Monday, April 9, 2007

A Post From A True American Hero

* These posts are from Newshounds regular SSG. He is going to Afghanistan and his wife is in Iraq.
FrankC

you know me, it's ssg, I'm back from mob station and getting ready to depart in the next couple weeks. I have two weeks to spend with my son and then I will head out. As many of you know my wife is already deployed. But, I get at least the next two weeks from camp addleberry to spend with my son and then I head out.

It's a difficult time for military families. Something nobody really talks about. My wife is in Iraq at Camp Anaconda right now. I'm going to Afghanistan, not sure what camp. But, I think we have lost sight of what the toll is. What we are doing.

I leave at the end of the month so I wont be commenting again for some time but I just wanted to come back here and leave a mark and just ask everybody, even the trolls, to stop and take a look at everything going on around you. And to find someone who is being affected by this personally.

It is not just about rosie or coulter or Fox. Real people are being affected by all of this. People are dying and they are leaving limbs behind. Children are being left without fathers and mothers.

This petty bickering that is going on is outrages to me. My neighbor loves Bush but that doesn't make me hate him.

People here need to start knowing and understanding the pain that is going on and asking themselves for real if it is worth the toll. And questioning the motives. I'm not here as a liberal or a conservative. I'm just here as a simple husband and father who is facing his third deployment while his wife is deployed and thinking to himself, what are we doing as a nation?

I'm tired of the back and forth fighting. I just want to be with my wife and my son. Can nobody understand that? Can nobody identify with that?

I'll leave it at that. I am just doing what I have to do to survive in this world and that people would start thinking more about what soldiers are enduring with this going on six years of war and occupation of not just Iraq but Afghanistan is costing us. I know there are bad people out there. But, are we going about things the right way?

Sorry about the long post but it's my last for awhile hopefully and I just want everybody to sit back and think honestly to themselves about what is really going on and where they get their information from and what is the cost to all of us as humans and Americans. And if this is worth the cost.

Thank you all for being friends, I hope to get to talk to you in the future. And although I'm not a religious man, God Bless you all for at least having the freedom and ability to discourse in your own way.
Before I sign off, I can say this, we aer all volunteers. Some of us know what we are getting into some of us don't. I have been in for 14 years. I'm a careerist as they call it. People come for many different reasons. Now, I don't want to be a spokesman for the military but look, many of my fellow soldiers are tired. I never really believed in the cause for Iraq but some of the younger ones did and some of the older ones did.

Most of the guys I know who have been around its the career. I mean 14 years you know. We aren't conscripts so yes we are all volunteers. But, there is a sense of where does it end. Where do the deployments stop. What is the mission. Why am I losing friends etc.

The command of course issue their decries of duty and honor but most of us that I'm around don't want to go back. We made this a career to protect America. But, my sense is that we are tired of deployments. Alot of people jumping ship. Alot of feeling like I don't want to be in amongst the younger troops. That's not to say that people aren't reenlisting. Bonuses etc do help.

But it is hard when I'm counseling a soldier on reenlistment and they think about their family and the fact that they have deployed already. It is getting to a breaking point.

I will continue to do what I do because I'm a career soldier but for many of the younger ones it's harder to convince.

We may meet recruitment goals. But, with bonuses etc and the hardship of life in the civilian sector that can be expected.

I would hate to see if we were to draft individuals. Like many of the trolls here. it would be something I think that would break the country. We can break the military but to break the country would be something different.

On a side note, Thanks FrankC for your kind words. I hope to hear from everybody here in the future. I would like to leave my email but I don't want to do it in open forum. I'm off for now. I leave in two weeks so if I don't have access over there I would like to leave it in an off topic forum or give it to one of the site monitors. I would love to hear from you guys while I'm gone. Something t encourage me.

I'm done for now hope to hear from you guys at least to let me know what's going on and take care of each and every one of you, including the trolls because I hate nobody. Just want understanding.

Take care everybody. See you in a year.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

See,this is what pisses me off about being banned from the mains. I can't even leave SSG a message.

He's cool as shit too,IMO. I hope he's looking out for himself and comes home safe.

Hey Count,does anybody know a way to send him some stuff,like a care package?

Anonymous said...

He said he would try and leave the information with the mods on Newshounds. He didn't want to leave it on the board for obvious reasons.

Sergei Andropov said...

I hope he is able to keep in touch. The Taliban took a rather dim view of a technology primarily used for distributing pornography, ads for Viagra, and email messages from wealthy Nigerians, so before the invasion the internet did not exist in Afghanistan. I'm sure it's begun to expand into and throughout the country, but he may still have a hard time finding access.

Anonymous said...

I'd imagine they have some(limited) access through their command.

But considering the cuts Bushco likes to do to the military(in favor of HalliCheney),it's an iffy proposition.

ssg said...

hey, just wanted to sneak u a message, i had my buddies pass my message on from lackland afb who i used to serve with in order to get to you guys since they don't allow alot of bloggin over here. doing good, still alive. tough situation, making the best of it. will keep in touch. thank you guys for your support.
love ssg

Anonymous said...

God Bless you SSG!

Anonymous said...

happy birthday, baby.

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Gold Guide for World of Warcraft said...

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