Utah soldiers in Iraq want jobs that use their skills

[Khephra]

Utah soldiers in Iraq want jobs that use their skills





By Dawn House
(c)2003, The Salt Lake Tribune

The frustration pours out of an e-mail from a Utah Army National Guard soldier:

"Since I have been in Iraq, I have spent the majority of my days reading books, playing video games and watching movies because there is nothing for a Spanish linguist to do. I don't see how they can justify extending our orders when for the last seven months we've done absolutely nothing."

For some of Utah's 1,000 Guard and 800 reservists, the postwar experience in Iraq has been one long frustration. Many have no jobs or they pull security and driver duties when they are trained for top-secret military intelligence missions. More than 50 soldiers were supposed to have completed their military stints or earned retirement status when their orders were frozen in January. They remain in Iraq.

snip..............

Ramifications may go well beyond the several more months of deployment. Some Guard members and officials fear that frustrations will result in deployed Guard members not rejoining when their current stints expire.

"I intend to stay in the military when I return home but having talked to many of the soldiers in my company, I know that the Guard is going to have a problem with retention," said a 20-year veteran. "There is no need for us to be here and we have no mission that is applicable to us."

more..............

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Sep/09082003/utah/90734.asp

[lebkuchen]

1. Many in the Guard will have been deployed for over a year

A year in Iraq after a few months' deployment stateside twiddling thumbs in what could be loosely translated as an exercise in "guerilla training."

We haven't felt the full impact of troop frustration yet. It's trickling out now, but it is slowly building to a crescendo.