Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Chicago Tribune
November 5, 2007
Pg. 1
GIs of 10th Mountain show signs of strain
By Aamer Madhani, Tribune national correspondent
FT. DRUM, N.Y.--Near the back of a gymnasium named after a fallen soldier from another era, Army Spec. Brandon Deaton hobbled on his prosthetic leg in the crowd of parents, spouses and children, waiting for his battle buddies to emerge from a side door and mark the end of the 15-month tour that he had started with them.
Deaton's tour with the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, in a backwater south of Baghdad, ended prematurely on March 24 when a bomb exploded under the Humvee he was driving, shredding much of his lower left leg and ending his boyhood dream of making a career of the infantry.
Maj. Gen. Michael Oates spotted Deaton in the gymnasium crowd and asked him to join his company for its march inside for the welcome-home ceremony. Deaton was initially reluctant. He was unshaven, wearing baggy shorts and a T-shirt featuring a heavy metal band. But the two-star general's will, and rank, proved persuasive, and Deaton limped off to join the other soldiers.
"I guess I felt good about it," Deaton, 20, said afterward. He had taken a leave from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and driven 450 miles to see his company return home. He paused, then added, "I don't know. ... It just didn't seem right. This was for these guys. They were gone for 15 months. I only was there for six or seven months."
In a sense, Deaton's downplaying of his sacrifice reflects the Ft. Drum community's deep understanding of how much blood and anguish the 10th Mountain Division has given to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Welcome-home ceremonies like this one are recurring here; the 2nd Brigade, about 3,600 soldiers, has been the most deployed unit in the U.S. military since the Sept. 11 attacks, spending about 40 months on the front lines. About 40 percent of the division's soldiers have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at least twice.
The division's 1st Brigade recently deployed to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, and the 3rd Brigade returned from a 16-month Afghanistan tour in June.
In the upstate New York communities surrounding Ft. Drum, the comings and goings of soldiers between battle zones and the post have become routine. Along Arsenal Road in nearby Watertown, the Walgreens marquee flashes a greeting to the returning soldiers that segues into an offer for a 15 percent discount for military families developing photos. The Denny's restaurant offers a salute to the 2nd Brigade "commandos" next to a promotion for specials on French toast.
An especially tough tour
But this latest round of homecomings seems particularly bittersweet. The deployment was especially bruising as the 2nd Brigade lost 52 soldiers and is leaving Iraq with two of its soldiers still missing in action.
The two missing soldiers, Spec. Alex Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty, were captured May 12 in an ambush by Al Qaeda in Iraq, an attack that killed five other soldiers. The two soldiers' weapons were discovered later in a cache not far from the attack, and their military IDs turned up in the northern city of Samarra, a two-hour drive away.
Many soldiers and family members interviewed last week said the long, frequent deployments have had a grinding effect.
One soldier recalled a heartbreaking conversation with his toddler, in which the child demanded that he quit his job and return home to play with him. Another spoke of how he and his family would have to reacclimate to each other; he has spent nearly two of his daughter's three years in war zones and wonders how well she will adjust to having him around.
Several soldiers said the constant deployments had pushed them toward leaving the military.
"I like the Army, but the deployments have been too much," said Spec. Joshua Flores-Diaz of New Haven, Conn., who returned from his second tour last week. "Over the last four years, I have been gone more than I have been home."
Florez-Diaz said he was offered a $25,000 signing bonus to re-enlist for six years, but no amount could persuade him to stick with the Army under the current conditions. On Dec. 15, he said, he will be discharged, and he hopes to find a new career as a firefighter.
Brass also worried
The soldiers' angst echoes the concern of top officials at the Pentagon and commanders on the ground in Iraq, who in recent weeks have become more vocal about how the deployments are stretching the Army.
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, have spoken of the need to reduce the deployments as soon as possible. At the same time, Mullen has cautioned that the U.S. military is in a "generational" conflict and that the high battle tempo could be the norm for some time.
Oates, the 10th Mountain Division's commanding general, has started to do his own probing of the morale of his returning soldiers.
With each planeload, the general is the first to greet them as they step onto the tarmac. Oates, who is preparing to return to Iraq early next year for his third tour since the start of the war, said he takes notice of the strength of the grip when they shake hands and whether they look him in the eye.
He said it's his way of getting an initial sense of the emotional health of his soldiers. One morning last week, as a plane with 209 soldiers arrived at 2 a.m., he said he saw a mostly energized group.
One soldier joked that he was already enjoying upstate New York's lack of sewage odors, and several others gave the general hearty pats on the back.
"For the most part, the grips are strong, the smiles are big and they're happy to be home," Oates said. "But there have already been a few whose eyes wander away when I look them in the eye."
Even the most seasoned of soldiers said the deployment was particularly difficult and acknowledged they're fraying.
1st Sgt. David Schumacher, 38, who was on his third tour in Iraq and the ninth deployment of his 16-year career, said this tour was the most difficult.
In a 10-day period in May, he lost three of his soldiers in two roadside bombings as they searched for Fouty and Jimenez. One of the dead, Staff Sgt. Joseph Weiglein, was his most trusted non-commissioned officer.
After his last deployment to Iraq in 2005, Schumacher said he began leaning toward winding down his Army career at the 20-year mark, when soldiers are assured of receiving generous retirement benefits. The death of his three soldiers solidified his feeling that he would file his retirement papers in a little more than three years, he said.
"It makes you question what it's all for, whether it's worth it," he said.
For Robin, his wife of 14 years, this last deployment also was particularly difficult.
Her husband has been deployed for more than half of their marriage, including stints in Haiti, Somalia and Kosovo. She carried much of the burden of raising their two sons and became accustomed to dealing with personal crises on her own. Just before Schumacher shipped out for this last deployment, her mother suffered a massive stroke, and during the deployment she switched jobs.
In his calls home, Robin Schumacher said, she noticed her husband sounded more worn down than in the past. He spoke more about missing out on watching their two sons grow up, she said.
"He's a good soldier, and I knew what I got into when I got married [to someone in the military]," she said. "I'll support him in whatever he wants to do. But when he talks about getting out at 20 years, I am all for it."
Cristen Jones, 32, who is married to a soldier deployed three times to Iraq, acknowledged that the cloud of a future deployment hovers in the back of her mind, but she tries not to think about it. Under current Pentagon deployment strategy, soldiers returning from 15-month tours are assured at least 12 months of "dwell time" at their home posts.
"You can't think about it," Jones said as she waited for her husband, Sgt. Ian Jones, 25, to arrive at a welcome-home ceremony. "You've got to take it one day at a time."
November 5, 2007
Pg. 1
GIs of 10th Mountain show signs of strain
By Aamer Madhani, Tribune national correspondent
FT. DRUM, N.Y.--Near the back of a gymnasium named after a fallen soldier from another era, Army Spec. Brandon Deaton hobbled on his prosthetic leg in the crowd of parents, spouses and children, waiting for his battle buddies to emerge from a side door and mark the end of the 15-month tour that he had started with them.
Deaton's tour with the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, in a backwater south of Baghdad, ended prematurely on March 24 when a bomb exploded under the Humvee he was driving, shredding much of his lower left leg and ending his boyhood dream of making a career of the infantry.
Maj. Gen. Michael Oates spotted Deaton in the gymnasium crowd and asked him to join his company for its march inside for the welcome-home ceremony. Deaton was initially reluctant. He was unshaven, wearing baggy shorts and a T-shirt featuring a heavy metal band. But the two-star general's will, and rank, proved persuasive, and Deaton limped off to join the other soldiers.
"I guess I felt good about it," Deaton, 20, said afterward. He had taken a leave from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and driven 450 miles to see his company return home. He paused, then added, "I don't know. ... It just didn't seem right. This was for these guys. They were gone for 15 months. I only was there for six or seven months."
In a sense, Deaton's downplaying of his sacrifice reflects the Ft. Drum community's deep understanding of how much blood and anguish the 10th Mountain Division has given to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Welcome-home ceremonies like this one are recurring here; the 2nd Brigade, about 3,600 soldiers, has been the most deployed unit in the U.S. military since the Sept. 11 attacks, spending about 40 months on the front lines. About 40 percent of the division's soldiers have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at least twice.
The division's 1st Brigade recently deployed to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, and the 3rd Brigade returned from a 16-month Afghanistan tour in June.
In the upstate New York communities surrounding Ft. Drum, the comings and goings of soldiers between battle zones and the post have become routine. Along Arsenal Road in nearby Watertown, the Walgreens marquee flashes a greeting to the returning soldiers that segues into an offer for a 15 percent discount for military families developing photos. The Denny's restaurant offers a salute to the 2nd Brigade "commandos" next to a promotion for specials on French toast.
An especially tough tour
But this latest round of homecomings seems particularly bittersweet. The deployment was especially bruising as the 2nd Brigade lost 52 soldiers and is leaving Iraq with two of its soldiers still missing in action.
The two missing soldiers, Spec. Alex Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty, were captured May 12 in an ambush by Al Qaeda in Iraq, an attack that killed five other soldiers. The two soldiers' weapons were discovered later in a cache not far from the attack, and their military IDs turned up in the northern city of Samarra, a two-hour drive away.
Many soldiers and family members interviewed last week said the long, frequent deployments have had a grinding effect.
One soldier recalled a heartbreaking conversation with his toddler, in which the child demanded that he quit his job and return home to play with him. Another spoke of how he and his family would have to reacclimate to each other; he has spent nearly two of his daughter's three years in war zones and wonders how well she will adjust to having him around.
Several soldiers said the constant deployments had pushed them toward leaving the military.
"I like the Army, but the deployments have been too much," said Spec. Joshua Flores-Diaz of New Haven, Conn., who returned from his second tour last week. "Over the last four years, I have been gone more than I have been home."
Florez-Diaz said he was offered a $25,000 signing bonus to re-enlist for six years, but no amount could persuade him to stick with the Army under the current conditions. On Dec. 15, he said, he will be discharged, and he hopes to find a new career as a firefighter.
Brass also worried
The soldiers' angst echoes the concern of top officials at the Pentagon and commanders on the ground in Iraq, who in recent weeks have become more vocal about how the deployments are stretching the Army.
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, have spoken of the need to reduce the deployments as soon as possible. At the same time, Mullen has cautioned that the U.S. military is in a "generational" conflict and that the high battle tempo could be the norm for some time.
Oates, the 10th Mountain Division's commanding general, has started to do his own probing of the morale of his returning soldiers.
With each planeload, the general is the first to greet them as they step onto the tarmac. Oates, who is preparing to return to Iraq early next year for his third tour since the start of the war, said he takes notice of the strength of the grip when they shake hands and whether they look him in the eye.
He said it's his way of getting an initial sense of the emotional health of his soldiers. One morning last week, as a plane with 209 soldiers arrived at 2 a.m., he said he saw a mostly energized group.
One soldier joked that he was already enjoying upstate New York's lack of sewage odors, and several others gave the general hearty pats on the back.
"For the most part, the grips are strong, the smiles are big and they're happy to be home," Oates said. "But there have already been a few whose eyes wander away when I look them in the eye."
Even the most seasoned of soldiers said the deployment was particularly difficult and acknowledged they're fraying.
1st Sgt. David Schumacher, 38, who was on his third tour in Iraq and the ninth deployment of his 16-year career, said this tour was the most difficult.
In a 10-day period in May, he lost three of his soldiers in two roadside bombings as they searched for Fouty and Jimenez. One of the dead, Staff Sgt. Joseph Weiglein, was his most trusted non-commissioned officer.
After his last deployment to Iraq in 2005, Schumacher said he began leaning toward winding down his Army career at the 20-year mark, when soldiers are assured of receiving generous retirement benefits. The death of his three soldiers solidified his feeling that he would file his retirement papers in a little more than three years, he said.
"It makes you question what it's all for, whether it's worth it," he said.
For Robin, his wife of 14 years, this last deployment also was particularly difficult.
Her husband has been deployed for more than half of their marriage, including stints in Haiti, Somalia and Kosovo. She carried much of the burden of raising their two sons and became accustomed to dealing with personal crises on her own. Just before Schumacher shipped out for this last deployment, her mother suffered a massive stroke, and during the deployment she switched jobs.
In his calls home, Robin Schumacher said, she noticed her husband sounded more worn down than in the past. He spoke more about missing out on watching their two sons grow up, she said.
"He's a good soldier, and I knew what I got into when I got married [to someone in the military]," she said. "I'll support him in whatever he wants to do. But when he talks about getting out at 20 years, I am all for it."
Cristen Jones, 32, who is married to a soldier deployed three times to Iraq, acknowledged that the cloud of a future deployment hovers in the back of her mind, but she tries not to think about it. Under current Pentagon deployment strategy, soldiers returning from 15-month tours are assured at least 12 months of "dwell time" at their home posts.
"You can't think about it," Jones said as she waited for her husband, Sgt. Ian Jones, 25, to arrive at a welcome-home ceremony. "You've got to take it one day at a time."