What’s worse than being stuck on an extended deployment in Iraq? Finally getting home to re-start your life, and then being told “nevermind!”
About 300 U.S. soldiers who just weeks ago returned home to Alaska after a year in Iraq are being ordered back to try to help bolster security in Baghdad, the U.S. Army said on Monday.
…
The brigade was so far along in the process of flowing out of Iraq after its yearlong tour that 380 soldiers had returned home to Alaska and 300 had arrived in Kuwait en route home, the Army said.
– Reuters AlertNet – US sending 300 newly returned troops back to Iraq
Rinse and repeat. In just a few short years we’ll have a population of trained killers, who’ve been emotionally and physically tormented by the Pentagon, back in the US with only a vague memory of what it felt like to be human.
Add a dash of military recruiting violations and the chaos just won’t stop!
Ruby, let me add a little context to what is happening with the soldiers from Alaska.
The 380-member advance “torch party” team will return 300 back to Iraq.(The 80 not returning are probably leaving the service or going to a school.)
“Torch parties,” which are so nicknamed because they pave the way for other soldiers to come home, are always sent back ahead of the main body of
re-deploying troops to begin the complicated process of re-settling the
soldiers in their permanent garrisons. Torch party soldiers include representatives from every unit. They open barracks and arrange for personal items to be taken out of storage,
set up re-integration classes and instruction, get computers back on-line, and otherwise take care of everything administratively the unit needs to do.
It’s no fun to get back on that plane; they will moan and groan and gripe and even curse a while, but they will do their duty. We should be proud that we have these kind of men and women serving our nation. Clearly, this requires selfless service these days.
And there’s more!