[ARCHIVED THREAD] - How does the Iraq war affect you? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 6/22/2006 11:25:33 PM EDT
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How does the war in Iraq affect you? This is not a pro-war/anti-war post, so please don't go on about how we should or shouldn't be there. If you are military please state this in your post. Thanks, Dan ETA: Be specific. |
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Until a few weeks ago I was reporting and commenting about it from out of theatre. Now I've been told I may be sent there next year I'm having to think hard about things from a personal perspective. Although I'd be a non combatant inside a secure zone and safe enough, my wife is having serious problems with it. ANdy (.Mil Civ IO) |
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Non - Mil ..... My day to day world is far removed from Iraq . The effect it has on me is that I have great pride and gratitude for those who choose to stand there so I can live my life here . At the same time I also feel sadness for those who have been wounded or killed . Along with some guilt that I'm too old to do anything other then send care packages and offer my heart felt support  |
Physically, yep. Especially since its 115* out. Emotionally, eh. Being away from home sucks, yeah. Having to walk 100' to go to a porta-potty sucks, yeah. Shower trailer is like 200m away, yep. Not being able to have real milk or cheese or just go to a sitdown restaurant, yep. But hey, what are ya gonna do, ya know? I like it here, I love our mission and I like it when we get to talk to the Iraqi's, some are pretty cool. Monetarily, hell yes. I was a poor college student before coming here. Lets just say in the first 6mos of being here, I almost doubled my income from the year before. 
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My .mil bro is raking in the cash with raise, after raise, after raise. He has never set foot in Iraq. It (this war) makes the most important service, the Army, the least desirable and that makes America less safe. The quality of those entering and those promoted in the US Army is going down. How many captains fail to make major? If we have to take on the ChiCom we will regret this little war on behalf of the Neocons. The best Americans keep getting killed and this "society" isn't making many of their kind anymore. Mercs and GIs aren't the same thing. |
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I'll bite. I'm a Sgt. in the USMC Reserves. I've been a reservist since 1999 when I joined. In Jan. of 2003 I was on the local volunteer fire department, going to college full-time, and was going throught the fire academy. The academy is 3 1/2 months long. Two weeks before I was supposed to take my state written and practical test I was activated. I asked my girlfriend to marry me. On Feb. 7 I had boots on the ground in kuwait (Camp Coyote, Peliliu). Moved to Breach Point West. Crossed the LOD. History was made. It was a short deployment and got back home in June. I could not find a job. Thank God for the second activation. After a break from things I'm now back on the fire department again (Late in 2004). Sign up for the academy again. This time I am able to take my state written test but am activated again before my practical test. Two week before my scheduled date to get married. I was not allowed to go and take my state practical test. So no federal/state fire certification for me. They did let me go and get married the following weekend. Four days after I'm married I am sent to Camp Lejeune for a work up for a six month pump. Woo Hoo! Now I have been home for a year from my last deployment. My wife and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon (Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Cayman). I was able to secure employment before I demobilized this time. Still haven't made it back to school and I am unwelcome at the fire dept. The fire academy isn't cheap. And they paid for it twice already. Hey, at least I'm in the VFW now.  ETA: Damn typos |
OK, so the war affects you because the enlistment and promotion rates are down, and if China decides to attack us you will have to take up arms to defend yourself.? |
I'm sure that made sense in your head. Unfortunately, out here it kinda sounded like you shit yourself. Anyway, the Iraq war doesn't affect me on a personal scale much, other than the friends I have known who served or currently serve. For them, I worried and continue to hope for the best. |
Good grief. Why must someone always feel the need to locate perfectly good threads, then shit all over what was otherwise a very interesting discussion? |
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Its made me appreciate the time I have in the world (anywhere but the desert) a lot more. Im a little more than 8 months into this deployment and I cant wait to get back. I enjoyed my first tour a lot more actually. They've turned everything into garrison... The heat is a sob. Last night even at 8pm it was 109 out. Constant sweating sucks. Emotionally its not too bad for me. Some people take it harder. I think the troops are doing a good job but I question the big picture. Not that we shouldnt be here but how things are ran. What the goal is. My parents worry about me a lot. Especially my mom. She doesnt like me being over here at all. My best friend is here too but not close enough to see each other. But yeah the main thing for me is when Im not here I enjoy things more. Before I joined I took a lot for granted. At this point one good weekend with friends and family means so much more than it used to for me. Not having to suck sand all the time. Not sharing a latrine with tons of people. Having a room to yourself and not 6 other people. Yeah I enjoy the good times more... |
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The war affects me because a lot of my bros are out there risking their necks and I want them all to come home safe and victorious. It's never far from my mind. It has also cost me some friendships because I refuse to associate with anyone who tries to shift the blame for terrorism and the harsh realities of war on the United States, our President, or our soldiers. We need to make sure our politicians are in it to win it. |
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I collapsed a disk in my lower back on my last tour there. I have been twice and came back injured twice. I got out on a medical because of my injuries that I received on my last trip. I'd say it has effected the trajectory of the rest of my life. I'm not bitter. There are MANY others worse off than me. Still....I'd rather be my old height of 5'10" instead of my present height of 5'8". |
Sorry you didn't fair to well, thoughts and prayers for you and your family. Any regrets? |
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It affects me because I was planning on either going to Marine O.C.S. after college or maybe the Platoon leader's course next summer, but the way the Marine's Brass have been selling out the guys on the ground is starting to make me wonder if it is the right thing to do. The way the Marines are being treated is making me think more about the Coast Guard. Although I have always wanted to be a Marine. 
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Ill be sitting on the roof with my SAW and M2/Mk19 doing shifts as a squad at the IP stations in my AO. Hot area. Gonna be an interesting year. Try to stay off the FOB (and away from the flagpole) as much as humanly possible. I think the idea of speeding tickets on a FOB is fucking stupid as shit. I want to get out of MPs when I can, go straight combat arms. Tanker if I could. Three MOS choices are Tanker, CI, CID. |
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Lets see I am an Air Force Captain working with the Army and alot of the Army folks I work with do not understand common sense. I have Navy Chiefs that work with/around me and they are great and do not take crap from stupid garrison rules like reflective belts at 0900 in the morning WTF is up with that? I go into Iraq and I am on the FOBs and out in the towns but primarily at Arifjan (where women cannot go out afternight w/o a buddy). 13 Days left and they are sending me back up to Iraq to work on a Marine Trans issue. I think I wear the purple suit here pretty well. Also away from my Wife for 189 Days plus the Red Flag deployment before hand but got to spend christmas with the wife. Yeah it affects me in a pissed off way on the family side but I like doing the job and it sure is great so its a dillima. Scott Scott |
Other than the medical issues....no. I always said that I either wanted to be a Pastor or join the service. I said this from about 5 years old on. It is who I am. It is what I was born to be. If I didn't blow out my back in Iraq, I would have blown it out building a mission Church on the Mosquito Coast. 6 in one hand....half a dozen in the other.  
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Physically: Not at all. Financially: Not at all. Emotionally: A bit. While I do go about my daily life, I'm always cognizant that others are out there doing the Lord's work in my name, and I am grateful to them for their service and to God that our nation still produces such people. I also worry that one day, one of the dead will be someone I know. |
Goodie.  I think its stupid too.  Tanker is eh....unless you go to an extremely hot AO like Ramadi, they dont load the cannons ever. CID would be kinda cool but the only way it would be cool is to get on the PSD teams they have. |
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The war doesn't affect me physically or financially and my day to day world isn't affected very much, but there are emotional effects. I strongly support President Bush and the efforts of all our people in uniform. I appreciate their service and their sacrifice and their good judgement. I've been over the issues again and again in my mind and I just can't find any viable alternative to the course on which President Bush has set out. A problem for me is that I have had to come to grips with the sad fact that I'm the only one in my family who feels this way. I've tried to patiently explain to the rest of the fam the causes for this war, the necessity for it and the potentially terrible costs of failure. All to no avail. In truth, it's a complicated subject and for a whole host of reasons the Administration itself has done a poor job of educating the American people on the subject. |
Dont beat yourself up. If we didnt have people like you to support the troops, and all the people that take time out of their days at the DFW and Atlanta airports to welcome troops home on leave and going back....we wouldnt have anything. So thank you for the support. 
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1. The VA used to be Santa Claus with their disability $$; now, they are getting hit with so many claims that they have turned off the $$ and are fighting with folks over noncombat injuries. I have bad lungs from bleomycin (cancer chemo) that the Army gave me to fight cancer, yet the VA didn't even service-connect it; but, they gave my wife 10% in 2004 for removing a neuroma from her foot, making her foot 100% perfect with no pain 2. I see the Army up close every day, and the recurrent deployments are breaking the junior officer corps. Yes, lots of junior officers are getting lots of good combat experience, but many of them are getting sat down by wifey and told "you've been gone for 2 of the past 3 years, and there is no telling when this Iraq thing will end. If you want to know your kids and keep me, you've got some deciding to do." You know it's bad when soldiers say they feel like they are permanently stationed in Iraq and home is merely a 12-month TDY. 3. I really really hoped Bush/Rumsfeld would use the war as an opportunity to get rid of all the ridiculous PC crap (i.e., annual ethics training, prevention of sexual harassment training, prevention of domestic violence training, etc.) but it keeps piling on. Now, CSA has shown their priorities by SURPRISE! picking a new Army Service Uniform based on the Union Army uniform (which should go over well in all those Army bases stationed in the former Confederacy). That lack of battle focus drove my decision to get out. |
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Well....Bradley gunner then? I love being a mounted gunner. Crew served, and slightly bigger would be awesome. Dream job would be front seater in an apache, but unless I can get the Army to lase my eyes, aint gonna happen. (They would have to, if we didnt have this deployment for a couple more months...I had just had my pre-op. ) CID interest is drug side, or failing that computer forensics....just because it would be a kick ass job money wise when I got out. |
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Financially? No Personally? Besides worrying about friends over there and being driven to bitterness because I can't, maybe. But I'll tell you what-my oldest son still has infrequent nightmares about 9-11. He was born in NYC, and visited the Towers a few months before the day. The day affected him, not making him a total basket case, but still. Whenever he has a nightmare I sit up with him, we talk about what happened. I have a folder of pics from this site showing our heroes kicking ass, Rusted Ace's videos (censored a bit) and pics. I can reassure him that nobody will get past our troops and his uncle Sott and Chris (PMC's). And of course, if they do pas them, they have to get past me and my CAR-15 . That usually settles him down.So, they bring comfort to my son, and protect both my sons. How do you acknowledge a debt like that? |
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I applaud the fact that we have some extremely brave troop laying the smack on Jihadist ass, but it also irritates me that we are spending billions of dollars and sacrificing thousands of American lives to promote democracy in a country that seems to be full of complete, ungrateful shitheads. If we succeed in this mission and spread Western values through the region, great, but I'm not sure that we want democracy. Look at what happened with Iran's elections. They elected a nut job. Although Afghanistan seems to be getting more violent recently, look at what's happened there over the past 5 years. Compare that to Iraq. Freakin' ingrates. |
Well said. Stay safe, and thank you for going through it! ETA: Air Force OTS interviews have been set back, I was told, until 2007 for the air guard unit I'm trying to get into. I think it's partly due to the war, and partly due to the unit being deployed to the theater and the pilots wanting to get in on the action. None of the pilots have decided to leave the unit, so I have to wait for my chance. |
| I spent some time in Iraq working in an armed, outside the perimeter capacity. It definitely sharpened some of my skills and paid me very well. It also exposed me to some things about which many people bear false impressions. It amply demonstrated once again the shameless bias of the press. |
Ehh.....you dont really wanna be mounted anything in the heat.  They need to add external AC to teh Bradley's and Abrams.... Apache pilot/gunner would be hella awesome. You could always go Aviation and be a Crew Chief/Gunner on a Blackhawk.
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It affects me every day and every minute of my life. I wake up after a good night of sleep in my safe home, eat a good meal, drive a nice vehicle to a well paying job, do what I'm paid to do, then drive home to a family and place I've worked thirty years to own. My wife has a well paying business, my kids have graduated from college and have good jobs. All this is because there are people with balls and not afraid to use use them who hunt down those fucking Islamic Facist Nazi 12th century retarded diaper headed inbred camel humping degenerate nasty sons of a bitches who would take all this away from every one of us if he could and be willing to happily die in doing so and killing them like the vermin they are. Thay's how it affects me. And if the rest of you dumbfucks are too stupid to realize it then go on down to the local mosque and reserve a spot for your prayer rug cause they will either destroy or convert you. You choose. rk |
So definatley emotionally, right? Is the .gov spending hurting your wallet? Ungrateful shit heads? The Iraqis I've talked to were extremely grateful. |