Posted on 09/26/2004 5:01:26 PM PDT by katiedidit1
When my husband deployed as the Batallion motor officer for his unit, there HMMV's did not have armor. Generally, they are armored when the unit arrives in Kuwait, where the train for approximately 1 month before convoying into their final destination. In my husband's case, they had to pass through Baghdad. I do see your point about leaving a good set of equipment over there to save the time. Maybe maintenance problems, I don't know. I will see what my husband has to say. Good point.
I think this is the unit my co-worker belongs to. He was mobilized this month and headed for Baghdad. He is a drill instructor, trained to put troops through boot camp. He will be training Iraqi soldiers.
It is possible that they may not be armed under normal circumstances.
First of all....I received the article today in email. I wanted to find out if this was true or not as I thought something was strange about it. The date I noted on this site said "9/26/04 and I would NOT try and send out something with a false date.
I am glad I received the responses as I have sent them all out to the person that emailed the story to me.
Anytime our military is being used and false or "out of context" info comes out on them... I want to know the facts!!
LOL LOL
Thanks for your response. Of course, the main thing is that they do get the armor!!
It seems it would be cheaper to do it stateside instead of in Kuwait . . . or to have some armored ones in country.
Is your husband's unit back now? In either case, thank him and you for service to our country . . .
Whatever..... False date..... wrong tv station location. Email. Okay.
Even if you're deployed without a weapon- you get one on arrival to your unit. Maybe chaplains don't carry weapons- but otherwise if you're in the Army in a war zone- you've got a weapon. Remember Jessica Lynch and her unit? They weren't "combat" soldiers- they were support...and they had weapons.
I'd like to see this article proven. Something isn't right about it.
They can get weapons and ammo from the troops that fall ahead of them. Like in that movie about Stalingrade.
EVERYONE deploys into Iraq with weapon ammo and body armor, its mandatory
Individual replacements go through FT Benning for issue
Units get theirs before going over at home station
The 98th (A training Division ) was not equipped to immediately enter into combat.
Rest assured - the task organization that goes from the 98th will get everything it needs to perform its mission well before it deploys.
All the best
Qatar-6
As one who served with the 98th, we never had to deal with weapon qualification or familiarization in the school I was assigned to. It was course research, rehearsals and presentation. School members will be teaching primarily in buildings and they will also train instructors. Officer courses are also part of the curriculum.
Hey anyone. What is "DU"??? Also as an active duty soldier, there is no way this is true. Some units will meet their weapons there. They will be properly armed.
Regardless, I'm sure they'll end up armed. They have to be. There is no front in this war - and they will be high profile targets not because they happen to be American, but because they are training Iraqi police/military. Professionally trained Iraqi police and military units are one of the biggest dangers that the insurgents face and the fact that they goto great lengths to kill as many of them as they can proves that.
If this unit isn't armed, somebody needs to be answered a lot of serious questions and maybe have their career put on hold.
DU = the web address of the dark side. It is an evil, vile place, full of curse words, illogic, and what little truth exists is twisted into conspiracy theories and is the home of forgers, liars, and thieves. The RAT underground.
No, he is still there. He will be coming home in another 5 months. We appreciate your kind words and pray for his safe return. I an still waiting on a response about why they don't do it the way you mentioned. I will get back to you when I hear something.
No, they need them to protect themselves while training Iraqi troops. And maybe to shoot the odd Jihadie infiltrator who "pretends" to be one of the "good guys". If you go to the division's website you'll see Iraqi and Afghan troops being trained by US troops. In many of the pictures, the Iraqies have their AKs and the US trainer has his M-16.
Oh they'll be armed, maybe with only a sidearm, but they'll be armed.
"You must prepare yourself physically, mentally, spiritually," Helmly said he advises Reserve soldiers, "such that you are prepared for a call to active duty just as if you knew the hour and the day that it would come. That's a long-term change" from attitudes developed over decades.
This is what the General meant by being prepared.
The General's statements have nothing to do with the equipment issued the troops.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-09-16-army-reserve_x.htm
Army Reserve chief says force was not well-prepared {Mentally} for terror war
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief of the Army Reserve said Thursday that his force of part-time soldiers has yet to fully adapt to the demands of a global war on terrorism, even though half of the 205,000 Reserve members have been called to active duty since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"We're at war, this is a hard war and we, frankly, inside the Army Reserve have been not properly prepared for it," Lt. Gen. James Helmly said, adding that he sees some signs of improvement.
Many members of the Army Reserve, like their fellow part-time soldiers in the National Guard, are not used to being mobilized for the kind of long and dangerous duty they face in Iraq.
"Every time I visit a unit I take about 45 minutes to an hour and try to talk to all of them and explain to them every initiative we have underway to properly prepare ourselves and bring the institution to a wartime footing, but it's hard," Helmly said in an interview with a group of reporters.
The Army Reserve has about 38,500 on active duty now, and those in Iraq are serving 12-month tours, which is twice as long as mobilized Reserve members spend on peacekeeping duty in Bosnia and Kosovo.
"You must prepare yourself physically, mentally, spiritually," Helmly said he advises Reserve soldiers, "such that you are prepared for a call to active duty just as if you knew the hour and the day that it would come. That's a long-term change" from attitudes developed over decades.
For years the conventional wisdom among members of the Army Reserve was that they were unlikely to get mobilized, and if they did it would be for non-combat duty in a secure rear area, far from the fighting. The war in Iraq, where no soldier is immune from attack, has shattered that belief.
Too often, Helmly said, he hears that members of a newly mobilized Reserve unit respond to the news of their activation by saying, "I didn't think it was going to happen to us," and they are not prepared.
"I frankly have started to put a boot up some people's fannies about getting everyone ready," he said.
As an example of the mindset he is working to change, Helmly described the reaction he got from the 98th Division, whose main mission is training other U.S.-based Army units, when it was told that about 800 members will be mobilized and sent to Iraq in October to help train the Iraqi army.
"I've gotten cards, letters, e-mails (saying), 'How can you do that?'" he said.
In the 45 years since the 98th Division became part of the Army Reserve it has never deployed abroad, according to spokesman Steve Stromvall, although it did occupation duty in Japan in 1945-46 as an active-duty infantry division. It is scheduled to spend 12 months in Iraq.
Generally the Army Reserve's role is to provide support services like medical specialists, military police, and truck drivers. The active-duty Army gets its backup combat troops mainly from the National Guard. In Iraq, however, danger haunts every soldier, regardless of role.
"Driving that truck is one of the most hazardous damned occupations we have in Iraq, and the truck drivers and the MPs are front-line troops these days," Helmly said.
As an illustration of that, the fatalities announced by the Pentagon on Thursday included Spc. Lauro G. DeLeon Jr., 20, of Floresville, Texas, of the Army Reserve's 644th Transportation Company based in Beaumont, Texas. DeLeon was killed by a roadside bomb that exploded near his vehicle convoy on Sept. 8 near Balad, a major U.S. logistics base north of Baghdad.
At least 49 members of the Army Reserve have died in Iraq since the invasion began in March 2003, and Helmly said 58 have died overall since the global war on terrorism began in October 2001.
The numbers killed and wounded are the highest for the Army Reserve since the Korean War of 1950-53, he said.
Now there are some Biblical Scholars out there that will be able to cite chapter and verse and any word corrections.
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