Our team is made to help an Iraqi Motor Transportation Regimen (MTR), thus our mission as advisors is going to revolve around teaching them to do logistical convoys to deliver supplies and also to teach them how to train and sustain the soldier skills of their regimen—i.e. weapons training, physical fitness, etc. The training in “Funtown” is not geared to our kind of mission and it is frustrating sometimes to sit through hours of training that is not the main—is mostly remote—mission of our team. There has been other MTRs trained here but it seems like they also did not get the training that would focus on their team mission. Moving on….
My computer was fix and I finally received it…it seem like an eternity and it is kind of funny to think how attached we are to these things. I have been a little calmer and I am trying to keep my cool while I am here. The news of our deployment extension has drained me a little but I am still trying to keep a positive attitude. I mean…they are going to give us an extra day of leave and $1,000 for every extra month that we spend after 12 months…I guess that will make up for me missing another birthday missed and for yet, more time away from my family. Evidently, an exit strategy or an effort to increase recruitement levels is not an option…and yes, after stop loss, deployment extensions, recalling people that have retired or have been inactive, this is not so much of a voluntary Army anymore.
This week, we were trained to be Combat Life Savers (CLS). The training encompass a brief tutorial on how to provide immediate medical care—breathing, circulation and tourniquets—to injured soldiers in the battlefield until they can be transported to a medical facility. The highlight of the training was when had to learn how to administer an IV to each other. I have seen people walk out of the class with huge bruises on their arms because the other person cannot find their veins but luckly the female that did my arm got my vein on her first try.
The news this past week have been concentrating on the killings in VA Tech and although I understand and believe it was a shame, it enrages me to think that other news are being push over by it. It seems that the news media has forgotten that there’s a war going on and that American and innocent Iraqi lives are being lost everyday. I guess their thought process tells them that since we volunteer to joing the Armed Forces of this country we have should not be surprised to hear that we are losing more and more soldiers in a “war” that was declared “accomplished” four years ago. So, if the war is over and our mission is accomplished, why are we still having repeated deployments to Iraq?
