When I enlisted in the Army Reserves after I graduated from High
School, I did it partly for the Montgomery GI Bill, but mostly I
did it because I wanted to serve my country.
When I enlisted in the Army Reserves after I graduated from High School, I did it partly for the Montgomery GI Bill, but mostly I did it because I wanted to serve my country.
Ever since I was a young boy I can remember wanting to be in the military. As I grew up, I realized that even though I still wanted to serve I also wanted to go to college and make a career and a life outside of the military.
So, when I met with a recruiter I knew that the Army Reserve was my chance to live my dream of being a soldier and still work towards a career.
I knew from the beginning that there was always a chance of going to war, or being deployed for a peacekeeping operation anywhere in the world and that was fine with me; I would rather that than say, ”I was a soldier for eight years and never left the United States.”
Well, my chance came about half way through my enlistment; my unit was deployed to Hungary to support operations in the Balkans in 2001. We were there for six months, escorting convoys and patrolling the main supply routes (MSR), much like what I have been doing for the past year here in Iraq.
Even though the situation here is much different from my time in Hungary the mission is similar: patrol the MSR and protect convoys, except here the locals are much more hostile.
I have helped protect more than a hundred convoys in my year here, and in that time we have been attacked more times than I can remember. We have been shot at, had RPGs fired at us and had Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) detonated on the roadside as we pass. Luckily, my unit has not had any soldiers hurt or killed in combat during our year here.
That’s amazing when we hear of units that have been here only a few months taking several casualties doing the exact same mission we do, on the exact MSR that we drive every day. We have survived through the grace of God and our refusal to let the locals get the better of us on the roads.
We know that the IEDs are placed on the side of the roads usually, so we drive down the middle forcing the locals to drive on either side of our convoy. This helps to protect us from the IEDs because if someone detonates one near us it usually will hit civilians first; we hope that this fact will deter the would-be ‘triggerman.’
As for the small-arms fire and RPGs, we keep a sharp lookout for anything that may give us a warning, like deserted streets or locals who are acting suspicious when we pass.
So far our tactics have worked pretty well, and we hope that they will continue to do so for the next three months.
Today is May 3, 2004. In exactly 15 days, I will have completed my ”365 days boots on the ground,” but there is no going home yet.
A month ago my unit was ordered to stay an additional 90 days. We had been told that we were ”mission complete” and would be heading home soon. We had trained our replacements given them all our equipment, except for our weapons and some ammunition, which every soldier is required to carry here in Iraq. (I can’t go eat a meal without carrying my sidearm and ammo.)
We were ready to leave and families were planning vacations and ”welcome home” parties, but they will have to be postponed for a while longer.
Now we wait patiently to hear what we will be doing for the next 90 days, just like I have been for the past month.
Rene Arbizu is a Community Service Officer with the Gilroy police and is currently serving with the 341st Military Police Company in Iraq. His column will appear weekly, pending his ability to access e-mail.
