*Experiences of a Soldier*

December 20th marked a great day for my family, as my bother walked through the gates of the airport to greet us returning from his 2 month deployment in Quatar. He had a relieved smile, yet a candid thorn in his side seem to pull him from the reality of being back home in a place where life was normal and the tensions were mere pins and needles. He is an Aviation Technician assigned to mechanics on various US airforce transport and bomber craft. When i saw him for the first time in the airport, i wasn't sure how to greet him. Ignorantly i asked "How was your trip?"
He kind of just froze for a minute ...and i beat my palm against my forehead. And then as easily as he could put it, he responded with "Well....Im not looking forward to going back"

Later on in the evening after the initial greeting emotions cooled, he told me of some of his experiences. He told me how even he as an aviation technician seemingly safe on an allied airforce base didn't feel safe at any minute of the day. Only a few days after he arrived at Qatar, one of his co-mechanics walked down town and was stabbed. Luckily it was a non-lethal wound, but frightening enough to make everyone in his department instinctively watch their back. He said his most frightening experiences were when he and some co-mechanics would begin working on a plane, and they would find an explosive attached to it. I guess it wasn't uncommon during the night, for an insergent to somehow jump the fence and attach explosives to the planes sitting at the base. One false move could have meant the loss of his life or others in his department. They had to call a bomb squad to come and disengage devices numerous times while he was there.

Now i understand why he had such a blank demeanor. Most of us sit here in our chairs and talk about war from our living rooms or office, and are ignorant to the fact of what our boys are going through. I know there are alot of people out their that don't appreciate what these young men and women are doing, but we need to be supportive of our soldiers and their families. They lay their lives on the line while we sit here in our comfortable homes and take for granded what they are our there fighting for.
I created this post for those who wish to share stories from their loved ones and reletives that might have been deployed in the war on terrorism. feel free to add your stories or thoughts

Carburetor

[edit on 22-3-2005 by Mr Carburetor]

Thanks carburetor, for sharing that with us, you are right, sometimes only the ones that has been in war and back can tell their stories.

I don't have presently family members in Iraq but I have friends that do, and I have friends that came back, and my husband lost some friends.

But that is all part of conflicts.

Great

Let me tell you about a soldier I know. This is what he saw.

HIs email said his unit rehabed a school and the locals treated him and his unit like hero's. Later one unit memeber died.

No politics in this. JUst one soldier doing his job.

Thanks for the replies.
Here is an email my boss received from a co-worker in my company that deloyed a month ago to Iraq.



Hi Paul,

I hope this reaches you. I have sent other e-mail that has not been received.

I am doing alright under the circumstances. The weather is getting warmer and the insurgents are getting more active as a result. Two of my friends from charlie company have been sent home after being injured in an attack. My truck has been hit with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) twice, but I have been fortunate not to be hurt seriously.

I will be sending some pictures once I have the time to burn a CD. I don't have a date when I will redeploy stateside yet but I am eager to get back to my chosen profession and leave this Army stuff to someone younger.

How are things going on your side of the planet? I pray all is well.

I appreciate the e-mail and hope to receive more.

Roy

Originally posted by Mr Carburetor
Thanks for the replies.
Here is an email my boss received from a co-worker in my company that deloyed a month ago to Iraq.



Hi Paul,

I hope this reaches you. I have sent other e-mail that has not been received.

I am doing alright under the circumstances. The weather is getting warmer and the insurgents are getting more active as a result. Two of my friends from charlie company have been sent home after being injured in an attack. My truck has been hit with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) twice, but I have been fortunate not to be hurt seriously.

I will be sending some pictures once I have the time to burn a CD. I don't have a date when I will redeploy stateside yet but I am eager to get back to my chosen profession and leave this Army stuff to someone younger.

How are things going on your side of the planet? I pray all is well.

I appreciate the e-mail and hope to receive more.

Roy

Talk about putting things into perspective. This soldier actually is hoping his boss back home is doing well!!

Man, these guys will always be hero's to me, no matter what I see or read. Period.

My heart goes out o all the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines (mainly the Marines of course) deployed to the middle east now.

I've had a few friends die in Iraq, as for the ones that lived...the stories they have are awesome.

Quatar is a pretty good place. Im guessing your friend os airforce?

It curtainly does put things into perspective. You would think that a boss back home would be the last one a soldier would give good wishes too. However our soldiers are so eager to hear words of encouragment from anyone they can. This is why its important whether you supported the war or not, to atleast support your brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers from your own nation and other nations fighting beside you.

Carburetor

Originally posted by dev_add
My heart goes out o all the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines (mainly the Marines of course) deployed to the middle east now.

I've had a few friends die in Iraq, as for the ones that lived...the stories they have are awesome.

Quatar is a pretty good place. Im guessing your friend os airforce?

Thanks for your addition to the thread Dev_add
My brother was stationed in Qatar for 2 months as an Aviation Propulsions Technician. As far as my co-worker who wrote the email, im not sure where he is stationed. Most of the people who get deployed are suppose to keep their deployement location secret. My brother at first told us he was going to Afghanistan and then we found out he actually went to Quatar. He said it was for security reasons that he couldn't tell us his exact deployment.

Yeah deployments can really suck sometimes, it all depends on where you go. Some places are better than others. That a big morale issue the military is having now...some units are doing multiple deployments 7 months deployed, 7 months home...etc...etc.

Some Marines are leaving units returning from Iraq and going to thier new units which are soon going there...but hey, SNAFUBAR

Originally posted by booger
Great

Let me tell you about a soldier I know. This is what he saw.

HIs email said his unit rehabed a school and the locals treated him and his unit like hero's. Later one unit memeber died.

No politics in this. JUst one soldier doing his job.

Hello booger
Is this soldier you know deployed in Falluja? I know alot of the major rebuilding is taking place there and schools are starting to slowly re-open.

Hi ya Marg!!
Sorry to hear about your husbands friends. I think we all either know someone, have friends or family that are invovled in this conflict, meaning there is a little piece of all of us that has resided in Iraq or Afghanistan at one point or another.

Thank you both for your addition to the thread!! If you got any more stories or thoughts lets here em!!

Carburetor

Mr. Carburetor, Give your brother a hug or a handshake or a pound, whatever you two do, and tell him it is from a fellow American who respects his courage, bravery and love for his country. I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate what these heroes do everyday for me, my four year old daughter and the rest of my family and fellow Americans. They keep us safe by sacrificing their own safety. May God bless your brother yourself and the rest of your family for supporting him, may God keep him safe and may he always remember there are so many of us who support him as well. Thank You.

[edit on 22-3-2005 by csulli456]

I honestly would fight for the U.S and Battle in the middle east if my Prime Minister would come to reality and stop watching his Country launder money to Quebec and invest Money and Troops to help the americans losing there lives....but no we watch, it makes me want to spit on my sidewalks.

Mr.Carburetor it was amazing to hear your brothers storys...My hope is for him when he returns to Quatar(if thats were he is returning)

God Bless the ones who risk there lives

I've got 2 stories...

A buddy of mine in the 101st told me about a family they grew to know. Aparently this family had a shop/stand where they would sell the soldiers tea, food, and other such things. The family was kind of taken under their wing so to speak, because they would see them several times a day and became friends with them.

Well one day some insurgent scum tried to kill the family for doing buisness with the soldiers. The father was shot and the leg and arm, but his 2 kids and wife were alright.

Well, luckily a little convoy of the airborn happened on the scene, and as my friend said "we were none too pleased to see our friends getting shot at."

So they start a chasing these guys down the street in the Humvee and light them up with the 50. Got all 3 of them, 2 alive. It led to a bunch of other guys getting caught too.

The other one is from a friend of mine in the marines.

He and another marine for some reason or another had to search a car (maybe it was a checkpoint I forget).

Anyhow, he aproaches from the drivers side, while his friend with a SAW (Squad aautomatic weapon, or 'big machine gun' for those of you who don't know) aproaches from the passanger side a bit behind him.

As he gets to the drivers window, the driver starts shooting a pistol at him, and hits him in the chest (luckily he had his body armour and plates in). As he falls back from the hit, he unloads his M-16 into the passanger side, and his buddy let's go on full auto with the SAW. They got the insurgent of course, and found a trunk full of explosives.

Originally posted by American Mad Man
The other one is from a friend of mine in the marines.

He and another marine for some reason or another had to search a car (maybe it was a checkpoint I forget).

Anyhow, he aproaches from the drivers side, while his friend with a SAW (Squad aautomatic weapon, or 'big machine gun' for those of you who don't know) aproaches from the passanger side a bit behind him.

As he gets to the drivers window, the driver starts shooting a pistol at him, and hits him in the chest (luckily he had his body armour and plates in). As he falls back from the hit, he unloads his M-16 into the passanger side, and his buddy let's go on full auto with the SAW. They got the insurgent of course, and found a trunk full of explosives.

Lucky all those rounds missed the trunk then.

I know I can be highly critical of the motivations that have ensconced us (I am from Australia) in this conflict. The plight of the individual soldier, however, is not beyond me and is certainly not often a point for undue criticisms from the comfortable vantage point of our homes. These guys have my admiration because of what they are willing to do for a principle, idea or whatever that they hold worth fighting for. I just hope that they get home to their families and are able to resume some kind of normal life.

Thanks very much for creating this thread. Often, in the heat of political rhetoric, the humanity of our fighting forces is forgotten. Politics are often dehumanizing.

My salute and prayers to all who are serving our country abroad, regardless of personal politics that I or others may have.

Once again thanks for the support and to those contributors i haven't yet mentioned.

Csulli456
American Madman
James blonde
Sigung86

My family is 1 in thousands that appreciate your feedback. Keep up the support and continue sharing those storyies and experiences that come back with our soldiers.

American Madman- Those are some good in the heat of action stories! I bet those marines at the check point needed a new change of underwear after that experience. Im sure their buddies and and family memebers are so grateful that they still remain with us today.

In response to your other story involving the Iraqi family. I wanna stretch my respects beyond our soldiers and to the many families in Iraq that are trying to fight through this mess. It must be a huge challenge for them to endure the grueling part of war in order to reach the ultimate objective which is their inevitable freedom and more prominent future. Lets give our wishes for them to.

Carburetor

My son is serving over in Iraq with the British Army. He is currently a door gunner on the Lynx helicopters and also seconded as the platoon sniper.

He had leave at Christmas and is now due home sometime next month.

There is one story he had to tell me. I deliberated on weather or not to post, but decided i needed to share this.

For obvious reasons I'm not going to reveal where he was when the following took place.

His squadron was based just outside a small village near to where most of the trouble was happening. After a few weeks, they began to get know the local kids, who were always around asking for water.
They used to give the kids the water and tried to make conversation with them. They taught them English to an extent, enough to be able to be understood, names etc.
My son was quiet taken with a 9 year old girl who , according to him seemed to be the odd one out among the other children. He used to give her chocolate bars from his ration packs and the boiled sweets that they get.
This went on for weeks, until he handed over some chocolate to the girl in the street. Some elders or maybe part of her family were sitting in the background watching this happen. Nothing was said, just a waved hand and a smile.

He never saw this girl again until 3 weeks later. She was hanging from a tree. She had been hung because she had taken "gifts" from a westerner. The girls family were distraught. They didnt blame my son, but they thanked my him for taking the time to help her and to make her happy.


My son phoned me in tears when he found out what had happened. He still feels like he was to blame for some part in this. Maybe if he hadn't given her things ,then she might still be alive?This is what he thought.
I told him to take comfort in what he did for the unfortunate girl, and look back at how it made her smile and brought a small piece of happiness into her life.
He will live with that memory for ever. He even has the phototgraph of her in his wallet. He said he needs to keep it.

I apologize if this has upset anyone, but it made me cry when he was telling me about it. Hell, i even got choked up writing this.

There is a lot to this War that we will never get to know.

Cheers Eddie

[edit on 03/12/04 by Bikereddie]

[edit on 03/12/04 by Bikereddie]

Thanks for sharing that story Bikkereddie,
That is exactly what i was trying to get out of this post is the true stories and experiences of our soldiers. Irregardless of how happy or sad they are, it helps people to better understand what a typical soldier must go through. I can't imagine how it must effect your son or that little girls family. Very touching story and choked me up as well. A real soldier, like your son, has the heart to make a little girl smile.

Irregardless of what religion you are or where you were raised or what your beliefs are, THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR MURDERING A LITTLE GIRL FOR ANY REASON WHAT SO EVER.

Your welcome
Glad i could at least give some perspetive of what our lads have to contend with over there.