|
AKA_Monet,
To clarify a bit, I am not currently deployed. I was there at the start of this conflict but have been home for a year and am finishing my last year of law school. When I was there I commanded an Armored Cavalry Troop and we were very well equipped with everything we needed to successfully defeat our opposition. Of course there are all sorts of nice-to-have items but none that were really necessary. On the other hand, the role of the logistics troops can often be a bit more dangerous in this present sort of fighting because they operate vehicles that are not designed to engage the enemy in direct combat where we slug it out nose to nose. Likewise, they are not designed to withstand explosive devices in ambushes. These are trucks, admin vehicles, and light scouting vehicles. As I mentioned in my previous post, these vehicles are actually often at a disadvantage if encumbered with improvised armor plate that degrades performance and is inadequate to provide real protection. These vehicles can't carry the weight needed to afford real protection. So, we encourage a false sense of security while turning these vehicles into possible death traps by hanging all this "stuff" on them.
Our soldiers have excellent training, excellent weapons, excellent supply replenishment, and material appropriate to their role. In an ideal world there would be magic armor and bullet proof vests and impervious vehicles and all sort of wonderful things to keep our troops from harm but sadly these things do not exist in the form the media would have us believe, and soldiers from the dawn of time have had to make do with what was both available and appropriate to their role. Actually, in an ideal world we would not be fighting any wars at all. But, since we have to deal with this world in which we fight with the Army we have, we need to realize that this is the best equipped Army we have ever sent to war and we need to realize that sometime its not too smart to burden the troops with too much equipment and let them get on with the job rather than lugging around half a ton of stuff that does not really do what you want it to.
Do we have what we need to do the job? Yes. Do we have everything we could possibly want to make life easy and safe? Of course not, but we need to deal with reality, not with media generated attention to the awful truth that war is messy and dangerous. Lets know this and realize that sometimes there are no easy solutions, just hard soldiering. Then, when our soldiers do come home lets recognize what they have done under less than perfect conditions and simply say thanks. The basic right of all Soldiers is to gripe, then he gets down to business and carries out his mission.
|