War in Iraq, a Soldier's View

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03-Jul-03 10:00 AM

Well still in Tallil, it’s getting a little ridiculous now. There’s a lot of really nasty things I’ve got to say about the way the Military works but I’ll start with the good things.

Last night I had another dream about that girl again (the same one from during the dust storm), it was great, all it was was me coming home and me and her were flirting, that’s it but I woke up with the greatest feeling. In the dream I was just spending time with my friends and she was telling me how she’s been so bored the last few months and that she really wanted someone to take her out. I guess the dream was just pandering to want for her to be single when I get home.

Back in reality life sucks.

Our projected load date of the 17th got bumped back to the 20th, but it got a little more set in stone too. Then we were told by LtCol Moody that they were trying to get us to Arifjan as soon as possible so that was would have plenty of time to get our stuff done (good news), so Slocum and E5 Anderson flew to Arifjan to turn a list of the bumper numbers of our vehicles. We…

4:01 PM

Sorry, got interrupted. Everything just changed.

Slocum and Anderson just showed up, they told us that they went down there and the 377th didn’t even have us in the computers. Apparently according to the Army we don’t exist out here, supposedly all that has been fixed now or is in the process of being fixed. It makes me sick because this is what I’ve feared all along.

The Army forgot about us.

We would have been out of here along time ago but they forgot about us and we got left out here. That means that nothing has been done the last 25 days; no wonder we’ve felt like we’re wasting our time here. We have.

They’re still trying to get us out of here by the 20th but if we don’t hurry we’ll be swamped by the 3rd ID and have to wait another month to go home. I don’t even want to think of that scenario. It’s bad enough that we’ll be going home with only a month of summer left to enjoy before school starts. If we have to wait another month I’m not going to fall semester, it will be just like we left for a whole year.

I can’t believe now that I woke us so happy and ready to go home. I was looking forward to seeing everybody again, now I feel like I’ll be here forever…again.

Right now the current forecast for us getting out of Tallil is Monday, Slocum has to call back to the 377th but since Independence day will be tomorrow they’ll be closed and we’ll have to delay getting out of here another day. Happy Independence Day 872nd.

I keep hoping that as soon as we start our processing to get out of here things will go really fast but so far the only thing that happens is delays. First we hear a bunch of assumptions from the officers about what’s going to happen then we find out that nothing has been done and all the things we’ve been told is merely to keep us complacent. I wonder if all this information we got is false too; will we find out on Saturday that we’ve been bumped again? I’m not sure how much more I can take before I snap and go insane. It’s impossible for any organization to be as fucked up as the Army; the way I can see all of this making sense in the end is if they suddenly tell us that we were a part of an experiment to see how much disappointment a soldier can take before they kill themselves.

Maybe soldiers have been lied to in all the past wars and this is just how it goes. I’ll have to ask my Grandpa if he can remember how long it took for him to get sent home after WWII; obviously with all of our technological advances things should go a little faster. I wonder if they told him lies to keep him from getting angry at the Military for their shortcomings. Now I know why so many people leave the military after a deployment to war, it’s not learning the about war that makes you want to leave; it’s learning about your own military that makes you want to leave.