No justice for me means no justice for you
by Ms. Babble on April 13, 2007
in Iraq, Military
The negative attention the Army is receiving over their decision to extend tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan is a bit ludicrous to me. Well, let me take that back. It’s ludicrous in the sense that it’s deceiving. They are extending deployment times specifically for active-duty soldiers to 15 months instead of 12.
My quarrel is that the National Guard has been doing this from the beginning. Between mobilization, Kuwait, Iraq, Kuwait again, and demobilization, my unit was away for 14 months. The difference is that the deployment ticker doesn’t start for National Guardmembers until we step foot in the desert. (Aptly named “boots on ground”.)
The reality is that once a National Guard unit musters for their mobilization, they are considered gone to everyone they know. Prior to boarding the flight to the middle east, my unit had less than 24 hours to spend with family members. There were no civilian clothes. We couldn’t drink. We spent 16 hour days training for nearly two months. And this was all before “boots on ground”. The 12 month ticker hadn’t even started yet. A “nice” loop-hole for the government to take advantage of, don’t you think?
Some argue that active-duty soldiers are technically in uniform every day even when they aren’t deployed. But after swaping stories with my active-duty counterparts in Iraq, I realized quickly that it was an advantage to mobilize as active-duty with the weekends off, still close to their family, and drinking after training. Perhaps I talked to a particularly lax active-duty unit, but I felt a bit jipped.
As I’m reading the article about the extension of tours, I think it’s a shame. It really is, because I know how hard it is to be gone that long from anything recognizable. Part of me smirks at it, though, because I somehow feel like it’ll even out the weight that the Guard has taken on for these last four years.
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In light of what our predecessors went through in fighting WWII, the concept of a year long tour seems a little selfish to begin with.
I’m not saying that rotating battle-weary troops out of the fight from time to time is a bad thing, but let’s be realistic about things. The way we’ve chosen to field our Army is quite different than it was in the 1940s…
I salute all those who have served…and those who continue to do so. You are definitely making a difference around the world every day by your mere presence.
See you on the high ground!
MajorDad1984