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Posted on 07/17/2003 4:54:48 PM PDT by Pokey78
Yellow ribbons hang outside almost every house in Hinesville, the military town next to the 3rd Infantry Division's base of Fort Stewart in Georgia.
They were nailed up in January, an expression of the desire for the swift return of husbands and sons sent to war in Iraq. Seven months later, and 100 days after Baghdad fell to US forces, most are now faded almost to white.
The soldiers they remember remain on active duty in the Middle East and their families still wait to hear when their supposed six-month tour of duty will finally be over.
For the army wives, normally the most loyal military supporters, frustration at the enforced absence of their husbands is starting to turn to fury. They were told that the men would return in late May and then early July. Last week it was September and this week they learnt that some would remain "indefinitely".
"Don't do that to us," pleaded Julie Galloway, whose husband, Sgt Michael Galloway, was one of the first to be deployed. "Don't pull on our heart strings that way. Don't make us believe they are coming home when they are not."
Tasha Moore, whose husband, Captain Daniel Moore, is stationed near Baghdad, said: "Every time a soldier is shot and killed, it comes to mind 'Is that my husband?' I don't think the government understands what a husband or a wife or children are going through."
Hinesville exists to service the base on its doorstep. Barely more than a hamlet before the military established a training camp at the site in the Second World War, its population now numbers 25,000.
The Stars and Stripes flies from every lamp post along Main Street. Outside businesses, billboards proclaim their owner's belief in American ideals and support for the troops on active duty.
But last month a colonel sent to ease the concerns of 800 of the wives had to be escorted from the meeting amid abuse and jeers from the women after the military admitted it had no clear timetable for their husbands' return.
At nearby Fort Benning, the 3rd Infantry Division's other base in Georgia, there have been demonstrations by wives waving placards proclaiming: "I love the United States but I love my husband too." Military chaplains report an increase in divorces as couples buckle under the pressure of living apart.
The division was the first of the conventional forces to reach Baghdad and has assumed a major role in trying to impose stability in post-war Iraq. In recent weeks, a trickle of its troops had begun to fly home, raising hopes of a full redeployment.
But Maj Gen Buford Blount, the division's commander, told soldiers' wives by email that guerrilla attacks meant 9,000 of the 15,000 3rd Infantry soldiers in Iraq would stay "indefinitely".
He wrote: "I wish I could tell you how long but everything I have told you before has changed."
The few who have returned tell of the effect of delays on the morale of those remaining. "Before the war, we were told we would all be out 40 days after it finished," said Sgt First Class Trey Black, 30, who arrived back in Georgia last weekend. "They have not kept their side of the bargain and that pisses people off.
"The soldiers need to recover from what they have been through. Many are having nightmares as a result of the fighting they have experienced. It is time for everybody to come home."
Are there any Korean Conflict or Vietnam vets out there that would like to express your feelings about these poor, whiney-assed wives complaining about their hubbies doing what they signed-up to do?
Personally, I did one tour of 13 months (to the day), and then I did another 10 months (sent me back for my discharge) in Vietnam. And you know what - I only had 13 months back in the states between the two tours.
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All these years they have been in the reserves, collecting pay, and hoping they never had to live up to their obligation. For shame!
Fact is, the American people are not the Romans or the Brits. We still, by and large, believe that we should not "go abroad in search of monsters to destroy".
The neo-cons manipulated our anger and channeled it into wars that had ulterior motives. Now the truth is bubbling through and the American people are getting angry.
They're over there too, in Tikrit among other places. If you're getting the impression it's just the 3rd and nobody else, you're very mistaken. Somebody keeps posting a list of all the units there, here it goes off the top of my head:
1st Armored Div.
3rd Inf. Div.
4th Inf. Div.
1st Marine Div.
101st Airborne Div.
one brigade from 1st Inf. Div.
2nd Armored Cav Regiment
3rd Armored Cav Regiment
There's more, but you get the general idea. Among Army units, 3rd has been there the longest, but I'm not sure they've been there significantly longer than 1 MD.
I don't think the crew who made it onto Good Morning America are a representative sample. Same with the wives. More to the point, some of them (some, I said) aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer... this is, after all, the infantry.
Guys griped in other wars too. I don't think the military has changed as much as the media has.
How about the WWII guys who were away for four years or more? And there were millions of them. I did mine in Korea. A combat tour was nine months. A non-combat tour was 18 months.
More like War-weary wusses. Since women can serve in the military why don't they go and let their husbands come home? Or, better yet, why don't they move to France?
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