Stripes letter: National Guard finished (as in "kaput")

[lebkuchen]

(Bush got Saddam, but he destroyed our "Army of One" in the process.)

I’m a soldier in the Missouri National Guard. I’m stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. Had I known five years ago that the National Guard would be part of the occupying force here in Iraq and the rest of the world, I would have told them to stick the contract in their ear.

It’s not the conditions that bother me. But since I arrived here in Baghdad via Kuwait, the National Guard has been shafted in the role it plays with the Army. Second is all that we’ll ever be with these people.

Before coming here, if I needed extra money I could work a few more hours. Now I receive only about three-fourths of the money needed for rent. There’s no way to make extra. It makes it difficult for my wife to survive. Regular Army families can live on base, shop at the post exchange, utilize armed forces banks, contact the Army in case of hardship, and enjoy many other benefits that make their lives easier. My wife is a good hour from any Army base. It would be pointless to drive that far to reap meager benefits just to survive.

Rest and recuperation leave is a joke. Our unit is only allowed to grant leave to maybe two people per day. The first Armored Division has gotten most of their people out already. The National Guard is picking up its absent slots. It has come to our attention that only E-4s and below will get leave. Even then, not all the E-4s will get out before it’s time to go home at the rate we’re going.

No ETS. Not enough benefits or money to survive. Playing catch up when we return to our jobs. Messed up leave dates. Playing Army in the secondhand spot. Why would anyone ever join? I believe that when the Army finally lets us go home, it will be the proverbial death of the National Guard. The National Guard is finished. I for one will not be reupping.

Spc. John Brents
Baghdad, Iraq

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=19293

[kalian]

1. Close that window....I feel a DRAFT!

:eyes:

[lebkuchen]

4. W/Saddam captured, the troops are going to expect to head home

rapidly. Especially Guard/Reserve units. If that doesn't happen, the grumbling will be immense.

[ajacobson]

6. Bingo

Talk about morale problems! Especially if 43* starts talking "mission accomplished" again.

[DulceDecorum]

2. They say an army marches on its stomach

WASHINGTON (AFP) Dec 13, 2003
The Pentagon repeatedly warned contractor Halliburton-KBR that the food it served to US troops in Iraq was "dirty," as were as the kitchens it was served in, NBC News reported Friday.
Halliburton-Kellogg Brown and Root's promises to improve "have not been followed through," according to a Pentagon report that warned "serious repercussions may result" if the contractor did not clean up, the television network reported.
The Pentagon reported finding "blood all over the floor," "dirty pans," "dirty grills," "dirty salad bars" and "rotting meats ... and vegetables" in four of the military messes the company operates in Iraq, NBC said, citing Pentagon documents.
<snip>
The Pentagon found unclean conditions at four locations in Iraq, including one in Baghdad and two in Tikrit. Even the mess hall where Bush served troops their Thanksgiving dinner was dirty in August, September and October, according to NBC.
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031213015820.4o1y6spb.html

GENERAL, YOUR TANK IS A POWERFUL VEHICLE
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful.
It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.
http://www.nonviolence.org/amhvigil/200330.html

And indeed, general, whoever you may be-- colonel, brigadier, chief of staff, defense minister, prime minister, or all of the above-- I can think. Perhaps I am not capable of much more than that. I confess that I am not an especially gifted or courageous soldier; I am not the best shot, and my technical skills are minimal. I am not even very athletic, and my uniform does not sit comfortably on my body. But I am capable of thinking.

I can see where you are leading me. I understand that we will kill, destroy, get hurt and die, and that there is no end in sight. I know that the "ongoing war" of which you speak, will go on and on. I can see that if the "military needs" lead us to lay siege to, hunt down, and starve a whole people, then something about these "needs" is terribly wrong.

I am therefore forced to disobey your call. I will not pull the trigger.
http://www.seruv.org.il/signers/24_1_Eng.htm

Suppose they held a draft and nobody came?
Suppose the US soldiers negociated THEIR OWN peace with the Iraqi "insurgents."

These people do NOT have the power
to make us do ANYTHING we do NOT want to do.
Remember that.

[DulceDecorum]

3. Which reminds me

WHERE IS THE TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD?
And what happens to those that go AWOL?

[lebkuchen]

5. Still in Texas

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/112003_APstate_guard.html

The group was scheduled Thursday to board buses to Austin where they will fill out paperwork for four days before returning to the Rio Grande Valley to make final preparations. They are to report to Ft. Bliss in El Paso on Dec. 7.

Although no further orders have been issued for the Valley group, soldiers expect to be rotated into Iraq for as long as a year to relieve other American forces.

"I'm not surprised, but I never thought I'd be called up," said Spc. Guillermo Vela, 28, told the San Antonio Express-News in Thursday's editions.


http://www.news24houston.com/content/headlines/?ArID=18788&SecID=2

-- More than 550 members of the Texas Army National Guard are being called to active duty.

Officials at Camp Mabry in Austin yesterday announced units will be mobilized to train as military police and replace mobilized troops in the United States, Hawaii and Europe.