Iraq isn’t ‘fantastic’
It’s people like Col. Brad MacNealy who give guardsmen a bad name (“Soldiers: Iraq ‘fantastic’ compared to Katrina aid,” article, The Associated Press, Sept. 7 Mideast print edition; “Poor communication stymies relief effort; Guardsmen say conditions along Gulf Coast make deployment to Iraq look good,” Europe edition, Sept. 6).
I am glad he “had it made” in Iraq. But for those of us who have to work and live on the front lines, there is no such thing. As I sit here, a mortar round strikes, which brings to mind whether the good colonel even knows what one sounds like, or has ever lived, worked and played in a place where mortar rounds and small-arms fire sing you to sleep at night.
Since he is an aviation commander, I will venture to guess he has no idea what an improvised explosive device looks, smells or feels like when it blows up next to your vehicle. Or how it feels to patch up your buddies time and again when this happens. I promise you that the men and woman of the forward operating bases would gladly build a levee or clean up dead bodies and rescue people, because even though they would be dealing with the deaths of fellow Americans, it does not compare to the loss of a friend you spend every day with.
I am not taking away from the job our fellow soldiers are doing, because I know the task is hard and seems like never-ending heartache, but no person can ever compare the job that soldiers do here in Iraq to a cleanup/rescue effort. We are thousands of miles from our families, getting shot at, blown up, and our buddies are getting killed. We can’t help but wonder if our number will be pulled and our families will be holding a folded flag before it’s all over. And all of this is “fantastic” by comparison.
It offends me that a man in a leadership position could be so narrow-minded as to forget the men and women who don’t live in the lap of aviation officer luxury.
Spc. John Brack
Camp Stryker, Iraq
Appalled at colonel’s comments
As I started my 24-hour battalion aid station shift, I was stunned at the headline that glared back at me: “Iraq ‘fantastic’ compared with Katrina aid.”
I was appalled at the comment by Col. Brad MacNealy, who stated “We … absolutely had it made.” It was obvious that the colonel never spent time with his enlisted personnel who lived outside of the Air Force comforts of crew rest cycles and air-conditioned trailers.
What about the others who are not so lucky as to be high-ranking brass living to typical aviation standards? I spent time at Mamudiyah, a small base in an area referred to as “the Triangle of Death.” The post was a village of tents that was under constant attack. Nights were spent in total blackout and individual battle armor worn at all times. Water, power and hot meals were in short supply as we worked under some of the worst conditions. Our day-to-day lives would not be considered “fantastic” under any circumstances.
A war zone is a war zone, no matter where you live or the job you have. I would like to see MacNealy tell a young infantry soldier and the families of the deceased and those who have suffered from tragic wounds, both physically and mentally, that his time spent here in Iraq was “fantastic” compared to his unlucky chopper pilots in Louisiana.
I am not negating any of the hard work that my fellow comrades in arms are doing for the victims of Katrina. I spent time assisting victims of last year’s raging hurricanes in Florida. I know the conditions are unfavorable and disastrous, but to compare humanitarian relief to war is ridiculous.
Any soldier who thinks that Iraq is “fantastic” compared to hurricane aid can gladly trade places with me any time.
Spc. Alyce Haldi
Camp Stryker, Iraq
‘Fantastic’ isn’t the word
The headline that read that Iraq was “fantastic” really made my buddies and me upset.
Every day soldiers leave the wire on missions wondering if they are going to make it back. Soldiers are under the constant threat of bombs, small-arms fire and suicide bombers. Even soldiers who have been called “fobbits” (people whose important skills are performed mainly on a base and not “outside the wire”) have in the back of their mind that the next mortar attack may be the one that sends them home in a flag-draped box. All this while enduring austere conditions of extreme heat, long work days and dust storms.
“Fantastic” is not a word I would use to describe this theater of operations, unless, of course, I was comparing it to trench warfare in World War I, or storming the beaches of Normandy in World War II, or the perilous foot patrols of Vietnam. Compared to the conditions those soldiers endured, only then could I say Iraq is “fantastic.”
Not to detract from what soldiers in the Southern states are doing. I cannot comprehend a city that I have worked in and visited many times to be almost completely underwater. I applaud the efforts of all aid workers in that area and pray for the people of those areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Spc. Wesley Ruland
Camp Stryker, Iraq
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=31474
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