thedrifter
12-19-05, 06:54 AM
'Hurry up and wait'
By LAREIGN WARD The Lufkin Daily News
Monday, December 19, 2005
When the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, occurred, Lance Cpl. Ross Kyger IV of Lufkin knew his life was about to change.
His unit, the 1/23 Marines based in Houston, was told to prepare to go to Afghanistan and was put on 24-hour standby.
"We were expected to be in Afghanistan within the next two weeks," said Kyger, who enlisted as a reservist in 2000. "(Then) reality set in: They're not going to pull a reserve unit with no training and send them to the front lines."
And so life became a game of what Kyger called "hurry up and wait," where his unit would be told to prepare to deploy, only to later find out that wasn't going to happen just yet.
"You do this stuff (to prepare) in a blazing hurry, then nothing happens," he said.
Finally, in March 2004, his unit was giving its "warning order" and told it would definitely be leaving for Iraq in the summer.
"We knew it was going to happen sometime," Kyger said. "I'm amazed it took us that long to go."
Kyger was in Lufkin last week, and in an interview at his parent's home he discussed everything from roadside bombs in Iraq to how he missed watching the Houston Astros play while he was gone.
He lives in Houston now with his wife, Stephanie. Dating since 2001, they were married last year after he found out about his deployment.
"It was literally, ‘Hey, let's get married, I'm going off to war,'" Kyger said.
They were wed on May 29, 2004, and had two days together before Kyger and his unit went to California to train.
And while none of his family was happy to see him go, Kyger said his new wife took it especially hard.
"The hardest thing I have ever done in my life was leave her at the airport in Houston," Kyger said. "That was the worst moment of my life. I was 100 percent confident I was going to come back, but still. We all know there's risks."
In late August, Kyger and his battalion entered Iraq and were promptly split up. Kyger was based out of one of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's air bases, Al-Asad, in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq. Located in the western part of the country, it is also "where all the bad guys are," Kyger said.
Kyger settled into his role as a radio operator, but in October he and several others were moved to a post on the top of the Hadithah Dam that sat atop the Euphrates River.
"We lived in a hydroelectric dam that was just cruddy, and that's a compliment," Kyger said. "When it rained there, the dam would leak and the power would go out. Not exactly a modern marvel of engineering, but it would hold the lake out."
Before too long, the entire unit was moved up to the dam, which made for crowded conditions, Kyger said.
He worked 12-hour shifts, from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., in the combat operations center.
"I was just supposed to sit there and talk on the radio," Kyger said.
But due to staff shortages, he ended up doing more than that and taking on duties "out of his rank," tasks which higher-ups would normally perform. When one of the men in the unit was injured out in the field, Kyger called in helicopter Medevacs to assist, a task made more difficult by a satellite connection that came and went.
"You'd have guys coming in bleeding, and we're trying to move the satellite dish inches at a time so we can call Medevac," he said.
In addition, he would often talk Medevacs through their landings, he said.
Kyger also maintained communication controls of maneuver elements during daily combat operations. For his radio work, among other things, he was awarded a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal in January. The citation, issued by Secretary of the Navy Lt. Col G.D. Stevens, says Kyger's "calm demeanor, professionalism and attention to detail during daily combat situations made him an integral asset" to the command operation center.
Kyger would often serve as the COC watch chief, also a position a senior commanding officer would normally hold.
Because his services were considered so valuable, Kyger was kept in the COC most of the time, away from outside dangers that included insurgents and roadside bombs.
"My whole family was very happy they wouldn't let me out of there," Kyger said. "I would want to go on supply runs, anything, and they'd say, ‘No, you can't go.'”
During the battalion's seven-month stay in Iraq, a total of 12 soldiers were lost. Others were injured, but Kyger said his unit was not hit as hard as it could have been.
"We had a platoon surrounded by 300 insurgents, and (the platoon) made it out of there pretty much without a scratch," he said. "That's a credit to their training and discipline."
And he, as well as his parents, Ross and Mary, credited the prayers and support of the Lufkin community.
For instance, he and his mother were having lunch recently when they ran into a local woman who hugged him and said, “I prayed for you the whole time (you were there).”
"It worked," replied Kyger.
"The support we received over there was phenomenal," he said. "We got more mail than I ever thought possible."
It was a piece of mail that led Kyger to discover he was serving with another Lufkinite when Major Jeffrey Slaga, a watch officer at the COC, unwrapped a package containing Lufkin Panther paraphernalia and coverage of last year's high school football playoffs.
Fearing a mail mix-up, Kyger asked Slaga, "Is that yours, sir?"
It was, and after that, the men bonded over their hometown. It was Slaga who recommended Kyger for the Achievement Medal.
In March 2005, Kyger's unit left Iraq. After their seven months "in country," the first stop was Kuwait. Kyger's family, including his mother, could finally exhale.
"It's when you stop breathing," Mary said of his stint in Iraq. "I didn't relax until we got the phone call (that said) he was in Kuwait. I hadn't been breathing all those months."
Kyger and his wife live with their two dogs — “the kids,” as Kyger calls them. He is majoring in finance at the University of Houston and is on schedule to graduate in December 2006. Stephanie works at Chevron.
In May, he will move over to Individual Ready Reserve, no longer on active duty, although there is still a chance he could be called up.
And in 2008, his contract with the Marines will be up, and he does not plan to re-enlist.
"If I wasn't married, I would go back," he said. And besides that, "I need to start my life."
Now that he's back in the United States, Kyger says he feels the media coverage of the situation in Iraq has been unfairly slanted towards the negative. He said that while there are bad things happening in Iraq, there are more good things occurring that the media overlooks.
"Bad stuff makes the best news," he said. "But there's a lot of good stuff going on over there."
However, he said the soldiers currently in Iraq do need help from the locals, as most of the terrorists there are foreign, from such countries as Syria and Saudi Arabia. And while Iraqis can easily spot the differences between, say, a Syrian and an Iraqi, Americans can't, Kyger said.
"The (Iraqi) people over there have got to help us," Kyger said. "It's very hard to find the terrorists."
Ultimately, Iraq as a country cannot be forced into democracy, Kyger said.
"We cannot spoon-feed the Iraqis (democracy)," he said. "They have to want it. They need to work for it. It's a big risk for them, because they're just as much a target (to terrorists) as we were."
Lareign Ward's e-mail address is lward@coxnews.com.
By LAREIGN WARD The Lufkin Daily News
Monday, December 19, 2005
When the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, occurred, Lance Cpl. Ross Kyger IV of Lufkin knew his life was about to change.
His unit, the 1/23 Marines based in Houston, was told to prepare to go to Afghanistan and was put on 24-hour standby.
"We were expected to be in Afghanistan within the next two weeks," said Kyger, who enlisted as a reservist in 2000. "(Then) reality set in: They're not going to pull a reserve unit with no training and send them to the front lines."
And so life became a game of what Kyger called "hurry up and wait," where his unit would be told to prepare to deploy, only to later find out that wasn't going to happen just yet.
"You do this stuff (to prepare) in a blazing hurry, then nothing happens," he said.
Finally, in March 2004, his unit was giving its "warning order" and told it would definitely be leaving for Iraq in the summer.
"We knew it was going to happen sometime," Kyger said. "I'm amazed it took us that long to go."
Kyger was in Lufkin last week, and in an interview at his parent's home he discussed everything from roadside bombs in Iraq to how he missed watching the Houston Astros play while he was gone.
He lives in Houston now with his wife, Stephanie. Dating since 2001, they were married last year after he found out about his deployment.
"It was literally, ‘Hey, let's get married, I'm going off to war,'" Kyger said.
They were wed on May 29, 2004, and had two days together before Kyger and his unit went to California to train.
And while none of his family was happy to see him go, Kyger said his new wife took it especially hard.
"The hardest thing I have ever done in my life was leave her at the airport in Houston," Kyger said. "That was the worst moment of my life. I was 100 percent confident I was going to come back, but still. We all know there's risks."
In late August, Kyger and his battalion entered Iraq and were promptly split up. Kyger was based out of one of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's air bases, Al-Asad, in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq. Located in the western part of the country, it is also "where all the bad guys are," Kyger said.
Kyger settled into his role as a radio operator, but in October he and several others were moved to a post on the top of the Hadithah Dam that sat atop the Euphrates River.
"We lived in a hydroelectric dam that was just cruddy, and that's a compliment," Kyger said. "When it rained there, the dam would leak and the power would go out. Not exactly a modern marvel of engineering, but it would hold the lake out."
Before too long, the entire unit was moved up to the dam, which made for crowded conditions, Kyger said.
He worked 12-hour shifts, from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., in the combat operations center.
"I was just supposed to sit there and talk on the radio," Kyger said.
But due to staff shortages, he ended up doing more than that and taking on duties "out of his rank," tasks which higher-ups would normally perform. When one of the men in the unit was injured out in the field, Kyger called in helicopter Medevacs to assist, a task made more difficult by a satellite connection that came and went.
"You'd have guys coming in bleeding, and we're trying to move the satellite dish inches at a time so we can call Medevac," he said.
In addition, he would often talk Medevacs through their landings, he said.
Kyger also maintained communication controls of maneuver elements during daily combat operations. For his radio work, among other things, he was awarded a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal in January. The citation, issued by Secretary of the Navy Lt. Col G.D. Stevens, says Kyger's "calm demeanor, professionalism and attention to detail during daily combat situations made him an integral asset" to the command operation center.
Kyger would often serve as the COC watch chief, also a position a senior commanding officer would normally hold.
Because his services were considered so valuable, Kyger was kept in the COC most of the time, away from outside dangers that included insurgents and roadside bombs.
"My whole family was very happy they wouldn't let me out of there," Kyger said. "I would want to go on supply runs, anything, and they'd say, ‘No, you can't go.'”
During the battalion's seven-month stay in Iraq, a total of 12 soldiers were lost. Others were injured, but Kyger said his unit was not hit as hard as it could have been.
"We had a platoon surrounded by 300 insurgents, and (the platoon) made it out of there pretty much without a scratch," he said. "That's a credit to their training and discipline."
And he, as well as his parents, Ross and Mary, credited the prayers and support of the Lufkin community.
For instance, he and his mother were having lunch recently when they ran into a local woman who hugged him and said, “I prayed for you the whole time (you were there).”
"It worked," replied Kyger.
"The support we received over there was phenomenal," he said. "We got more mail than I ever thought possible."
It was a piece of mail that led Kyger to discover he was serving with another Lufkinite when Major Jeffrey Slaga, a watch officer at the COC, unwrapped a package containing Lufkin Panther paraphernalia and coverage of last year's high school football playoffs.
Fearing a mail mix-up, Kyger asked Slaga, "Is that yours, sir?"
It was, and after that, the men bonded over their hometown. It was Slaga who recommended Kyger for the Achievement Medal.
In March 2005, Kyger's unit left Iraq. After their seven months "in country," the first stop was Kuwait. Kyger's family, including his mother, could finally exhale.
"It's when you stop breathing," Mary said of his stint in Iraq. "I didn't relax until we got the phone call (that said) he was in Kuwait. I hadn't been breathing all those months."
Kyger and his wife live with their two dogs — “the kids,” as Kyger calls them. He is majoring in finance at the University of Houston and is on schedule to graduate in December 2006. Stephanie works at Chevron.
In May, he will move over to Individual Ready Reserve, no longer on active duty, although there is still a chance he could be called up.
And in 2008, his contract with the Marines will be up, and he does not plan to re-enlist.
"If I wasn't married, I would go back," he said. And besides that, "I need to start my life."
Now that he's back in the United States, Kyger says he feels the media coverage of the situation in Iraq has been unfairly slanted towards the negative. He said that while there are bad things happening in Iraq, there are more good things occurring that the media overlooks.
"Bad stuff makes the best news," he said. "But there's a lot of good stuff going on over there."
However, he said the soldiers currently in Iraq do need help from the locals, as most of the terrorists there are foreign, from such countries as Syria and Saudi Arabia. And while Iraqis can easily spot the differences between, say, a Syrian and an Iraqi, Americans can't, Kyger said.
"The (Iraqi) people over there have got to help us," Kyger said. "It's very hard to find the terrorists."
Ultimately, Iraq as a country cannot be forced into democracy, Kyger said.
"We cannot spoon-feed the Iraqis (democracy)," he said. "They have to want it. They need to work for it. It's a big risk for them, because they're just as much a target (to terrorists) as we were."
Lareign Ward's e-mail address is lward@coxnews.com.