thedrifter
08-05-03, 05:30 AM
08-01-2003
Guest Column: 4ID Leadership ‘Needs to Be Fired’
Hi all,
Well, it has been a very interesting few days, but I'll get to that later. Just received the pictures from Ma and Grandma. Great stuff, my kids look like they've been spoiled rotten. Thanks, the pics made my day. I was really glad to see that article from the [newspaper name deleted] about soldiers getting upset about [4th Infantry Division commanding general Maj. Gen. Raymond T.] Odierno's lies.
I have never been a big fan about writing to my congressman. But I’ll tell you what, I am one step away from doing just that. The leadership of this division needs to be fired. They just keep pouring more salt into open wounds. The latest and greatest was the debacle over the containers that Brown and Root made into living spaces. These things are air-conditioned and have built-in latrines.
So here is the background: My soldiers and I live in sweltering hot tents on a [deleted]. We have no air-conditioning, very few fans, no buildings to live in and no running water or electricity aside from the generators that we can keep running. So 4ID decides to tell all the battalions that they are getting these live-in container things.Great, troops are excited.
We figure it’s the least the division can do for us, since they can’t get mail, water or chow right, maybe they can provide us with some decent shelter. Keep in mind that the division headquarters lives in a palace complex with air conditioning and running water. They also have trucks that they can work out of that have air conditioners,
electricity and phones in them, we call them expando vans because the
sides of the truck expand to create more space.
Well, 4ID had decided to keep these container things for themselves, so they can use them as office space, since they clearly don’t have enough room in a palace complex for all their soldiers and troops. Dad, I never believed that our officer corps could be so blatantly wrong. How the heck can anyone in their right mind expect troops to re-enlist? Soldiers are electing to leave the unit at the first available opportunity. I have
only had four soldiers re-enlist in the last four months! I'm losing 20 in the next month to retirement, ETS or PCS.
Here is another story that kills me: The Division Command Sergeant Major decided that 4ID needed an MWR [morale, welfare and recreation] center where troops could come for R&R. So he took our cots that we ordered, took all the MWR equipment that came to 4ID, took water buffaloes and other assets to build a swimming pool, spent money on generators and air conditioners on a huge facility at the above-mentioned palace complex.
Now we are required to send 40 soldiers from the Task Force every other week for R&R at the DIV HQ. As you can imagine, not a single soldier volunteered to go. We
have a mission here and are all pretty busy. On top of the 40-soldier requirement, we have to drive the 40 soldiers all the way to 4ID HQ with an escort, and the soldiers in back of 5 tons in battle rattle in the middle of the day! Yes, we were told that they must show up between 1400 and 1800!
So here are some of the things that soldiers said about the MWR trip we forced them to go on:
1. They were housed in a building two miles away from the MWR site and either had to walk there or wait for a nonexistent shuttle bus.
2. There was no water available for the soldiers to drink at the MWR facility (apparently they are supposed to supply their own four days of water?)
3. Male soldiers are not allowed to take their shirts off while swimming in the swimming pool because it might offend female soldiers
4. Swimming in the swimming pool is forbidden unless a certified lifeguard is on duty (uh, ok).
5. There are soldiers and NCOs assigned to run the MWR facility as their primary military duty. Interestingly enough is that this is the one that ****ed off our soldiers the most. Not a single soldier that I talked to recommended going there for R&R.
So you know that show "ER"? My command post is set up right next to [deleted]. The past week has been … busy. [Rest of paragraph deleted.]
I’ve made too many phone calls to some very frightened wives and mothers in the past week. We have been very lucky that we haven’t had any soldiers killed in the past two weeks from stupid accidents or fire fights. Seen a lot more Iraqis shot, killed or otherwise. The bad guys have started to attempt to stand and fight in certain conditions.
Sucks to be them, because they aren’t doing well. They did destroy another Bradley though. Put an anti-tank mine underneath the pavement on a road they knew we would have to use. I know this sounds crazy, but the Iraqis literally just put pavement down on top of the sand. It is very easy to dig a hole underneath a road here, since the road is simply laid down on top of the ground. The Bradley was completely destroyed, but none of the soldiers in it were killed.
So since they are changing their tactics, we are changing ours, which is the cause of all this fighting. They just weren’t ready for us to bring the hammer down, we have taken a more offensive stand. Going back to the old hunter-killer concept with scouts, tanks and Brads at night.
And this is why there are more soldiers killed after the war than during the war. The terrorist cells want us out of Iraq and are willing to stand and fight in certain conditions to achieve their goal. Remember that the Special Republican Guard either quit, fled or went into hiding rather than fight U.S. and British forces? We run into
these guys all the time in downtown [deleted]. They are now part of the local firefighting force, or police force or hospital. They are not the problem children. It’s the terrorists who threaten the locals and murder them if they cooperate with us that are causing all the trouble. But how do you find the terrorists and distinguish them from the rest? HUMINT and scouts is our only answer.
Wow, painted a grim picture again, didn't I? I actually enjoyed learning how to [deleted].
J.D. “Bulldog” Thurman will be our next CG. He used to be the COG at NTC. Hopefully he can change this [division] for the better. We will see. You know, troops don't mind deploying, they are happy to do the job they are trained for. But someone has to tell these soldiers when they are going home. They need to be able to tell their wives, they need to make plans for their families, it would greatly increase morale.
[Name deleted]
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=155&rnd=355.3050633928354
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Guest Column: 4ID Leadership ‘Needs to Be Fired’
Hi all,
Well, it has been a very interesting few days, but I'll get to that later. Just received the pictures from Ma and Grandma. Great stuff, my kids look like they've been spoiled rotten. Thanks, the pics made my day. I was really glad to see that article from the [newspaper name deleted] about soldiers getting upset about [4th Infantry Division commanding general Maj. Gen. Raymond T.] Odierno's lies.
I have never been a big fan about writing to my congressman. But I’ll tell you what, I am one step away from doing just that. The leadership of this division needs to be fired. They just keep pouring more salt into open wounds. The latest and greatest was the debacle over the containers that Brown and Root made into living spaces. These things are air-conditioned and have built-in latrines.
So here is the background: My soldiers and I live in sweltering hot tents on a [deleted]. We have no air-conditioning, very few fans, no buildings to live in and no running water or electricity aside from the generators that we can keep running. So 4ID decides to tell all the battalions that they are getting these live-in container things.Great, troops are excited.
We figure it’s the least the division can do for us, since they can’t get mail, water or chow right, maybe they can provide us with some decent shelter. Keep in mind that the division headquarters lives in a palace complex with air conditioning and running water. They also have trucks that they can work out of that have air conditioners,
electricity and phones in them, we call them expando vans because the
sides of the truck expand to create more space.
Well, 4ID had decided to keep these container things for themselves, so they can use them as office space, since they clearly don’t have enough room in a palace complex for all their soldiers and troops. Dad, I never believed that our officer corps could be so blatantly wrong. How the heck can anyone in their right mind expect troops to re-enlist? Soldiers are electing to leave the unit at the first available opportunity. I have
only had four soldiers re-enlist in the last four months! I'm losing 20 in the next month to retirement, ETS or PCS.
Here is another story that kills me: The Division Command Sergeant Major decided that 4ID needed an MWR [morale, welfare and recreation] center where troops could come for R&R. So he took our cots that we ordered, took all the MWR equipment that came to 4ID, took water buffaloes and other assets to build a swimming pool, spent money on generators and air conditioners on a huge facility at the above-mentioned palace complex.
Now we are required to send 40 soldiers from the Task Force every other week for R&R at the DIV HQ. As you can imagine, not a single soldier volunteered to go. We
have a mission here and are all pretty busy. On top of the 40-soldier requirement, we have to drive the 40 soldiers all the way to 4ID HQ with an escort, and the soldiers in back of 5 tons in battle rattle in the middle of the day! Yes, we were told that they must show up between 1400 and 1800!
So here are some of the things that soldiers said about the MWR trip we forced them to go on:
1. They were housed in a building two miles away from the MWR site and either had to walk there or wait for a nonexistent shuttle bus.
2. There was no water available for the soldiers to drink at the MWR facility (apparently they are supposed to supply their own four days of water?)
3. Male soldiers are not allowed to take their shirts off while swimming in the swimming pool because it might offend female soldiers
4. Swimming in the swimming pool is forbidden unless a certified lifeguard is on duty (uh, ok).
5. There are soldiers and NCOs assigned to run the MWR facility as their primary military duty. Interestingly enough is that this is the one that ****ed off our soldiers the most. Not a single soldier that I talked to recommended going there for R&R.
So you know that show "ER"? My command post is set up right next to [deleted]. The past week has been … busy. [Rest of paragraph deleted.]
I’ve made too many phone calls to some very frightened wives and mothers in the past week. We have been very lucky that we haven’t had any soldiers killed in the past two weeks from stupid accidents or fire fights. Seen a lot more Iraqis shot, killed or otherwise. The bad guys have started to attempt to stand and fight in certain conditions.
Sucks to be them, because they aren’t doing well. They did destroy another Bradley though. Put an anti-tank mine underneath the pavement on a road they knew we would have to use. I know this sounds crazy, but the Iraqis literally just put pavement down on top of the sand. It is very easy to dig a hole underneath a road here, since the road is simply laid down on top of the ground. The Bradley was completely destroyed, but none of the soldiers in it were killed.
So since they are changing their tactics, we are changing ours, which is the cause of all this fighting. They just weren’t ready for us to bring the hammer down, we have taken a more offensive stand. Going back to the old hunter-killer concept with scouts, tanks and Brads at night.
And this is why there are more soldiers killed after the war than during the war. The terrorist cells want us out of Iraq and are willing to stand and fight in certain conditions to achieve their goal. Remember that the Special Republican Guard either quit, fled or went into hiding rather than fight U.S. and British forces? We run into
these guys all the time in downtown [deleted]. They are now part of the local firefighting force, or police force or hospital. They are not the problem children. It’s the terrorists who threaten the locals and murder them if they cooperate with us that are causing all the trouble. But how do you find the terrorists and distinguish them from the rest? HUMINT and scouts is our only answer.
Wow, painted a grim picture again, didn't I? I actually enjoyed learning how to [deleted].
J.D. “Bulldog” Thurman will be our next CG. He used to be the COG at NTC. Hopefully he can change this [division] for the better. We will see. You know, troops don't mind deploying, they are happy to do the job they are trained for. But someone has to tell these soldiers when they are going home. They need to be able to tell their wives, they need to make plans for their families, it would greatly increase morale.
[Name deleted]
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=155&rnd=355.3050633928354
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: