thedrifter
09-22-03, 06:15 AM
09-17-2003 <br />
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Guest Column: Troops Deserve Clear Answers <br />
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By Lt. Douglas Peiper USARNG
thedrifter
09-22-03, 06:16 AM
Two days after Charlie Company reached Balad, I sat down and wrote a few pages of my thoughts as I witnessed the things going on around me. In retrospect, it seems that it was a little premature, but...
thedrifter
09-22-03, 06:16 AM
The extension notice changed all that. In a meeting with the V Corps Commander in Baghdad, the 130th Brigade commander was told not to submit the request; that it would basically be round-filed. The request would have stated the need to move earlier and that the 142nd Battalion’s mission was complete. The brigade commander was told that if that was the case, the 142nd ECB would be reassigned elsewhere in theatre, possibly to a mission that was non-Engineer specific.
This seems to contradict the statement Lt. Gen. Sanchez made in his memorandum regarding extension, in which he stated, “However, the Army, our nation, and the coalition still need the critical skills these units provide as we continue the fight.”
It would seem to me that if our work as Engineers were complete, that would end the need for those critical skills. To reassign us to another mission, possibly not even an engineer mission would go against the possible extension. Why extend us then, when the mission might be able to be completed with any unit still back in the states?
There is indeed a precedent to be set by this latest decision to extend those units still in theatre. The main battle force, the 3ID, where troops’ complaining about a longer-than-expected stay in Iraq made world news many times over, sent their last troops home early August after serving 11 months overseas. I may not be a historian, but I believe that Guard and Reserve forces who were activated early 2003, if extended to 12 months “boots on the ground,” will set a new standard for deployment not seen since the days of the points system in World War II in which some troops spent two, three, and nearly four years in theater.
It isn’t the time that bothers most troops: It is being told repeatedly by your chain of command – “I Don’t Know!” Since the beginning of this deployment, thousands of troops have had to tell their families, “I don’t know,” when asked about coming home. Countless dates have been given, every one of them passing with the same old answer, “I don’t know.”
The leaders of the U.S. Army owe each one of our families an answer to the question of when the troops will be home again. Gen. Abizaid, the CENTCOM Commander himself stated in a press conference that the Army owes every service member a date when they will be going home. He made that two months ago on July 16. Isn’t it about time?
Troops want and need something to look forward to, something to believe in. The longer Operation Iraqi Freedom gets drawn out, and the more troops who are killed by an unseen enemy, the harder it is to remember what the fight is all about.
The common troop doesn’t care so much for the political aspects of this conflict. They will support their chain of command if given a clear-cut mission, what they must do to complete that mission, and the assurance that their leaders always have the troop’s best interests in mind.
1st Lt. Peiper is a platoon leader with the 142nd Engineer Battalion, North Dakota-Minnesota Army National Guard, currently stationed in Balad, Iraq.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Defensewatch%20Special.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=1&rnd=590.1577638388292
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
marine5
09-22-03, 10:11 PM
1st LT...of what "The BOY SCOUTS"... I guess that is what you get from an "ARMY OF ONE"... must think that he is still in ROTC....
No I don't mean "Run Off To Canada"...can't do that anymore.
Sound more like a bunch of spoiled brats then Soldiers...
One thing is for sure...his career is over...
Suggest you do what most of us did in Vietnam...
Forget about the World..it doesn't exsist...and consintrate on
"Staying Alive"...