[December 26, 2016] A few days ago I wrote about my view of the Iraqis during the early part of the War in Iraq. From my one-year tour of combat duty in Iraq with a U.S. Army Engineer unit, I came into contact with Iraqis, terrorists, combat troops, contractors, home town folks, reporters, and politicians. It is instructive for those of us interested in how soldiers viewed the war, to see it through their eyes.
Below I post my “unadulterated” views of the war based on our experiences. For a little detail on my perspective, please see my original post (link here). In that post I talked about the Iraqis and my scrutiny of them in their culture. I’m sure my bias is there but no one is responsible for that view other than myself. This post is about U.S. troops in combat. It could have been on other multi-national troops, but today I restrict my views to those from the United States only.
U.S. TROOPS: Most of my comments will be about the U.S. Army soldier. Although I worked with a few U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines and some Macedonians, Canadians, South Koreans and British soldiers, my time was almost exclusively with U.S. Army soldiers. So I’ll focus my comments here.
Don’t be too surprised to learn that the average soldier is doing well. Despite long and often boring days, stress, being away from family, the soldier is performing far better than you would think. These are professional soldiers.
It doesn’t matter whether they are Active Duty, Reserve or National Guard, they are performing well.
Ask for a volunteer to go deep into enemy territory, no problem. Ask for additional gunners for a convoy, no problem. Ask someone to unload 20 large trucks, no problem. If it needs to be done, it will get done.
Are Army Soldiers trained well? Yes, now considered the best training in the world. That’s why no army dares take us head on, they will lose.
How do Army soldiers treat the Iraqis? They treat the Iraqis with a great deal of respect. And most of the time, they speak better Arabic than me and are adept at the cultural differences.
A short story: the one about saving two Iraqis, a husband and wife team who do construction for us. Call from Wife on cell phone, got SPC McCrite (SAW gunner and combat medic qualified); hopped into my Non Tactical Vehicle (a white Chevrolet Tahoe – love that SUV) and drove outside the Forward Operating Base onto the most dangerous road in Iraq. Met the Iraqis in an Iraqi Ambulance, inspected vehicle for bombs and guns, and took them to Medical Clinic Level 2 (field hospital). McCrite provided cover for the effort. Life-flighted Iraqis out to Combat Support Hospital Level 3. McCrite told me he was “scared” but did it because that was what he was trained to do.
Is it hard work? Normal work for soldiers is typically 12 to 16 hours daily, mostly 7 days per week for a 100 plus hour work week. Outside that time, you must clean your living area, do extra duties, and if you’re lucky, get to see a movie.
My advance team arrived in Iraq in February 2005. The first day off for my team was in July; and only if you were an enlisted man did you get a day off. And, I got no complaints. We would say that you had it easy when you only got to work half a day; 12 hours on duty.
One of our largest construction projects was the extension of an existing airport runway in Al-Taji Iraq (north of Baghdad). This involved over 2 million square feet of concrete at a depth of approx. 10 inches. Now that’s a lot of concrete. With the heat, physically and mentally draining. Oh, and having rockets and mortars shot at you during the construction. No problem sleeping for those soldiers.
If I ever had to go into combat with people I could trust, it would be with the American soldier. You don’t hear that in the news.
More on my thoughts later. Next up will be my view of the terrorists.
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