Posted on 08/05/2006 6:55:24 AM PDT by Bulldaddy
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.
Some soldiers greeted the news with disbelief and tears, others with shrugs.
“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.”
Wedlock woes
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.
Hits to the wallet
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.
Complicating the mission
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.”
I know, I have an older brother who is all about hating Bush. He tries to needle me and when I take him apart he just gets mad and walks away. We rarely talk anymore.
God rest his soul, my uncle Fritz was a CO in WWII. Being a war baby myself, I didn't understand it until I was much older. I loved the guy and respected his decision but I told him once, when we were talking about Clinton's draft evasion, that I would never support him for state or federal elected office. Not that he was thinking of running, I just wanted him to know I thought there was a line.
Selective Service can be fair now, because they are not taking anyone.
As soon as the scion of a very wealthy and politically powerful family gets drafted, all the corruption will come back into play.
Civil War conscription corruption was worse in the south. Confederate conscripts were send home after years of service, to get better from wounds, and then were reconscripted into their state forces, then re-dispatched to the so false-national government to meet new state quotas.
We have seen conscription in every other nation, and it is much the same. It is involuntary servitude per the 13th Amendment. Only Democrats support conscription in these times.
Says who? I'm not a democrat. I'm a conservative. The Israelis are conservative, right? Look, neither of us is going to change the other's mind. What will change minds is a multiple of 9-11.
Israel is a very liberal country. It is unusual in that it is the only (besides Lebanon, and Iraq, irony of ironies) country with any kind of functioning democracy.
Thanks for the prayer. I just read the story and I'm tired and I'm always emotional about our troops, and the tears were coming...then I prayed with you. Prayer is powerful, things happen when believers pray. Pray always.
My son is AF TSGT and is in the states now with new baby and toddler and wife, but I don't know for how much longer. He was in Qatar 6 months out of the first year of his beautiful first baby's life. The families walk a tough road.
Lord, guard and guide the ones who fly, Through the great spaces of the sky; Be with them traversing the air In darkening storms or sunshine fair.
You who keep with tender might The balanced birds in all their flight, Lord of the tempered winds, be near, That, having you, they know no fear.
Control their minds with instinct fit Whene'er adventuring, they quit Firm security of land; Grant steadfast eye and skillful hand.
Aloft in solitudes of space, Uphold them with your saving grace. Oh, God, protect the ones who fly Through lonely ways beneath the sky. Amen.
Mary C.D. Hamilton, 1915, Quebec: L.M., Henry Baker, 1854
HHC 172 -- Now living on VBC in Baghdad. Needless to say it was a surprise, but that is part of life. We do our job, maybe someone else won't have to come over here later.
Thanks for the ping!
Why?
A very brave civilian!
I see
As the father of this previously mentioned Captain (USMA '98), THANKS for the kind sentiments. We are apprehensive of course, but we know that these guys have the best training, equipment and experience. They will be able to meet the challenges they will face. Beyond that we must entrust them to God's care. This captain's Stryker was destroyed in October by an IED - miraculously no one was killed though the driver has a long road to recovery. There are several aspects of the incident that indicate God's protective hand that spared the men's lives.
Stonewall Jackson stated that he felt as safe on the battlefied as in his own bed since he was confident he was in God's hands always.
An appropriate Bible verse:
The horse (armored cavalry) is prepared for the day of battle; but victory is with the LORD. (Proverbs 21:31)
thanks again - we pray that the task will be completed soon and they can all come home!
I'm sure if Sadr had sent DOD a heads-up that he was gonna start more trouble, DOD would have done just that. this guy must be looking for a job with the NYT when he gets out.
My troop support group has been regularly sending care packages to the 4-23 INF of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, to companies A and C.
The soldiers are sucking it up. They are needed because they are experienced and excellent at this particular task of urban pacification. A new unit would suffer more casualties from inexperience.
So, the Merry Band of Patriots is starting an emergency airlift of pillows to our soldiers now that we have their APO for Baghdad, along with our usual assortment of snacks, personal care and entertainment items.
God bless and protect our soldiers in harm's way!
Credit for putting all the American population behind the war effort in WWII lies with Soviet Russia being attacked by Hitler.
When the leaders of the cradle of communism are for a war, the Democrats fall in line. When Russia isn't on board, then neither are the Democrats.
My great grandfather served in the Ohio Volunteer Sharp Shooters in the Grand Army of the Republic.
Was at Atlanta in the summer of 64 and wrote that it was 110 degrees in the shade.
So much for global warming.
"When the leaders of the cradle of communism are for a war, the Democrats fall in line. When Russia isn't on board, then neither are the Democrats."
Either the heat or that paragraph put my brain in stupified lockdown.
Clearly you know a few things.
There were such concerns once the 3 ID was replaced in Iraq back in 2003. I heard a few rumors about why the replacements were suffering more casualties than the initial units of the invasion. It was very disheartening for me personally. It is always that way in war though, I have been told.
I'm not going to say all that I can, but after the initial actions, the newer replacement Troops had some rough times, and casualties in Iraq were higher, which was partly because of inexperience of some of those Troops in that theater.
Rumors have been spread, (validity unknown here) that the enemy held the 3ID in some sort of awe and fear.
The media and mentally retarded Liberals, Democrats, and others, have done a lot of damage to that sort valuable reputation in such circumstances which cannot be overstated, in my not so humble opinion.
Some of the stories that I heard were rather humorous concerning the impression that many Iraqis had of American Troops back in "03."
Thanks to the MSM, the Insurgency came to awareness that all Americans are not experts in Kung Fu, and all of the attributes that Hollywood once upon a time projected around the World. A lot more information, seriously about the media's complicity in invigorating the insurgency can be found daily on FR.com.
ABC News has this subject matter on at this very moment concerning the extension, even as I type.
Keep up the good work that you do. It is valuable stuff. I know
I was there with these troops when they got to Rawah and left thinking they will be home soon. This Unit is the best but the life in Rawah sucks and I hate to see them moved someplace else when they deserve to be home. My prayers will be with them daily until they are all home.
Scott Perry
Voodoo 2
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