Hey, Everything Is Just Peachy Keen In Iraq

Soldiers for the Truth ^ | Pissed Off Army Officer

[StatesEnemy]

Dear Col Hackworth,

I am currently on the ground in Iraq and have been since I came over the LD on 31 March.

While the Army did a great in winning the war, what is not being covered is how broke the Army logistics system is and the damage it is doing to the long term readiness and moral of the Army. The Army seems to have this NTC rotation mentality, which consists of f*** it live in the dirt and filth you only have to be here for a month. That works at NTC, but it seems no one has thought of how to sustain an Army in the field for weeks and months at a time. The answer has always been, "after a month or so, we will contract with the locals for everything."

The problem is that outside of a few areas in Kurdistan and the north, Iraq is so poor that there is nothing to contract for. Moreover, we don't trust the locals enough to contract with them even if they did have something of value. Units all over the Army came to Iraq without basic things necessary for life support in the field. I a m talking about portable sh*tters with cans that you can burn. You can't live somewhere and have everyone sh*ting in cat holes for weeks at time. Units came here without tents. The 855th MP Company, a guard company from Arizona was allowed to mobilize without any tents. They lived on the ground in the most God awful piece desert you have ever seen for over two weeks. Units came here without proper heaters for the water in their MKTs, so that when they started serving T rats, they didn't cook them enough and didn't clean the serving treys properly and everyone who ate from there got sick. If its not a life or limb issue, its nearly impossible to get medical care.

Soldiers get literally hundreds of flea or mosquito bites and they can't cream or benedril to keep the damn things from itching. The army issued mosquito netting, but didn't give anyone any poles for their cots, so the stuff is basically useless. I am not talking about bringing in the steak and lobster every week. I am talking about basic health and safety issues that continue to be neglected by the Army. Even beyond that. If we are going to be here for a year, we need to start thinking about MWR and R&R for people. You can't just lock people up in a compound and feed them T-rats and MREs for a year and expect them to be as effective at the end as they were at the beginning. To my knowledge no one has given any thought to any kind of pass or MWR activities for soldiers. Division staff sits around in their air conditioned vans watching satellite AFN goofing off on the internet and just don't give a shit about anyone else.

Meanwhile, soldiers are living in the dirt, with no mail, no phone, no contact with home, and no break from the daily monotony at all. I went to a division rear in May and practically got in a fist fight with this Captain up there over letting my private, who hadn't contacted home since we left the U.S., send an e-mail over his office's internet. This clown spends his days sending flowers to his wife and surfing the net and he won't let my private send an e-mail to her husband. F*cking disgraceful and all too typical of today's army.

The fact is, soldiers can put up with anything and will do the right thing. The problem, however, is that at some point they are going to go home and hit their ETS date. I can tell you right now, a lot of good people are going to get the hell out over this deployment. The good soldiers won't put up with this crap. They will get out and get good jobs on the outside. We are breaking the Army and the reserve corps with this deployment needlessly. I understood when the war was going on.

But the war is over. This is peacekeeping and guerrilla warfare. Our supply lines are clear. There is no excuse why basic health and safety issues and moral issues like mail cannot be addressed. They are not being addressed because the army doesn't know how anymore. Units spend their lives preparing for 2 week warfighters and one month NTC rotations and never think, "okay, how are we going to live out here for six months or a year." Its just not part of the Army's thinking anymore and it s a shame.

Pissed Off Army Officer

[alloysteel]

Soldiers, down through history, have always grumbled about the assignments they have been handed, if after some period of time, the objective has become fuzzy. The prime directive of our troops in Iraq is to remove the presence of Saddam Hussein. At the moment, the presence is diminished, but not eradicated by any means. There are still major pockets in the "Sunni Triangle", a relatively small part of Iraq, but in the crossroads of the nation's commerce. What the soldiers now perceive as their mission seems to have been amended to be good-will ambassadors as well as policemen, a difficult position when you are being sniped at, and explosions are detonated in your near presence.

In WW II some of the guys that landed on Normandy walked all the way to Czechoslovakia, a trek that lasted nearly a year, before hostilities ceased. From Italy, the men who landed there spent nearly two years on the ground, sometimes with uncertain logistics supplying them. Is it better for today's soldiers than it was for WW II infantry and cavalry? Situations change, but the perspective does not. Face it, if you aren't the lead dog on a dog sled team, the landscape doesn't change very much.

[Texas_Dawg]

Yep.

[StatesEnemy]

Your idea is to abandon the Iraqi people to the villains.

If it places our troops in undo harm - your damn tootin'

and also strategically foolish, since it would leave the area vulnerable to a take-over by Iran and/or Syria.

I'm not talking about pulling out from country - quite the contrary. There is plenty of empty, easily defensible space we could set up 'shop' to continue operations.
And also keep an eye on Syria and Iran.

[zingzang]

This is a sham piece. The author is not an active Army officer. The fact that he mentions "T-rats" repeatedly is a giveaway, since those haven't been used for decades.

I have a friend who is in Iraq and emails when he can. He's a major, and since March 27th I've only received 10 emails from him and each of them has been a mass email to about 25 people. This crap about officers surfing the net all day while the enlisted soldiers live in the dirt certainly doesn't apply to him. He's also said in his latest email that he has more than enough sunscreen and bug spray to last the deployment. What is in short supply with his group is toilet paper. Otherwise, his reports contradict what this supposed "officer" has to say pretty much completely. And I've yet to hear him mention anything about T-rats.

[Arkinsaw]

Besides, it would behoove us to keep a toe in that part of the world - to constantly 'test the waters'

I call them "permisionless bases". We won't have to go begging to King Fahd and whatever joke government is in charge of Turkey anymore when evil pops its head up.

I'm all for giving freedom loving Iraqis whatever materiel they need to keep and build on their freedom. But they are going to have to guard their museums, not Willie and Joe (or if the BBC is so concerned they can do it).

[StatesEnemy]

Let me ask you something... were you for or against the invasion back in February?

I was for it... but with qualifications.

It didn't (and doesn't) matter to me whether WMD's existed or not - Saddam failed to live up to the terms of surrender in GW1 and he openly supported terrorism in Israel.

That was plenty in my book to decapitate the regime.

[SLB]

I have to admit that I agree with guy on many points. The logisticians are so used to fighting the 30 day NTC war they moke no provisions for past that. They can't think beyond a month. The old REFORGER exercises were good for exercising logistics. They were not tactical so much as logistical. We had to sort of fend for ourselves. GI ingenuity will soon prevail.

My Vietnam showers were all nice and toasty as we used the powder charge increments left over from our howitzers to heat the water in either 155 mm or 8 in powder containers. Pour the powder out around the base of th ecan and ignite. Poof in a couple of minutes the water ws too hot to shower with. The poor suckers in base camps had to contend with some half hearted attempts to paint water tanks black to absorb heat.

[Texas_Dawg]

I was for it... but with qualifications.

What were your qualifications?

[StatesEnemy]

Did you read the rest of the post???

[Texas_Dawg]

Did you read the rest of the post???

Yes. You told me you were for it but with qualifications. Then you went on to give me reasons that were given by Bush repeatedly as reasons for the war. Sounds like you could have just said "Yes."

[niteowl77]

Thanks for the morale boost. Things must be slow over on the Father Coughlin forum, huh?

[StatesEnemy]

Not quite... Bushie continued to harp on WMD's [lookin kinda chicken-littlish now...], when the valid, irrefutable reasons for ousting Hussein were treated as icing on the 'yellow cake'.

Why this REALLY pisses me off, is the Demons now have chink to exploit - when if we'd have stuck to know-ables there would be no dispute.

[Texas_Dawg]

Haha. You gotta love a guy sitting at home on his couch who could have done everything better. Like the President is not nearly as sharp as YOU. Haha, that is great.

[Squantos]

This letter aside....

Field craft is a skill even taught to the AF these days. Dig a couple of holes line em with a tarp or a couple of ponchos and wash yourself then yer clothes and dry line em.

As to sleeping conditions, there is enough scrap material around there to build outstanding hooches /shelters.

After eating C-Rat's & MRE's during my career I'd rather have a MRE versus them damn T-Rats any day. My team when possible used to fire up a small multifuel MSR whisperlite stove (we used diesel from the humvee or even JP4, Mogas....) and kept a pot of boiling water going. Drop in yer MRE for a few minutes and then pull it out hold with a leather glove and eat a nice hot "clean" meal.

We used to pack along two cotton "sheet" liners we inprovised for our sleeping bags......swapped out every few days and washed they keep the bag clean for months. As you well know a five gallon bucket with holes in the bottom makes a fine hanging shower , cold is quicker and uses less water but one is still clean and gets at least the first three layers of gunk off their body.

Socks underwear, uniform and t-shirts for "deployment" were always bought over size and then boiled to pre-shrink to proper size and then boiled in the field to keep really clean without being to small to wear afterwards.

Granted things are tough over there but as long as MRE's ,soap, ammo and fuel with a lot of TP make it up the line they'll be fine if they learn to live on the move............

Sorry for the rant..........Stay Safe !

[dasboot]

Contact your local police departments. Chances are good that one, a few, or several guys from your city's department are deployed right now. I think they regularly take collections of stuff: snacks, wetnaps, vitamins, newspapers....they'll tell you what the guys like and need. They really like Devil Dogs and Twinkies.

If they don't do this, maybe it'll get them the hint. Our department is fielding six soldiers, and packages are regularly going out. We've heard back that the stuff is really appreciated.

[StatesEnemy]

Nice reply.

At least we know the President is sharper then YOU - he'd have a rebuttal.

[Cogadh na Sith]

Units spend their lives preparing for 2 week warfighters and one month NTC rotations and never think, "okay, how are we going to live out here for six months or a year." Its just not part of the Army's thinking anymore and it s a shame.

This is the key sentence in the letter--the rest is pretty much venting.

Based on my experience in the army, this is a true statement. Latrines, food, shelters, hygiene, a rotation plan, and even mail are all crucial elements of the Sustained Battle. Remember that the greatest number of casualties historically was disease. Health and safety items, including rest, mosquito netting, nutricious food and decent crappers can make the difference between a successful campaign and a lot of dead troops

I've been on too many two week 'Warfighters' where the commanders would send people 'to the rear' every couple of days to take showers, get snacks and batteries and 'pogie bait'. 'Cuz if one of his/her soldiers got frostbite or a p*$$y infection, the commander would be relieved.

Well there ain't no 'rear area' over there and we are watching a garrison army floundering to become a field army.

We also did not train for the Sustained Battle because many posts won't allow digging latrine pits, shit-burning, and gray-water runnoff due to environmental regulations.

Consequently, the Quartermaster units would pretend to provide food, showers, shitters and such while everyone was sent to the rear for 'hygiene breaks' (No one would ever say that this was cause of the women in the units.). Hey, I like a nice hot shower as much as anyone, but I won't get sick if I don't get one for a long time...

Don't dismiss all of this guys points. He is on the mark on quite a few points.

[alloysteel]

During WW II, the 'Manhattan Project' was hastened along, because there was a real possibility that Hitler's scientists would develop an atomic weapon before the US could work out all the difficulties in refining and constructing a functional atomic fission bomb. There was a little-publicized raid on German facilities located in Norway, where the development of a heavy-water plant was well under way, that was credited with crippling the Nazi nuclear weapons program. It is only a series of fortunate occurrences, that "Hitlerstadt" is not the name of the city at the mouth of the Hudson in New York State.

[Texas_Dawg]

Oh, wait... You actually meant for me to respond to that idiocy? What a waste of time. Don't worry. Pat Buchanan will be running again in 2004, I'm sure. You can register your displeasure then.

[Cogadh na Sith]

The fact that he mentions "T-rats" repeatedly is a giveaway, since those haven't been used for decades.

No, the term 'T-rats' is still current. A T-rat is a tray of entrees heated by submersing in hot water at field kitchens--kinda looks like a big green casserole dish of metal with a metal lid--full of casserole, or chicken ala king or omelet...