Tour extension wreaks havoc upon Stryker soldiers’ lives

BAGHDAD — The extension to the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s Iraq deployment has sown chaos in the personal lives of many soldiers in the brigade’s cavalry squadron and imposed tremendous logistical burdens on the unit, problems that could have been avoided, soldiers say, if only the Defense Department had given them a little more warning.

The 172nd deployed to Iraq in August 2005 and the bulk of the unit was due to return to Fort Wainwright, Alaska, early this month. But the Pentagon announced July 27 that it was extending the 172nd’s deployment for up to 120 days and moving the unit to Baghdad to counter the worsening violence in the Iraqi capital.

Soldiers in 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment received word of the extension July 27 as they were preparing to depart Combat Outpost Rawah, in central Anbar province, where they had spent most of the previous 12 months. The news hit many hard.

After a year of harrowing combat missions in which eight colleagues were killed in action, and every trip outside the wire carried the risk of death or dismemberment, 4-14’s soldiers were finally letting down their mental guard.

More than 80 of the squadron’s soldiers had already returned to Alaska. Lt. Col. Mark Freitag, 4-14’s commander, has asked that all those soldiers be returned to Iraq, which requires approval from U.S. Pacific Command.

Many of those still in Iraq were within a day or two of leaving. Stryker crews had celebrated their last missions “outside the wire.” There was an end-of-semester atmosphere at COP Rawah, with soldiers playing practical jokes on each other as they prepared to head home.

Then came the news that rather than flying home into the arms of their loved ones, they would be heading into the heart of the violence in Baghdad, where more than 1,600 people died in July as sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’ites spun out of control.

“We all volunteered, and sometimes these unexpected things happen to us,” said 1st Sgt. Roy Stoehr of 4-14’s A Troop.

“The American people pay us to fight and win the nation’s wars,” said Capt. (P) Tom Hart, 4-14’s fire support officer. “We deployed for a year, and at the end of that year they’ve asked to stay and fight some more. This is why soldiers serve in the military.”

Not everyone reacted with Hart’s equanimity. Capt. James Foster, 4-14’s chaplain, said he believes the soldiers will be physically and emotionally ready for their missions in Baghdad, but he acknowledged that some are still coming to grips with the reality that they’ll be in combat for up to another four months.

“It’s kind of like a grieving process,” he said. “A lot of shock and denial, then you kind of get angry. The wives got angry back home. The soldiers got angry. Everybody’s going through these phases. Some go through them faster than others.”

The extension might well doom the marriages of several soldiers in the squadron, according to Foster and other NCOs.

“Some [marriages] have already been strained to the max, so when you throw another straw on the camel’s back, it’s hard for the family members to accept,” Foster said. “Some [soldiers] were holding on to come home and maybe work things out, and may not take that opportunity now.”

Stoehr agreed. “I had a few guys [with troubled marriages] that sucked it up all the way to the end,” he said, but the last-minute extension appears to have been the breaking point for their wives.

The extension “is creating more problems with the families,” he said. “Sometimes the wives just don’t understand, and it’s hard.”

Almost every 4-14 soldier had made plans for the next several months that the extension has disrupted. In some cases, the extra months spent in Iraq will cost soldiers opportunities they will never be able to get back.

Sgt. Ryan Forney, who works in the 4-14 tactical operations center, was excited at the prospect of attending the birth of his first child. “My wife’s due Oct. 29,” he said. “I was hoping to be able to go back and help her with the last couple of months of her pregnancy, seeing as I’d missed the first six months.”

When his wife heard about the extension, “she was pretty angry and upset,” said Forney, who like all the squadron’s soldiers was able to take two weeks rest and recuperation leave at home during the deployment.

“She’s trying to be supportive of me,” he said, but was finding it hard because the 4-14 has not been told either what its mission will be in Baghdad, or given a firm return date inside the 120-day extension window.

“I know a lot of guys whose wives have either had babies while they’ve been deployed or just before, and they feel like when they get back after 16 months, their kids aren’t even going to recognize them,” he said.

There are also numerous financial costs involved. Many soldiers and their families had bought plane tickets in anticipation of the block leave the brigade had scheduled for September. Helping to ensure that that money wasn’t wasted is one of the tasks of an action cell Fort Wainwright has established to help 172nd families with problems related to the extension.

Because the 172nd is the first brigade to go through the Army’s three-year unit manning cycle, most of the unit’s soldiers were due to change duty stations or leave the Army upon their return. Now many are unsure of whether jobs they had lined up in either the Army or the civilian world will be waiting for them when they get home. In some cases, these soldiers had already put down-payments or security deposits on new homes in areas where they had planned to move.

Even soldiers whose next jobs the Army has promised to hold open until they return can get caught in this trap. Hart is due to assume a new position in Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va., and had put a $2,000 security deposit on an apartment near the command, with a view to moving in at the beginning of September.

Although Human Resources Command says the job will still be waiting for him when he redeploys, it makes no financial sense for him to pay rent for the next four months for an apartment he’s not living in. But his would-be landlord has refused to refund his security deposit. Army legal officials in Alaska are working on his behalf to try to get the money back.

In other cases, Forney said, soldiers’ families have already moved into new homes and now are stranded thousands of miles from Fort Wainwright with no support network in place.

There are smaller complications that will end up costing soldiers money. “We could list a million ways that people are getting screwed,” Forney said.

By the time the Pentagon ordered them to extend in Iraq, 4-14 soldiers had mailed most of their personal gear home, and given away comfort items like televisions and pillows to soldiers newly arrived in Iraq, retaining only the uniform items and toiletries they would need for their last week in Iraq. Now they have to buy replacement items out of pocket.

Forney spent $250 on books for online courses he had registered to take via Troy State University in Alabama. “I’m going to eat that,” he said.

Another frustration, he said, was the knowledge that the soldiers likely would not be returning to Wainwright until Alaska’s bitter winter has set in.

“Getting back in the middle of winter is going to be a pain for everybody. There are unique challenges to an Alaskan unit going back in the middle of winter as opposed to the summertime,” Forney said, explaining that moving house and retrieving belongings from storage would be hard when the temperature is 20 degrees below zero. Forney said.

Of course, financial benefits are available to soldiers who are extended beyond their 12-month deployment. All money earned in theater, including re-enlistment bonuses, is tax-free, and soldiers extended beyond a year can expect to receive about $1,000 a month in extra incentive pays.

But the Pentagon’s late decision to extend the 172nd’s deployment has done more than extract an emotional and financial toll on individual soldiers. It has also made the job of getting ready for whatever missions the brigade will be ordered to conduct in Baghdad much harder, said 4-14 officers.

Two days before receiving the extension order, Task Force 4-14 signed over 12 of its 62 Strykers to “other coalition forces” — a catchphrase for special operations forces — and sent four others to the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry. The 172nd is working through the theater supply system to get the first 12 replaced, but will have to continue without the four given to 1-14, Freitag said.

Three days prior to the order to extend, the squadron had turned its theater permanent equipment — that gear that a unit receives upon arriving in theater — over to 1-14, the Stryker unit originally tapped to relieve 4-14 in Rawah. That included trucks that carry the squadron’s heavy loads, engineering equipment used to construct defenses, and individual soldier items like all the M14 rifles for the unit’s squad designated marksmen.

“The line elements were left short of war-fighting equipment,” said Capt. Sean Skrmetta, executive officer for 4-14’s Headquarters and Headquarters Troop.

The squadron expects to get re-issued most of the essential items from the list before it goes into combat, Skrmetta said, “but it would have made the process less painful for us” to have had it from the start, because in the meantime 4-14 has had to borrow gear from other units.

“When you move, you definitely need all that equipment,” he said. “When you’re in steady state, you don’t need it as much. So we’ll be getting the equipment when we don’t need it as much.”

The process of getting new equipment has been complicated by the fact that the squadron had already closed out the codes it used to order gear through the logistics system, Skrmetta said. New codes are being issued to the unit, but the process can take up to 15 days, costing the squadron precious time.

“Where the squadron really got hurt was the supply side of the house,” Skrmetta said. “All that stuff we’d given out and we can’t get it back.” He cited a long list of items that 4-14 had handed over to 1-14, including protective eyeglasses, Nomex gloves, chemical lights and stationery.

Even the gear the squadron retained had been stripped and prepared for transport back to Alaska. Troops had removed the sights from all 4-14’s M240B and .50 cal machine guns. Now the soldiers have to remount the sights and re-zero the weapons.

“That’s a painful process that generally takes a long time,” Skrmetta said.

Much of the frustration within the unit is due to the fact that even though the situation in Baghdad had been deteriorating over a period of several months, senior leaders waited until the last possible moment to change their orders.

The soldiers “didn’t like the fact of getting almost one foot onto the plane and being told, ‘You have to go back,’ ” Stoehr said. “Had we known at least a month out, it would have been much better.”

“Even if we could have known a week earlier, it would have made a huge difference to us,” said Capt. James Vogelpoehl, a 4-14 battle captain.

Some officers also expressed confusion about why, if it was so important to keep the brigade in country and send it to Baghdad, no one in the chain of command could tell them what the mission there would be.

But few officers or NCOs doubt that when the time comes for 4-14 to roll outside the wire and back into combat again, their troops will be ready.

In the first few days after the extension announcement, “the guys were pretty down,” Stoehr said. “They were stunned. But by the second day, they were picking up and ready to get on with their new mission.”

Like I said I am a civilian, but my family was at both ends of the American Rifle. Yes, like you said I have no clue...just like the American soldiers who froze to death in December of 1944 had no clue that winter gear would not be sent in time.

"We should have asked ALL of America to participate in the WOT and there should have been a Universal Service Bill on the Presidents Desk before 15 Sep 01."

You are correct! FYI, I live in Chicago and my friends are die hard democrats. It breaks my heart to tell you this but they refuse to let military recruiters contact their children. They refuse to inform their children about the opportunities the US Military can afford them. And I am not talking about educational waivers. I am talking about the priceless values of leadership, honor, valor and courage. Some of our fellow citizens are selfish, shortsighted cowards who have not taught their children anything about American History, Valor and Courage. I am so saddened by this. And yes, I told them this to their face.

I don't think voting Democrat in November will sort this out. Thirty years of belittling our American History and our American Military are going to pay unwelcomed dividends.

Oh, dear leadpenny, thank you for your service. I was in Germany in the fall of 2003 to bury my grandmother a victim of the Heatwave of 2003. I stayed at my favorite little hotel run by Vietnamese. They were still thankful to Americans. They were rooting and praying so hard for our Soldiers in 2003. Their family now is spread all over the world...San Fransciso, Germany, England...the winds of war so to speak.

Please give your son a big hug for me and thank him for his service. Please, don't tell him about my friends. It's too disappointing.

Just incase I was misunderstood I will share a letter I sent to a very special soldier.

This is a Welcome Home letter I wrote to a mother's son. He just came home from Afghanistan this past May. He's was with ______________.

"Welcome Home Sgt. M.!

It must have been a long four years. You must be so tired, excited, grateful and simply relieved to be home basking in the love of family and friends. You are probably missing your buds just a bit. After all in the past four years you have become a band of brothers, depending on each other for everything. I'm just a civilian grateful for soldiers like you. You see soldiers like you are important to the world.

About 15 years ago I treated myself to a wonderful three week-Southeast Asian Cruise and met some wonderful people. I lucked out with a most entertaining dinner table. One couple was pretty old and British and so very charming. Charming like only the Brits can be. They took a liking to me and invited me to a State Room (you don't say cabin BTW) cocktail party. And there I witnessed something interesting.

While chatting it up with the British couple, a gentleman wandered up and introduced himself. He had an Eastern European accent and had immigrated to the US and started his own company in California. He was originally from Hungary. Some how we got on to the topic of WW2. The Hungarian gentleman asked the British Gentleman if he had fought in the war. The Brit nodded yes and informed us that he was a retired RAF pilot and his last mission had been flying out of Budapest. His last responsibility was to deliver orphans to England. The Hungarian asked the Brit if the date was such and such. The Brit looked amazed and puzzled, he nodded yes. The Hungarian's eyes got real big. The Hungarian then asked if it was a morning flight? Again the Brit nodded yes. The Hungarian gentleman had tears running down his face and hugged the Brit, "I was 10 years old and an orphan and on that flight. You brought me to Britain and freedom." By that time we were all teary eyed and pretty awestruck.

What is the probability of meeting the military man who delivered you to freedom on the other side of the world on a cruise ship at a private cocktail party 46 years later? My father, who is originally from Holland, still remembers the first care package the US Military dropped. He cherishes the memory of that chocolate bar that was buried somewhere in that lifesaving box. He cherishes the freedom the Airborne brought to his homeland so many decades ago.

What would the world do without you soldiers? You are the most humble of men and yet the world would be such a very dark place without you. Joseph, you have experienced more in four years than most people experience in a lifetime. You have witnessed and felt things that we here back home safe and sound can only imagine. I want you to know that your service has been invaluable. We have worried about you fighting in foreign lands so far way facing dangers for our benefit. It is very humbling and we owe you a great deal. And maybe one day you will meet an Iraqi or Afghan who will hug you and thank you for all you have done for them. Then you may realize the miracles you and your buds performed for us and the rest of the world and how much you are appreciated. My family and I are grateful to you and each and every one of your buds. Welcome Home and Thank You for your service. You did it with élan, courage and class. You have our respect and undying loyalty.

Sincerely,
Chgogal

Great letter, and it conveys the same sentiments that lead me to post this article in the first place. I am constantly awestruck at what our military men and women do for this country - and for many citizens of other countries. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the real-time difficulties that the family's as well as the soldier's endure, all of it for us. I know I do!! And this article describes just some of the details that we can't even imagine in our couch-potato lives.

And I have no doubt that in future years many of our brave military personnel will have similar experiences, as your Hungarian and British/former-RAF co-passengers did, in re-connecting and realizing how in some way they were responsible for episodes of happiness or help in each other's lives in previous years.

Like one of the other's quoted in the above article, my nephew (West Point class of 2000, grew up in the Chicago suburb of Bensenville) was hoping to be home for the birth of his first child. Now his wife is going from Fairbanks to Washington, D.C., where her mother lives, to deliver.

The least we could all do is to repeat, many times a day, a prayer similar to the one SandRat posted (#3). My whole family (my nephew has 3 siblings and 21 first cousins) is very apprehensive about this new assignment to Baghdad. After surviving an hellacious year, the unspoken fear in every one's mind is "what if during these next four months, when he was supposed to be home and safe ..."

And I agree with leadpenny's belief that a Universal Service bill, requiring some service of us all, should have been enacted.

On the 21st of July I watched a tele-conference press briefing with the CO of the 172nd. It was like many others the Pentagon folks put on for the press from time to time. I'm going to watch it again now but I don't remember even a hint that anything was up. Supposedly, the decisions to hold the 172nd was made on the 27th and something had to be in the works on the 21st. The grunts can figure this out too, and it ain't good.

http://www.c-span.org/VideoArchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100&Page=18

Iraq Briefing with Army Col. Michael Shields
Army Col. Michael Shields, commander of 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, briefs live from Iraq to provide an update on ongoing security operations.
7/21/2006: WASHINGTON, DC: 30 min.

Two things stand out to me in this article:

"The process of getting new equipment has been complicated by the fact that the squadron had already closed out the codes it used to order gear through the logistics system, Skrmetta said. New codes are being issued to the unit, but the process can take up to 15 days, costing the squadron precious time.

Sounds like the bean-counters are in charge. What a bunch of BS.

"Much of the frustration within the unit is due to the fact that even though the situation in Baghdad had been deteriorating over a period of several months, senior leaders waited until the last possible moment to change their orders.

“Even if we could have known a week earlier, it would have made a huge difference to us,” said Capt. James Vogelpoehl, a 4-14 battle captain."

Somewhere, someone in the chain of command needs to lose their head over this. If this was the only time something like this happened, it would still be a big deal. But this seems to happen way too often over there.

You obviously have no clue what this does to morale and how it will effect recruiting.

I can't imagine how crushing a blow to morale this was. I'm in the navy and we bitched pretty good when we found out our 6 month deployment was extended to seven.

That's nothing compared to what these guys are dealing with.

Civilians can't comprehend how stressful deployments are on families. Yeah, sure, we signed up for it. That doesn't make it any easier though.

I see marriages crumble all the time in the navy. Infidelity among military spouses (and the deployed soldiers themselves) is rampant and the destruction it brings is devastating. It is hard to blame the cheating spouse. They thought they could be strong only to find that they couldn't. The loneliness was just too much to take.

My heart breaks for these soldiers and their families and I only hope that they have the strength to see this through. It is not easy.

I hope these guys are brought back to 100 percent equipment readiness before they head into Baghdad.

They don't need to be at 100%. My unit was at about 60%, at best, when we arrived to START our year long tour in Bagdhdad. Rolled right through the middle of town in Hummers with NO armor. Most of our Hummers didn't even have doors on them. Those that did had the vinyl doors.

Those Iraqis looked at us like we were crazy. After a couple of days, everyone realized we weren't crazy, we were just bottom of the food chain National Guard soldiers, and poorly equipped as a result. I have some pictures of one 5-ton truck that the crew tried to up-armor with layers of cardboard, which I guess is all they could find.

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