9-11 Deployment
In August of 2001 I PCSed to Fort Hood after spending a year in Kuwait. Of course, the next month, we were attacked on 9-11. I was in the G4 shop of the First Cavalry Division and suspiciously was chosen to be the Support Operations Officer of the 15th Foward Support Battalion in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Blackjack. 3 days later, we got our deployement orders. The battalion commander pulled me in to her office and asked me if I was sure I wanted to go. She realized that I had just come from there and had been seperated from my family for the last 12 months. I didn’t get dramatic, I just told her “yes, I am going.”I was on the first plane of 7 guys. Our mission was to set up Brigade operations after drawing the entire fleet at Camp Doha. In fact, we built Camp Virginia and Camp Pennsylvania. The pre-existing camp was re-named New York to cover all 3 of the states attacked on 9-11. We were in the middle of the Udari range. I have to say that it was “business as usual” at Camp Doha and they were not expecting us. Anyway, with much hand wringing, we “checked out” the entire rental fleet. It seems the contractor had not been maintaining all of it to standard and only had enough ready for the standard Battalion (+) Intrinsic Action Rotation that had been going on since Desert Storm. For example, a brigade needs at least 10 each 5k fuel tankers and a BN usually only drew out 3. Therefore, they had 6 of them deadlined. Anyway, we got nasty with the contractors and their greensuiter OIC, LTC Gay. Yes, we made them look bad and they deserved it. We got our equipment and got out to the desert to build the camps. A couple of weeks later, we ended up sending guys to Afghanistan and our deployment became the start of Enduring Freedom. I was happy to enable the Iraqi ground war by building the logistical camps. We redeployed after 7 months and my total time over there was 19 months out of 2 years. Of course, when we got back, the rest of our division was jealous and after a few months it was totally forgotten that we were gone at all. We had a BN change of command and we got the new guy that had never been to combat. By this time in my career as a Major, I was authorized to wear 4 different combat patches. I have seen this as a rift in the Army where we have so much experience with the young guys and alot of the senior leaders have never lead troops in combat. They have punched their ticket like good company men. It is not as bad now because most people have been at least once. Luckily for me, I got sent to Germany because the Army suddenly discovered that I speak German. While I was over there, I got torn up skiing in Austria and tore out an ACL. I had complications after the surgery with blood clots, so now I am non-deployable because I am on Coumadin for the rest of my life. I felt really guilty about this, but since I have spent 1 out of every 5 days in the Active Army in a combat zone (Just Cause, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Kuwait, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom), I figured I had pulled my weight over the years. I will soon be retired and have really enjoyed leading soldiers in difficult environments. The thing that I am most proud of is that every morning I look in the mirror and see a man who always took care of his troops and never stabbed a fellow officer in the back. There is too much of that going around.