The bill to mandate the troops get equal home time versus their deployment time failed in the senate.

I am Listening to C-span debates on it this morning.

What do you think ? Is is a good idea or not?

Lets hear from some old vets on the issue.

I know my daughter did 8 months in Kuwait in 2003 setting up and working in a field hospital .

She was glad and proud to do her job , as she knew it was for the soldiers she was working. But after about six months she was ready to come home.

I know several people serving in Iraq now some on their second trip. They didn't seem to mind the first deployment , but sure did not want to go back to that rat hole the second time. I cannot imagine people who have been deployed three times and how they must feel.

Is it possible to limit deployment time? Would that even work?

Is this all leading up to a draft ?

Do we even think a draft would work in these modern times?

Whatevers needed to get the job done. Were not 9 to 5 soldiers, its a 24 7 job. Its hard leaving family behind and its even harder to stay home and watch a son, daughter, brother, sister, whatever, go off to war. But the mission has always, and will always come first. Just because soldiers are tired doesnt mean we have to withdraw.

Im currently beginning my second tour. I wasnt supposed to go for another 7 months but I volunteered to go early. My first tour was 16 months long. We were supposed to come home after 12, but 4 days away from boarding a plane, we were extended and sent to Baghdad.

Everyone was upset about it, but no one bitched. We all did our jobs just as we had before we were extended.

A draft wouldnt work anymore. If it began, it would completely destroy the morale of all of us that volunteered and dilute the quality of our military.

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The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

Norman Thomas

Thanks for being the brave and willing to serve young man you are stryker.

I will add you to my prayers and if your not getting enough care packages and newspapers from back home PM me your address and I'll add you to the list my group makes packages for once a month.

I agree a draft would not work in this age and political climate. I also agree it would be horrible to attempt such a thing for military moral. For many reasons i can think of.

Tell us something about your deployment stryker. Where you are deployed to and your duties if you feel like it.

Well I honestly cant tell you much about my deployment at the moment, it literally just began about a week ago and Im still stuck in Kuwait.

My last deployment I was in the Anbar province operating mainly out of a small town called Rawah, but we went to other places all along the Euphrates from Anah all the way to Al Qaim on the Syrian border. That was during Operation Steel Curtain when we locked down the border. After six months I got hurt and was sent to Germany for a little bit to recover.

In the hospital they gave me a choice which I thought was pretty surprising. Go back stateside for surgery, or rejoin my unit in Iraq. So three days later Im on a bird out of Rammstein headed for Mosul. I linked up with my unit there and spent another 6 months with them. At first I was limited to working in the TOC (tactical operations center) but after about two months of physical therapy I was good to go back outside the wire with my platoon.

They made me a loader on the ATGM, and later a driver. When we were set to go home I was moved back to the line squad and was a dismount again. I was a dismount for the first few weeks in Baghdad, but one of the drivers got hurt and I had to take his place again and was a driver for the remainder of the deployment.

This time around I'll be a team leader, and working in Baghdad, but thats about as much as I know at this point.

__________________
The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

Norman Thomas

Bless you. Semper Fi.

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When seconds count, Police are only minutes away.

But as to your tag line stryker as one who is old enough to be your mother, let me scold you a little for your own saftey.

Here in the hills of West Virginia where the civil war decided to park itself on our land against our will. And where we fought the coal wars and each other in family feuds. If shots ring out , we would tell you to hide behind a tree or a rock and wait to see where that shot is coming from . When you know where the shots are coming from, being a hill boy and a hunter; take the jerk out.

It is not a intelligent or brave thing to do to walk straight into fire when you don't have to . Its a stupid thing to do and may risk the rest of your kin & friends when they try to save you from such needless heroics.

So the ones who ran away might just be hill boys who are smart enough to want to know where the shooting is coming from before they stick their heads back up. I pray you learn to be one of the hill boys stryker.

No use being like the British in the revolutionary war and walking in a straight line to get your head blown off . The country boys were smart and hid and ambushed those idiots.

Be a country boy stryker, keep your head down till you get a fix on where the shots are coming from.

Its metaphorical mainly.

__________________
The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

Norman Thomas

very , very glad to hear that!

But to you what is a ethical statement , somebody with less smarts than you may take as a life motto.

We must all be careful in our choice of words because words do have power.