Texas Army Post, Kin Horrified About POWs

Foxnews.com ^ | 3/25/03 | Associated Press

[lsee]

EL PASO, Texas — One soldier described himself as simply a mechanic, someone who fixes things. Another's family thought she was relatively safe from the horrors of the front lines because she's an Army cook. A third was planning to leave the service to join the U.S. Border Patrol.

They are sons and brothers, a husband, a mother. Now a handful of Americans have gained a chilling new title -- prisoners of war.

Around the country, their tearful families wait for word, terrified of what has happened since their capture, even more terrified of the unknowns to come.

[lsee]

..."But, like other POW families, they assumed she was in a support group that was unlikely to come face-to-face with the enemy."

All are soldiers first, whether cooks, medics, mechanics, etc. Assuming any soldier is in a "safe job" during wartime is a painful mistake.

[RoseofTexas]

I was at a walmart monday and came across a mother of a Ft. Bliss soldier stationed in kuwait. She was buying some yellow ribbons to adorn her trees at home. Anyway her appearance was one of EXTREME pain and loneless, you could tell she has not slept in days, not knowing where her son's where abouts, not knowing if he'll come home alive. I minsiter to her about keeping faith in the Lord, and also told her that there were millions of folks praying for the troops and that I would add his name to our FR prayer list. She took a little bit of comfort in knowing that. I have felt in the past few days like I too have sons and daughters in the battle field. I can't even start to imagine what they are going through. MY HEART GOES OUT TO ALL THE FAMILIES who have loved ones there! Please know that we are ALL together in this. And we too feel the nerveousness in the pit of our stomachs for our troops. God bless our troops and president!

[American Soldier]

I still think we have been handling our movement in a screwed up fashion. In the few company-sized movements I have been a part of, had the rear echelon people taken a wrong turn they would have run into their own combat troops who would've told them "Get the hell back to your place in the formation!" There should always be a layer of fighters between the rear echelon people and the enemy -- despite the fact that everybody's a soldier, the rear echelon troops generally are not heavily armed and in most cases to not spend that much time training in infantry tactics, reacting to ambushes, etc. due to other training requirements (I've heard the Marines are better about this than the Army though).

I hope we're taking efforts to keep these people secure. Support troops generally ought to be moving within a bubble of grunts, cav, MPs, etc. I guess a speedy advance may make this impossible at times... But I keep recalling when one of Augustus's legions (under Varus? I can't remember which general it was) was slaughtered to a man in the German wilderness when they allowed themselves to get strung out during a march and got ambushed by the natives...

[lsee]

I agree that these captured soldiers were somehow left unprotected and I hope the mistake is not repeated. I also hope they are rescued and the evil grins are wiped off the faces of their captors, permanently. Are cooks/mechanics issued weapons and trained to use them?

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

You are so right. Forty seven years ago when I turned seventeen years old I enlisted. During basic training it was drilled into us all, that no matter what future positions and duties, our basic MOS was, and always would be as a rifleman.

During the battle of the bulge it was the cooks, clerks, mechanics and such with rifles in hand that helped stablize the front line and stopped the Nazis.