But he is a “SPECIALIST”!!!!!
Posted on 05/16/2004 5:01:44 AM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
WAR COMPLAINT: Lack of preparation, protection may have cost life and limb, Portage soldier says.
BY JERRY DAVICH
Times Staff Writer
U.S. military leaders failed their soldiers with inadequate combat equipment, vehicles, leadership and training during Operation Iraqi Freedom, a local soldier believes.
Poor planning from day one may have cost American lives and limbs, wrote Army Spc. Christopher Heldt, 24, from his position at the Baghdad International Airport.
"Many soldiers have been riding in unprotected HUMMVs for over a year, all the while roadside explosive devices have been the biggest threat we face... on the most dangerous streets in the world," e-mailed Heldt, a Portage native.
Soldiers are forced to create makeshift protection gear for the all noncombat vehicles by either placing sandbags along the floorboards and frames or hiring local natives to weld steel on the sides and bottom, he said.
"Neither is as effective as the true armored HUMMVs we need," he wrote.
Heldt, like many soldiers there, didn't receive his bulletproof Interceptor Body Armor, or IBA, until September, three months after arriving at his current base, he said.
"How many soldiers could have been saved if they had the armor to begin with?" he asked.
The last straw for Heldt, who works in the Army's finance unit, came earlier this month when the Army extended his year-long "boots on ground" tour of duty another 90 days, through the June 30 transfer of power deadline in Iraq.
That's when he began voicing his concerns publicly.
Military officials, Heldt claims, went against their word by keeping exhausted, disgruntled soldiers in the hot zones "who have already sacrificed enough."
"Beyond one year takes it to another level," he wrote. "Many of us are tired, worn out and ready to go back. We deserve that much."
Heldt enlisted with a friend in 2001 mostly because "it was time to grow up." After growing up on the fly, he arrived in Baghdad in late May 2003.
"Who takes blame for not being prepared?" he asked. "We cannot change the fact that many soldiers died because there was a lack of protection... (or) the lack of planning of rotating the troops out in a timely manner."
Missing home
Very few fellow soldiers there have accepted the recent 90-day extension as "We have a mission to accomplish, let's stay to get it done," he wrote.
"Most of the soldiers, including myself, never thought we would be here beyond one year. One year in a combat area has been unheard of since the Vietnam War."
Heldt said too many soldiers were marched into Iraq without specific purposes and training. And too many units were doing jobs that had no relation to their training.
Yet, when these concerns were voiced to superiors, the reply was a familiar echo: "We're working on that," he wrote.
What Heldt misses most about home is normalcy.
After a year of waking up in tents and walking outside into sandstorms, Heldt misses the simple things, he said. Like hopping in a car to go to the store, or downing a tall cold one, or seeing his wife's smile every morning.
"I may be the one in the desert in a hostile area, but she, without question, is the one who deserves the praise of everyone," he wrote. "She has helped me through this in more ways than she will ever know."
Heldt's four-year enlistment ends next April.
"I am getting out as soon as I can," he wrote.
ping
A david HACKworth in the making. I bet this this idiot is verrrrryyyyyy sorry to contribute to the liberal cause.
Heldt enlisted with a friend in 2001 mostly because "it was time to grow up."
Sounds like SP4 Heldt hasn't achieved his objective. He joins an all volunteer Army and whines when deployed to a warzone for a period longer than he thinks is fair. One wonders how confident the others in his unit are in Heldt's commitment to accomplish the unit's mission.
To read the complaints of a finance clerk regarding lack of body armor is laughable. How often do you think SP4 Heldt draws his weapon and UBL of ammo to stand guard duty much less going on patrol?
To you and I and anybody who knows the deal it is. We are a small minority of the general US population.
Little Johnnie's mama and the Hand Wringers of America aren't laughing.
The other side has some extraordinarily skilled INFOWARRIORS.
Stay Safe !
Great tag line. Reminds me of Pegasus Bridge.
Ditto that.........Stay Safe !
Of course that E-4 is an expert …
A specialist is one step above a private, one step below a Sergeant.
To read the complaints of a finance clerk regarding lack of body armor is laughable.
Now it can get to be right dangerous riding from the office to the barracks to the PX, movie theater, the mess hall …
I was fortunate when in Viet Nam. I encountered only one real true REMF - our boats seldom came around them.
I had hopped a Huey to get to the HQ at Long Bien for my (voluntary) extension leave. To get from my boat to the pad I had to wade through a freshly fertilized rice paddy.
When I found the right office there was a line out the door of the building. Air conditioned buildings, starched jungle fatigues and waxed floors - I patiently waited in line. The troop ahead of me sniffed the air and decided to try again later. I moved up. Every guy in line did the same thing. I was soon in front of this clerk’s desk.
He sniffed the air and decided to take a break.
“Go ahead, I’ll just wait in you chair with my boots on your desk.”
He typed up my going home orders quicker than I had ever seen a typewriter work before.
That paddy muck came in handy.
Heh heh...there's nothing quite like "field smell" to clear a path back in the "civilized" portions of the world...
Thanks, I'm well aware of the rank structure. My point was that folks who are not might read Army "Specialist" and think "expert" instead of corporal.
Private Joe Schmuckatelli charged today that not only was his division totally unprepared to fight in sub-zero weather, but their Sherman tanks were useless against the onslaught of Nazi Tiger 2 tanks. Schmuckatelli, 22, of Boston, says he plans to write his Congressman as soon as he can find a (cont. on B-37)
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