Troops Deserve Clear Answers

[thedrifter]

09-17-2003

Guest Column: Troops Deserve Clear Answers



By Lt. Douglas Peiper USARNG



I am writing this out of deep concern for not only my own troops, but thousands of other National Guard and Reserve soldiers who are hanging by a thread, awaiting one of the most incredible decisions to be made regarding modern warfare in the U.S. Army. Recently Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the Army?s V Corps Commander in charge of the Iraqi Theatre of Operations, published a memorandum arbitrarily extending the tours of all Reserve Component soldiers in the Centcom theater of operations. Gen. Sanchez wrote:



?The Army recently published a change to the rotation and mobilization policy as it applies to our Reserve Component forces serving with CJTF-7 in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The Army leadership amended the rotation policy for Reserve Component units due to the dynamic operational environment in Iraq. Reserve Component units will remain in theatre for one year unless the Command determines that the unit?s capability is no longer needed. Mobilization Orders for these units will be extended to reflect one year boots on the ground.



?I realize that many of our Reserve Component soldiers are anxious to return to their families and jobs. I understand the impact this decision has on our great volunteer citizen-soldiers. However, the Army, our nation, and the coalition still need the critical skills these units provide as we continue the fight. This undertaking is difficult and dangerous, yet worthy of our country and critical to the security not only of Iraq, but the entire world.



?I ask each leader to help get the word out to our Reserve soldiers. I ask that you share with them my pride in their success and my understanding of the sacrifices that they and their families make every day to support the mission.?



Ricardo S. Sanchez

Lieutenant General, USA

Commanding



To grasp the complexity of the situation, you must first understand how the 142nd Engineer Battalion began its journey into Iraq. The battalion?s story is not so unique, but mirrors countless other National Guard and Reserve units activated in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. What makes the 142nd?s story even more dynamic than most is that it is made up of four companies, three of which are in the headquartered state of North Dakota, the fourth being from the neighboring state of Minnesota. This only added to the confusion in the early days of the Battalion?s activation because not only did the fourth company, Charlie Company, have the 142nd Engineer Battalion as its higher command, it also answers to the 84th Troop Command of Minnesota. Being in the National Guard and having two separate states in one battalion creates many issues from the funding of the units, issuing of equipment, the handling of personnel actions, and to the overall issue of how to handle the federal activation of those units.



The soldiers of Charlie Company, of which I am a member, first gained a glimpse into a possible deployment in mid-December of last year. I, as were many now Charlie Company soldiers, were from another unit. We were called on a Tuesday to report to Camp Ripley, Minnesota?s Guard Training Center, that coming Saturday for a Mobilization and Deployment Readiness Exercise (MODRE). We weren?t told much of anything, only that there may be a possible deployment. The members of the unit went through the typical MODRE exercise, sifting through paperwork, updating shots, and getting new ID cards. Many of us were given our first round of the anthrax inoculation. When asked why we were receiving this shot, since usually it is reserved for those who are being deployed to a certain region of the world, no answer was given.



We met again at Camp Ripley the first weekend of January. Again, we worked on putting our personal affairs in order, meeting with the JAG, and another round of the anthrax inoculation. Still no firm word on the unit?s activation. Those of us who were from other units were not even officially attached or transferred to the 142nd Engineers at that time.



It is interesting to note that those of us who were members of the 682nd Combat Engineer Battalion were told about the possible plan of the 4th Infantry Division?s move into Iraq through Turkey, which we may have been a part of, yet the 142nd Charlie Company Commander was unaware of that rumor. As we left for our homes that first weekend in January, we were led to believe that there may be a possible activation and deployment, but if that happened, we would have somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 days before we left our unit and our homes.



However, on the afternoon of Monday, Jan. 20, we received the call that the unit had indeed been activated and we should report to Camp Ripley with all of our personal equipment by the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 22. North Dakota chose to notify its units differently. Their initial notice was that Monday.



As many others, my life was far from in order enough so that I could leave my home for any lengthy amount of time at all. My fianc? and I were in the process of changing jobs, buying our first house, and planning a late-summer wedding. All of those plans were dramatically changed on Tuesday, Jan. 21. That morning, we were married at the courthouse, wedding ceremony postponed indefinitely, power of attorney signed over, house plans somewhat finalized, and some last-minute packing done. Wednesday morning, the soldiers of Charlie 142 were in formation. Though busy packing our company?s equipment, we were not actually on Title 10 Federal Active Duty yet. During Jan. 22 and 23 we were on State Active Duty Orders until it was made official on Friday, Jan. 24, 2003.



The Company, as did the rest of the Battalion, surpassed Active Duty standards by setting new records in the loading of equipment and personnel, which enabled the entire 142nd Engineer Batallion to arrive at our mobilization station at Fort. Carson, Colo. by Wednesday, Jan. 29.



The 142nd Battalion spent the next 72 days at Fort Carson. During that time, the unit again set records with the rail load of the entire battalions? equipment by Feb. 22, with the actual load on rail cars taking a mere 14 hours to complete. The unit was trained and certified for the Theatre of Operations by the first week in March.



Throughout that time the unit was told that it would be supporting the 555th Engineer Group of the 4ID out of Fort Lewis, Wash., as they moved through Turkey into Northern Iraq. The days and weeks passed as we watched the start of the ground war on CNN and Fox News on our TVs while sitting in Colorado. Turkey had refused to allow access to U.S. forces in using their country as a launching pad for in invasion into Iraq.



Where did that leave us? No one could answer that question. Six hundred sixty soldiers sat and waited for word on the status of our unit. Our green BDU uniforms were prepared to march into battle. We waited some more. The word was that we might be getting tan DCU uniforms. We waited some more. The 142nd Engineer Battalion did not know its disposition until about one week prior to movement. The rush was on. We received our DCU uniforms and were told we would be going to Kuwait. We were still to be supporting the 555th and the 4ID. On Thursday, Apr. 10, the 142nd Battalion loaded on planes bound for Kuwait.



Once in Kuwait, it was already unclear where we would be going and whom we would be supporting. Our Task Organization had changed as we would no longer be a part of the 555th Engineering Group. For two weeks, the battalion worked to unload ships at a port in Kuwait, transport the vehicles across 80 miles of desert, and packed equipment for an uncertain trip north into Iraq. Just prior to the first element of the battalion leaving for Iraq, we were told that we would be a part of the 130th Engineer Brigade out of Germany and the 168th Engineer Group of the Mississippi Army National Guard. The first element of the Headquarters Company and Alpha Company left Kuwait for Iraq on Apr. 25. Bravo followed one week later, and the remainder of the battalion and Charlie Company followed on May 11. The battalion found its spot at Balad Airfield, later named LSA Anaconda, which is located approximately 50 miles north of Baghdad.



Alpha Company was soon moved to Ar Ramadi to support the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Bravo moved to Baghdad International Airport to assist the 94th Engineers and others. The Headquarters element and Charlie Company stayed at LSA Anaconda to begin the reconstruction of the former Iraqi Airbase in support of U.S. forces. This breakdown of the Battalion lasted nearly three months. In mid-June, the 957th Multi-Role Bridge Company, also out of North Dakota, joined the battalion. As of mid-August, the entire battalion has been back together, stationed at LSA Anaconda.



Throughout this entire deployment there has been a general lack of a true, defined mission for us, and I would suspect many other Reserve Force troops as well. In the beginning when we would have come into Iraq through Turkey, our three missions were Enemy Prisoner of War Camps, Main Supply Route maintenance, and Route Clearance.



When the Turkey plan was scrapped and it was evident that there was a lack of EPW?s, we sat, with no idea what we would be doing. Upon reaching Kuwait and learning of our new task organization, we were told that we would be supporting the V Corps in military operations to sustain the force. We spent one month in Kuwait not knowing what we would be doing, nothing to tell our families, and dealing with a Postal Service that didn?t work.

Two days after Charlie Company reached Balad, I sat down and wrote a few pages of my thoughts as I witnessed the things going on around me. In retrospect, it seems that it was a little premature, but four months later as we look into an uncertain future, still no date home, no clear end-state, the words I wrote that day reflect a lot of the feelings of those soldiers around me.

The soldiers of 1st PLT, C/142 EN have hit rock bottom with the latest move to Balad Airfield. I?m sure the feeling is the same across the battalion. Over the course of this deployment, the battalion has seemingly been under several different task organizations, none of which have ever been introduced to the soldiers, nor the chain of command explained to anyone so that we might all understand where the decisions that impact us every day come from. We have been on Title 10 Active Duty now for 109 days ? still no mission. It seems to me and most everyone here that above platoon level our leadership have become ?Yes-Men?

It seems as though this is just one giant political game at the cost of thousands of peoples? personal lives. Ridiculous decisions are made at the upper level and passed down without question. We all understand that the military structure was built on a foundation with a chain of command that in order to function properly ? orders are given from commanders to their subordinates and followed so that the mission would be properly executed according to that commander?s intent. If not, there would be mass insubordination and anarchy and the military could not function in the way in which it was intended. ?


Commanders must do everything in their power to ensure that their soldiers are fed, clothed, have the basic necessities for survival, and above all feel the worth of being a soldier. If a soldier does not believe in what he/she is doing, they will start to feel forced to do the job and resent those who they feel have created the situation. Soldiers need motivation ? something to look forward to ? there has been nothing. Our leaders, the ones with the rank to influence the courses of these events seem to have taken a seat on top of their hands. What ever happened to the leaders who weren?t afraid to rock the boat, question the establishment and the status quo? It looks as though OERs and NCOERs, promotions and combat patches are more of a priority to our leaders now than soldiers and their morale.



The health of a soldier is more than physical. Mental and emotional health are key components of morale. One such leader who understood this was Col. David Hackworth, who bucked the system and paid the ultimate price by losing his brilliant military career, ousted by those who rationalize stupidity.

I am writing this on Sept. 15, 2003. The 142nd Engineer Battalion has been on active duty for 235 days, just nine days short of eight months since we left home.



There are still so many unanswered questions. The overall issue seems to be the discrepancy between the active Army and the Guard and Reserve. What ever happened to the ?Army of One??



Those who make the decisions that affect the citizen-soldier are Active Duty. They can?t possibly know how the Guardsman feels when he leaves his life, his job and his family to serve his country. The National Guard units taking part of Operation Iraqi Freedom were activated with 365-day orders. The quote-unquote ?rule? was that the 365 days began at the time the unit hit Title 10 Active Duty through mobilization and ends when the unit is demobilized.



A new congressional act passed after 9/11 permits DoD to extend those units for up to two years if the Department of the Army deems it necessary. So now thousands of Reserve Force members face an unbelievable situation.



The Army now says that units must serve 365 days, beginning with ?boots on the ground,? meaning Day One starts when you land in the theater of Operation Iraqi Freedom. For Active Duty Forces, this is not such a big deal. For the Guard and Reserve it is. Those of us here now are being penalized for the mistakes of the U.S. government in the preliminary stages of the war in Iraq. Call it bad planning, we are now being told that basically, the time we spent at our mobilization station counts as nothing.



Active Duty members kissed their loved ones goodbye and left home when they got on the plane for Kuwait. We ?Weekend Warriors? left our lives behind when we left our homes in January and February, some even earlier than that. Thousands of Reserve Force soldiers sat for two and three months at a mobilization station, away from our homes and lives, while we watched most of the ground combat on CNN.



The double standard list in the Army is quite impressive. Guard and Reserve forces are currently, as they have been since mobilization, under ?stop-loss? [which allows the Army to freeze on active duty those scheduled for discharge or retirement]. The active Army is not.



What this means is that for active-duty troops, being stationed in Iraq is for all intensive purposes, nothing more than another duty station. Active Duty troops have been allowed to return home using emergency and regular leave for family issues much more easily than their Guard and Reserve counterparts. Active Duty troops have been allowed to PCS, ETS, retire, rotate out of command and theatre, and return to Europe and the states to attend schools.



In my unit alone, we have an operations sergeant who has served his country for over 30 years with a tour in Vietnam and now retired, yet not allowed to return home. The mid-tour leave policy that the Army is pursuing may not include the Guard and Reserve. The ?Army of One? seems only to exist to those who are active duty.



Throughout this deployment, we have been given two completely different stories

concerning our redeployment. First we were told that it was conditionally based. For Combat Heavy Engineers, that basically meant that we would have a specific set of criteria concerning the accomplishment of our mission here in theatre. If we do this ? then we go home. After months of working on LSA Anaconda and elsewhere, those conditions never materialized. The second story we received was that our time here would be time-based. Simply said, there would be no job that we were doing that would keep us here; no job that couldn?t be handed over. When our time is up, we go home.



Now, with this latest development of the blanket extension orders for the Guard and Reserve, it seems that neither of those alternatives are correct. It may be a combination of both. We have been told that we have no replacements, at least no other Combat Heavy Engineers coming to take our place. That leaves the question of civilian contractors and the local population. Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) has established a foothold throughout the country of Iraq with an astronomical contract with the U.S. government to provide many services from dining facilities, water purification, and construction engineering. The local populace is being used for a variety of contracts with regards to renovating former Iraqi bases like LSA Anaconda and new U.S. compounds.



It remains to be seen how this will affect Army units and the time they spend in country.



Under previous redeployment guidelines, the 142nd ECB had a scheduled no later than release date from LSA Anaconda of Nov. 24, 2003, unit?s 305th day on active duty. Based on the structure of the battalion, its equipment and personnel, it was discovered that more time was needed in order for the unit to move south and redeploy home within its 365 days (Jan. 24, 2004). A soldier requesting an earlier release date should have submitted the request letter as of Sept. 15.

The extension notice changed all that. In a meeting with the V Corps Commander in Baghdad, the 130th Brigade commander was told not to submit the request; that it would basically be round-filed. The request would have stated the need to move earlier and that the 142nd Battalion?s mission was complete. The brigade commander was told that if that was the case, the 142nd ECB would be reassigned elsewhere in theatre, possibly to a mission that was non-Engineer specific.



This seems to contradict the statement Lt. Gen. Sanchez made in his memorandum regarding extension, in which he stated, ?However, the Army, our nation, and the coalition still need the critical skills these units provide as we continue the fight.?

It would seem to me that if our work as Engineers were complete, that would end the need for those critical skills. To reassign us to another mission, possibly not even an engineer mission would go against the possible extension. Why extend us then, when the mission might be able to be completed with any unit still back in the states?



There is indeed a precedent to be set by this latest decision to extend those units still in theatre. The main battle force, the 3ID, where troops? complaining about a longer-than-expected stay in Iraq made world news many times over, sent their last troops home early August after serving 11 months overseas. I may not be a historian, but I believe that Guard and Reserve forces who were activated early 2003, if extended to 12 months ?boots on the ground,? will set a new standard for deployment not seen since the days of the points system in World War II in which some troops spent two, three, and nearly four years in theater.



It isn?t the time that bothers most troops: It is being told repeatedly by your chain of command ? ?I Don?t Know!? Since the beginning of this deployment, thousands of troops have had to tell their families, ?I don?t know,? when asked about coming home. Countless dates have been given, every one of them passing with the same old answer, ?I don?t know.?



The leaders of the U.S. Army owe each one of our families an answer to the question of when the troops will be home again. Gen. Abizaid, the CENTCOM Commander himself stated in a press conference that the Army owes every service member a date when they will be going home. He made that two months ago on July 16. Isn?t it about time?



Troops want and need something to look forward to, something to believe in. The longer Operation Iraqi Freedom gets drawn out, and the more troops who are killed by an unseen enemy, the harder it is to remember what the fight is all about.



The common troop doesn?t care so much for the political aspects of this conflict. They will support their chain of command if given a clear-cut mission, what they must do to complete that mission, and the assurance that their leaders always have the troop?s best interests in mind.



1st Lt. Peiper is a platoon leader with the 142nd Engineer Battalion, North Dakota-Minnesota Army National Guard, currently stationed in Balad, Iraq.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/c....1577638388292

Sempers,

Roger

[the humper]

who has ever been in one, A COMBAT ZONE, seen, heard of, or know of a CLEAR answer when your fighting!!!! Didn't happen on this end!!!!
SF
NC

[BLUEHAWK]

Roger -
Yours is an extraordinary posting...

Forgive my ignorance, questions:

1. What is the law as to how long a civilian employer MUST hold a job for a Reserve or Guard trooper?

2. Do you think that having a draft would be a more fair way to handle a matter of this kind and relieve the Reserves for strictly/true "reserve" duty, while keeping the Guard on Homeland Security standby?

3. Is it the case, in your opinion, that Reserve or Guard units are being sustained when active duty forces should be upgraded in number?