Members of the 69th Signal Company's Headquarters Platoon outside the unit's office on Camp Slayer, Iraq. (Bill Hess-Herald/Review)
Posted on 11/01/2005 4:44:05 PM PST by SandRat
CAMP SLAYER, Iraq — They’ve been called the forgotten few.
But to Sgt. Tonja Jackson, the Headquarters Platoon exists to ensure the soldiers of the 69th Signal Company are not forgotten when it comes to promotions, leave and a number of requirements that keep an Army unit going.
As the administrative noncommissioned officer-in-charge, Jackson would appear to be a person out of her element.
She is a cable dog, and she admits missing the physical work of running communications lines.
When the company headquarters was being set up, lines had to be installed and Jackson said, “I took off my (outer) shirt and pulled cable.”
Although she misses pulling lines because “it lets me see what work I’ve done at the end of the day,” her daily routine no longer allows her to be out with the nearly 150 other cable dogs of the 69th scattered throughout Iraq.
Now her days involve using the telephone and e-mail.
Sitting in a room that once was part of a guard building for one of Saddam Hussein’s palace complexes, Jackson works deftly, answering calls as she explains that paperwork has been submitted — she has e-mail proof — or fielding queries from the company’s platoons.
Jackson is one of four cable dogs pulled to work in the Headquarters Platoon. A trio of other soldiers in the orderly room area is working in the jobs they were trained for — two in supply and one in the nuclear, biological and chemical arena. Other members of the Headquarters Platoon include the commander, executive officer, first sergeant and the operations staff.
The administrative portion of the platoon handles training, leaves and passes, awards, finances and promotions.
The most satisfying part of Jackson’s job is promotions.
Having a part in having a soldier promoted is the best part of the job, she said.
But that special arena is fraught with danger.
If information about a soldier’s promotion is one day late, the soldier has to wait another month before being advanced in grade.
That has not happened under her watch since the company left Fort Huachuca nearly a half year ago.
Soldiers do recognize the work of the platoon, especially those who were promoted, Jackson said.
“They call and say ‘Sergeant Jackson, I’m getting my (new) pay,’” she said.
Ensuring soldiers also get their two weeks R&R leave, and occasional four-day passes are critical to their morale, the NCO said.
Heading up that part of the work is Spc. Omar Pastrana.
“This is a stressful environment,” Pastrana said.
The leave and passes help soldiers relax, he said.
However, for some going on the two-week leave can still be troubling, the specialist said.
Going home for some may mean they face a problem and before any soldiers leave Iraq they are briefed on ways to handle stress at home, he said.
The upcoming holiday period — Thanksgiving and Christmas — is always stressful, and it is not unusual for soldiers “to get more depressed if they can’t be home,” Pastrana said.
To help alleviate the problem the Army has a pass policy where soldiers can take two four-day breaks in Qatar, a Persian Gulf emirate. There are direct flights from Baghdad to Qatar, and the soldiers are put up at U.S. government expense while on pass.
Like Jackson, Pastrana says he too misses working as a cable dog.
Both soldiers say the physical labor is easier to overcome than the mental exercises they have to go through in their current work.
For Jackson it is frustrating, because they work of supporting more than 150 soldiers, all with different needs, in a combat zone while providing information to a battalion in Iraq, which the company falls under, and the home battalion at Fort Huachuca.
Occasionally, her days — which normally start at 8 a.m. — do not end until 11 p.m., because she has to talk with people at the Arizona post and the 10-hour time difference creates longer workdays.
And, when she pulls guard duty for the morning meal at the camp’s dining facility, she doesn’t get to work until 10 a.m.
“You have no idea how many calls come between 8 o’clock and 10 o’clock,” she said.
Even the one day a week that she technically has off usually finds Jackson working on the following week’s requirements.
But, she does find some personal time on Sundays.
She either calls or e-mails family and friends to catch up on what is happening on the home front.
Sunday, she sat on a patio near the building housing a gym, Internet cafe and phone center.
Seldom is Jackson not seen without her large coffee cup, and Sunday was no exception.
As she drank the brew, she glanced down at a photo of her 5-year-old cousin Evan.
Saying Evan wanted to come with her to Iraq, which she naturally said would not happen, the boy went off and returned with his picture.
That was his way of going with her.
“Every time I talk with him he asks if I have his picture,” Jackson said. “And, I say yes.”
However, for her there isn’t much time to relax during the six-day weeks, which is her normal duty time until she gets back to the trailers she is calling home for a year.
As Jackson puts it: “I inhale all day and exhale when I finally get home.”
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess is embedded with the 69th Signal Company of the 40th Signal Battalion from Fort Huachuca. During this assignment, he can be reached by e-mail at 4291@townnews.com.
CABLE DOGS RULE!
BTTT
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