Citizen SOldiers

12 March 2002 | LTG Plewes, CG, US Army Reserve

[O6ret]

Six Months and a Day After 9-11

Message from the Chief, Army Reserve

Yesterday, on March 11, we noted the six-month mark since the day that no American will ever -- or should ever -- forget.

So much has happened in that time. We have buried our dead with the dignity and honor they deserved. We have comforted their family members and will always hold them in our hearts and remember them in our prayers. Those injured in the Pentagon attack, many still bearing visible scars, have returned to duty. Dedicated work crews have made remarkable progress in rebuilding the damaged part of the Pentagon.

We have also made remarkable progress in the war against terrorism. The regime that for so long oppressed the Afghan people no longer rules. Members of the Taliban regime, as well as the al Qaeda terrorists they supported, are either dead, in hiding, cornered in pockets in the mountains or being held as detainees at Camp X-Ray in Cuba.

All this has taken place in the half year since 9-11. As we start on the next six months, we know we have much more to do. The global war against terrorism is far from over. The heaviest ground fighting yet took place just last week during Operation ANACONDA in eastern Afghanistan. There will be more battles like it as our forces continue to seek out, engage and defeat the enemy. There will be other battlefronts outside Afghanistan, too, as we either aid our allies to battle terrorism or conduct combat operations unilaterally.

We take pride in the magnificent courage and tenacity displayed by our fellow soldiers battling in the bitter cold and high altitudes of the Afghan mountains against a tough foe.

But we can also take tremendous pride in what Army Reserve soldiers are doing to defend our Nation and to defeat terrorism. What we do may not make headlines, but what the Army Reserve does helps ensure victory.

We now have some 444 units and about 15,000 Army Reservists supporting the ongoing operations around the globe. We continue to be what we have been since September 11 -- fully and decisively engaged in countless ways:

Because of their capabilities in such areas as force protection, security, investigation support, internment operations and prisoner transport, our Army Reserve Military Police units are in high-demand. More than half of our MP units have been called up and more can expect to be mobilized.

Those units not yet called up will follow the lead of such units as the 447th MP Company from Akron and Zanesville, Ohio, which is now serving at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., alongside its active Army and Army National Guard partners in a fully integrated battalion. The example of the 447th is repeated wherever our MPs serve, such as at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, where more than 200 Army Reserve MP soldiers are serving.

Another unit which has set the standard for others to follow is the 421st Quartermaster Company from Fort Valley, Ga. It helped avert starvation and ease suffering in Afghanistan by rigging humanitarian loads of food and cold weather materials for airdrops to the people there.

The 310th Chemical Company from Fort McClellan, Ala., and its Biological Integrated Detection Systems, continues to provide early detection capabilities against biological attack for our citizens and our soldiers wherever needed.

It is not just our units that have performed well. Army Reserve soldiers are on the ground in Kabul, forming much of the Coalition Joint Civil-Military Operations Task Force there.

Dr. (Lt. Col.) Juan DeRojas, a vascular surgeon from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., provided a capability that the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany normally lacked, making it possible to give our casualties brought there from Afghanistan the best medical treatment.

These are but a few brief snapshots. Everywhere that our citizen-soldiers have served and continue to serve, they do so professionally and with great distinction. As Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command, recently said of the Reservists supporting his operations, they "come trained and ready to do the work."

This no-nonsense assessment from the warfighting CINC, which has been echoed by many others, shows the respect that the Army Reserve and the soldiers of the Army Reserve have earned by their deeds. This respect is not new. It had been well-earned long before September 11. It will remain long after this war is over and when we once again are at peace.

Peace, however, may be long in coming. We have seen that our enemy has plenty of fight left. We also know this conflict will not end in Afghanistan.

Our challenge is to maintain our current momentum in the months and perhaps years ahead, and to live up to the implicit contract we have with every one of the thousands of soldiers we have called to the colors. That contract is simple:

1. You will not be called without a mission. 2. Once mobilized, you will not stay longer than necessary 3. Even though you are activated, we continue to be responsible for you and your family.

The soldiers who have answered the Nation's call so promptly are heroes, plain and simple. We must continue to support them in this time of great sacrifice.

We must apply the lessons learned from units now serving so as to streamline our procedures and facilitate the mobilization of those called up in the future.

We must also be sure to properly welcome our soldiers home like the heroes they are. They must be honored in the manner they deserve, as must all who follow them until victory is finally achieved.

Much has been accomplished in the six months since 9-11. Much more remains to be done today. Our resolve remains constant: we are as committed to this struggle today as we were on the evening of September 11, when the flames and smoke still rose from the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and a quiet field in Pennsylvania.

Thomas J. Plewes Lieutenant General, U.S. Army Chief, Army Reserve

March 12, 2002

[Minuteman23]

We must also be sure to properly welcome our soldiers home like the heroes they are. They must be honored in the manner they deserve, as must all who follow them until victory is finally achieved.

No sad repeats of thirty years ago.