Nickdfresh
07-30-2006, 12:27 PM
Soldiers struggle for purpose, morale on patrol in Baghdad
By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post | July 30, 2006
BAGHDAD -- Army Staff Sergeant Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns and passed off the bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and give his answer.
``Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat," he said. ``Then ask how morale is."
Frustrated? ``You have no idea," he said.
As President Bush plans to deploy more troops to Baghdad, US soldiers who have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success is hard to find. Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi Army and police to take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services for Iraqi civilians.
But some soldiers in the Second Battalion, Sixth Infantry Regiment, First Armored Division -- interviewed over four days -- say they have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the violence, and their reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750 arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed and 21 wounded.
``Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Specialist Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former fullback for Baylor University's football team . ``You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."
``No one wants to be here, you know. No one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sergeant Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. ``We were excited, but then it just wears on you; there's only so much you can take. Like me, personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an enemy. And this, out here," he said, motioning toward the scorched sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, and the trash-strewn streets of Baghdad , ``there is no enemy; it's a faceless enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding."
``We're trained as an Army to fight and destroy the enemy and then take over," added Dugger, 26, of Reno . ``But I don't think we're trained enough to push along a country, and that's what we're actually doing out here."
``It's frustrating, but we are definitely a help to these people," he said. ``I'm out here with the guys that I know so well, and I couldn't picture myself being anywhere else."
After a five-hour patrol yesterday through southern Baghdad neighborhoods, soldiers from the First Platoon sat on wooden benches in an enclosed porch outside their barracks. Faces flushed and dirty from the grit and a beating sun, they smoked cigarettes and tossed them at a rusted can with ``Butts " written on it.
The commanders in Baghdad and the Pentagon are ``looking at the big picture all the time, but for us, we don't see no big picture, it's just always another bomb out here," said Specialist Joshua Steffey, 24, of Asheville, N.C. The company's commanding officer, Captain Douglas A. DiCenzo of Plymouth, N.H., and his gunner, Specialist Robert E. Blair of Ocala, Fla., were killed by a roadside bomb in May.
Steffey said he wished ``somebody would explain to us, `Hey, this is what we're working for.' " With a stream of expletives, he said he could not care less ``if Iraq's free" or ``if they're a democracy."
``The first time somebody you know dies, the first thing you ask yourself is, `Well, what did he die for?' "
``At this point, it seems like the war on drugs in America," added Specialist David Fulcher, 22, a medic from Lynchburg, Va., who sat alongside Steffey. ``It's like this never-ending battle, like, we find one IED [improvised explosive device] , if we do find it before it hits us, so what? You know it's just like if the cops make a big bust, next week the next higher-up puts more back out there."
``I think civil war is going to happen regardless," Steffey responded. `` Be it Sunni, be it Shi'ite, one side has to win. It's apparent, these people have made it obvious they can't live in unity."
Link (http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/07/30/soldiers_struggle_for_purpose_morale_on_patrol_in_ baghdad?mode=PF)
By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post | July 30, 2006
BAGHDAD -- Army Staff Sergeant Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns and passed off the bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and give his answer.
``Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat," he said. ``Then ask how morale is."
Frustrated? ``You have no idea," he said.
As President Bush plans to deploy more troops to Baghdad, US soldiers who have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success is hard to find. Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi Army and police to take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services for Iraqi civilians.
But some soldiers in the Second Battalion, Sixth Infantry Regiment, First Armored Division -- interviewed over four days -- say they have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the violence, and their reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750 arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed and 21 wounded.
``Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Specialist Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former fullback for Baylor University's football team . ``You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."
``No one wants to be here, you know. No one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sergeant Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. ``We were excited, but then it just wears on you; there's only so much you can take. Like me, personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an enemy. And this, out here," he said, motioning toward the scorched sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, and the trash-strewn streets of Baghdad , ``there is no enemy; it's a faceless enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding."
``We're trained as an Army to fight and destroy the enemy and then take over," added Dugger, 26, of Reno . ``But I don't think we're trained enough to push along a country, and that's what we're actually doing out here."
``It's frustrating, but we are definitely a help to these people," he said. ``I'm out here with the guys that I know so well, and I couldn't picture myself being anywhere else."
After a five-hour patrol yesterday through southern Baghdad neighborhoods, soldiers from the First Platoon sat on wooden benches in an enclosed porch outside their barracks. Faces flushed and dirty from the grit and a beating sun, they smoked cigarettes and tossed them at a rusted can with ``Butts " written on it.
The commanders in Baghdad and the Pentagon are ``looking at the big picture all the time, but for us, we don't see no big picture, it's just always another bomb out here," said Specialist Joshua Steffey, 24, of Asheville, N.C. The company's commanding officer, Captain Douglas A. DiCenzo of Plymouth, N.H., and his gunner, Specialist Robert E. Blair of Ocala, Fla., were killed by a roadside bomb in May.
Steffey said he wished ``somebody would explain to us, `Hey, this is what we're working for.' " With a stream of expletives, he said he could not care less ``if Iraq's free" or ``if they're a democracy."
``The first time somebody you know dies, the first thing you ask yourself is, `Well, what did he die for?' "
``At this point, it seems like the war on drugs in America," added Specialist David Fulcher, 22, a medic from Lynchburg, Va., who sat alongside Steffey. ``It's like this never-ending battle, like, we find one IED [improvised explosive device] , if we do find it before it hits us, so what? You know it's just like if the cops make a big bust, next week the next higher-up puts more back out there."
``I think civil war is going to happen regardless," Steffey responded. `` Be it Sunni, be it Shi'ite, one side has to win. It's apparent, these people have made it obvious they can't live in unity."
Link (http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/07/30/soldiers_struggle_for_purpose_morale_on_patrol_in_ baghdad?mode=PF)