All Combat Vets

[C.W.M.V.]

Thanks for posting that, its very touching.

[nick]

Wasted lives? Not really. We fight for each other, and they were fighting for me, too, so their lives weren't wasted. It does suck though. Meeting the family members isn't much fun, either.

[calichingon00]

people always tell me why do you think we are over there fighting? My respons is always to defend your brothers to the left and to the right. We volunteer so you dont have to. we defend your freedom so you dont have to. so the next time you think it was for nothing just remeber you dont have to.




DULCE BELLUM INEXPERTIS

[fegves2id]

I try not to make it solely about the man standing next to me. If you ONLY do that, then what is the point of going in the first place? I also believe that mentality leads to the type of collateral damage and wonton disregard for life that results in many of the natives deciding not to help us and themselves. If a sniper shoots 1 single shot at your convoy, and all you care about is getting out of the area safely, you will use the mk19s and .50 cals to level the surrounding buildings thus ensuring the sniper does not shoot again. That is the best way to get everyone home safe for the day. The problem is, it hinders the mission we are there to complete in the first place.

I told my fellow light infrantrymen in Ar Ramadi, Iraq that we were there for a reason. The reasons were easy to find if you just look. I found my end all reason when interacting with the children. The little girls going to school, and the kids who were not old enough to have been turned to the dark side yet. Their innocence was enough for me to justify our actions and losses. We were their voluntarily, and what better reason to fight and die than to try to give little innocent children the ability to have good lives free of rape/torture/hateful indoctrination/poverty? Hopefully, preventing them from killing American civilians when they grow up will be exponentially beneficial by our good example. That way, my friends deaths meant something other than my failure to prevent their deaths.

That is why when I hear about gang members in the military doing stupid stuff and our soldiers/marines leaving pornographic graffitti on walls, etc. I get depressed. We are just giving justification to the little kids to grow up and try to kill us.

[dexterbase]

I served in Iraq with the 1st Marine Division in Ar Ramadi in 2004.

I was the Corpsman for the ADC Jump. (Assistant Division Commander (B. General Kelly)) Basically we were the team that was tasked with moving him by ground safely from base to base, FOB to FOB for meetings and so that he could have face time with unit commanders. Occasionally we would move Maj. Gen. Mattis as well. We used 5 HMMWV's and we didn't have up-armor. We scrounged up some armored plates and doors but for the most part we were in soft-skinned vehicles.

On April 9th, 2004 we got ambushed on an ASR named San Juan during a movement to another FOB. We were committed to a kill zone because we had a downed vehicle (IED) with wounded Marines inside. Anyway, to make a 45 minute story short, the gunner in my vehicle got killed about midway through the firefight.

If you've had an opportunity to see the movie "Taking Chance", that was the Marine I'm talking about. He was my gunner and he died providing suppressive fire so that our dismounted QRF could flank the insurgents that ambushed us. If you haven't had a chance to see it, they usually have it at Blockbuster so go get it. (If there's a dry eye in the room after you watch it, then that eye doesn't belong to a red-blooded American.)

A lot of good Marines are here today because of his ferocious employment of the M240G mounted on our vehicle. This was all under an incredibly high volume of fire, and this was before we had steel plates to protect the gunners in the ring-mounts.

So, even without considering the greater context of the whole war, or even the value of the mission on that day, I know he died for something great.

What is the value of the 25 Marines who survived to go home and see their families again? What about the value of my 8 month old son Westley Chance who is sleeping next to me as I type this? He wouldn't be here if it weren't for LCPL. Phelps. That is the absolute truth.

So whenever anyone questions the value of the lives lost, I ask them what they have done personally to make their own life count.

If they can't truthfully answer that they've allowed 25 families to see their loved ones again, then I don't really give their opinion a whole lot of weight.

What did they ever do that mattered?

If you have ever laced up your combat boots, chambered a round, and headed into enemy territory, your life will always have value and you can rest assured that it meant something.

Thank you to all my brothers and sisters who are serving, and have served. I love each and every one of you.

Edit to add: If you have ever been in bed in the quiet, dark hours of the morning, wondering what your loved one is doing in the combat zone... if you have ever sent a son or daughter off to combat... if you have ever lost a loved one in defense of our country... you have just as much respect from me as the ones who have served. You served too.

-Doc Peabody

[chris]

Yes I have encountered these types of comments.


I volunteered for duty in Southeast Asia, and was not a draftee. To this day, I still encounter people who ask me how I could have done that, supporting a war that was so wrong and misguided.
I always tell them it wasn't the war I was supporting. I was participating in a tradition of serving in the United States armed forces. If Americans stop doing that, our freedom will be in jeopardy.

So no matter how much someone may disagree with the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is ludicrous for them to infer that our battle casualties died in vain.

you will see alot of that on this board.

[bodger]

If you have ever laced up your combat boots, chambered a round, and headed into enemy territory, your life will always have value and you can rest assured that it meant something.

Thank you to all my brothers and sisters who are serving, and have served. I love each and every one of you.

Edit to add: If you have ever been in bed in the quiet, dark hours of the morning, wondering what your loved one is doing in the combat zone... if you have ever sent a son or daughter off to combat... if you have ever lost a loved one in defense of our country... you have just as much respect from me as the ones who have served. You served too.

-Doc Peabody

What you wrote that I made bold sums it up as far as I'm concerned. My experience with that situation was that everything distilled down to the least common denominator of my own survival, and the survival of the men I was with. That's all the America we had handy at the time. All the other issues didn't seem important right then.

I saw Taking Chance when it premiered. It must have been quite a privilege to have served with him.

Thanks for your service. Good luck.

[The Director]

I served in Iraq with the 1st Marine Division in Ar Ramadi in 2004.

I was the Corpsman for the ADC Jump. (Assistant Division Commander (B. General Kelly)) Basically we were the team that was tasked with moving him by ground safely from base to base, FOB to FOB for meetings and so that he could have face time with unit commanders. Occasionally we would move Maj. Gen. Mattis as well. We used 5 HMMWV's and we didn't have up-armor. We scrounged up some armored plates and doors but for the most part we were in soft-skinned vehicles.

On April 9th, 2004 we got ambushed on an ASR named San Juan during a movement to another FOB. We were committed to a kill zone because we had a downed vehicle (IED) with wounded Marines inside. Anyway, to make a 45 minute story short, the gunner in my vehicle got killed about midway through the firefight.

If you've had an opportunity to see the movie "Taking Chance", that was the Marine I'm talking about. He was my gunner and he died providing suppressive fire so that our dismounted QRF could flank the insurgents that ambushed us. If you haven't had a chance to see it, they usually have it at Blockbuster so go get it. (If there's a dry eye in the room after you watch it, then that eye doesn't belong to a red-blooded American.)

A lot of good Marines are here today because of his ferocious employment of the M240G mounted on our vehicle. This was all under an incredibly high volume of fire, and this was before we had steel plates to protect the gunners in the ring-mounts.

So, even without considering the greater context of the whole war, or even the value of the mission on that day, I know he died for something great.

What is the value of the 25 Marines who survived to go home and see their families again? What about the value of my 8 month old son Westley Chance who is sleeping next to me as I type this? He wouldn't be here if it weren't for LCPL. Phelps. That is the absolute truth.

So whenever anyone questions the value of the lives lost, I ask them what they have done personally to make their own life count.

If they can't truthfully answer that they've allowed 25 families to see their loved ones again, then I don't really give their opinion a whole lot of weight.

What did they ever do that mattered?

If you have ever laced up your combat boots, chambered a round, and headed into enemy territory, your life will always have value and you can rest assured that it meant something.

Thank you to all my brothers and sisters who are serving, and have served. I love each and every one of you.

Edit to add: If you have ever been in bed in the quiet, dark hours of the morning, wondering what your loved one is doing in the combat zone... if you have ever sent a son or daughter off to combat... if you have ever lost a loved one in defense of our country... you have just as much respect from me as the ones who have served. You served too.

-Doc Peabody

Amazing post, dude.

[OneSevenDeuce]

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother

Be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition.
And gentlemen in England now a'bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Anyway, Shakespeare aside... Wasted lives? Died in vain? I don't suppose it matters to me. That's for politicians and civilians to decide. We are Soldiers. We fight where they send us.

[Stockton]

To my battle buds who have responded in this post, I wrote the question to solicit an honest response from fellow combat vets. Not a trick, but answers for other to see without me just throwing my own opinion about how we feel when it come to the general consensus from those who may feel we wasted our lives or die in vein when we don't come home.

I wanted this thread to be a marker for fellow members who have not been to combat, held your best friends hand as he died, watched his humvee explode, escorted his remains back home, try to explain to his family what happened, stood at attention while his body was lowered, have to endure a Role Call ceremony, and not finding him at all.

Our greatest moments as Soldiers are standing side by side when nothing else matters. Our worst is saying goodbye. We hold our own personal guilt and sorrow that cannot be shared with anyone except those who stand side by side. But never think for one moment that we died without a cause, in vein, or for nothing. They died for EVERYTHING we stand for. EACH OTHER.

I've never met any of the posters here but i know you. I know you very well. We have known each other for a long time. We are brothers and always will be.

Mac

[fegves2id]

If we say ALL that matters is that soldiers/marines died for each other, any military action we participate in is then justified as being worthwhile. Nazi soldiers could have used the same justification for their service.

I think it is important to note the bravery and the sacrifice soldiers make every day for their fellow soldiers. That, in and of itself, is not enough to justify my friends deaths and the bullets and explosives which almost killed me numerous times.

We joined the military, and (most of the time) selected our job. As a light infantry soldier, I knew I would be put in severe danger. That was our decision!

I guess I can sum my thoughts up like this; To get through every day life on foot patrol in Ramadi, it was enough to think about staying alive and keeping my friends alive. Actually it was more than enough. BUT, to get through post-deployment life, and justifying what I did and what was done to me and my buddies, I need more. I find that there are plenty of good reasons for our current military presence, at least enough for this grunt to sleep well at night.....

[Stockton]

I had to reread ur post a few times. Compared to Nazis? More than enough during combat but not enough post deployment? The war within oneself is sometimes ....well hard.

This thread has nothing to do with post deployment...cause we all know that's another war in itself. Reasons for being any other place than has never been our choice so it don't matter anyways. Your contract is triplicate. When the bullets fly....what matters?

[C.W.M.V.]

I probably would have had more in common with a rifleman of the Heer than your average American civilian, or for that matter with most men who have been willing to fight and kill for their people.

As a grunt I knew exactly what I was getting into. I asked to carry a rifle in combat because I wanted to prove myself worthy and to give back to a country that has given me and all in it so much that can never be repaid.

When I finally got their I realized that none of that was going to keep me alive, so ya all that mattered to me was keeping my soldiers alive. Washing what was left of my soldiers out of a 998 was the most horrible experience of my life. When I reflect on it the only way I can sleep is to realize that I would have gladly given my own life to save theirs, and that they felt the same. We didnt care about our mision there, our country, or god. We fought for each other, as have all fighting men since the dawn of time. As a rifleman little else really matters.

[11Z50]

AR 611-201: (Job description of the infantry) MOS 11B: Close with and defeat the enemy in close combat. Applicable civilian skills: None.

When you are out there on the "sharp end" you see a different perspective. Things get very clear and life is very simple. You tend to your soldiers and take care of your rifle because that is what will keep you alive.

[OneSevenDeuce]

What? They don't say "close with, and kill or capture, the enemy" anymore?