tank crew members, MPs, cavalry scouts and even the red-legs of the artillery, dragooned into serving as foot soldiers because there just aren't enough infantrymen to go around. I'd go out with these young kids and generally the regulars were quite a bit younger than their national guard and army reserve counterparts. They're the kids that many of us overlook back home. Sure, they might have a high school diploma, but they're not college bound; either because they have no interest or they come from families without the means to pay huge tuition bills. They might have a girl-friend back home. Then again, they might not. Too many of them received "Dear John" letters while here. Some of them received pictures of the birth of their first or second child. A few missed the births of more than one child since we launched combat operations in 2003. Yet they press on and perform their duties without so much as a little peep. They might not be folks I'd hang out with at home because I'd probably never meet them, but over here, they'd do anything that I asked. In return, I'd do whatever it took to make their daily lives a little easier and safer. I'm the old man to these 'kids.' In the case of the 18-20 year olds, I could be a father to any of them. But I soldier along with them and like to think that I provide the leadership they need and perhaps some maturity where theirs might be a little lacking. So now, I'm heading back to the USA. I can't say I'll be sorry that I'm not staying because I am not. Iraq sucks. It sucks for our troops and it sucks for the folks who live here. All I can say is that I'm glad I was born in the United States because these middle eastern countries are nothing more than breeding grounds for the Islamo-fascists who would impose their bigoted and ignorant world views on the rest of us. The USA has ventured into dangerous waters and I don't think any of us really knows how this intervention will end. I've been here twice and did what I could. I won't say it's now somebody else's turn because quite frankly, I wouldn't wish a tour of duty here on an enemy. I just hope that I don't have to read about another 4-5 Americans being blown up here every day. I'm tired of it and as I said in another commentary here, these people are not worth dying for. I suppose we'll have to go through another attack back home before the clowns in D.C. figure out that defending the homeland is the mission we should be focusing on. And that goes for the political hacks on both sides of the aisle! Doing it here, before they do it to us back home is a tired cliche that I don't think too many reasonably intelligent Americans buy into. Then again, what do I know? I'm just one of the guys at the tip of the spear trying to keep my finger in the dyke. I hope to be back in the USA on or before 1 October. I'm looking forward to an obscenely HUGE STEAK. Medium RARE! I don't care what comes on the side as long as the pitcher of beer or the bottle of California Cabernet is refilled immediately after it becomes empty. Thanks fellow epinionaters for all of your support. It's great to be coming home (again!).  |
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