posted
Sunday, March 19, 2006 Morale of U.S. troops seen as relatively high Military attitudes remain positive, without troubles reminiscent of the Army during the Vietnam War.
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA The Associated Press
ROMMANA, IRAQ – The seasons swing from cold and muddy to unbearably hot, the roadside bombs are deadly and the long separations from wives and newborns are more draining as third and fourth deployments loom. Re-enlistment is down, and generals acknowledge victory is uncertain.
Yet morale among U.S. troops in Iraq remains somewhat upbeat - without the "fraggings," suicides and insubordination that shook the draft-era Army in the last years of the Vietnam War.
Morale in today's military might reflect an American society knit closer after the social upheaval of the Vietnam era - or the fact the Iraq war so far has taken a far fewer lives than were lost in Southeast Asia.
It also helps that the restructured military doesn't rely on conscripts, but on a professional corps of volunteers. Indeed, some say conflict is exactly why they enlisted.
"Why else would anyone join the Marine Corps?" asked Sgt. Maj. Bryan Ward of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, a 29-year Marine veteran whose first tour was also in the Middle East during the Iran hostage crisis.
"My take is that they like to deploy - but that they just don't like to deploy so often," the San Diego resident added, pointing to a widespread weariness over multiple tours in the war zone.
Unlike in Vietnam, most of the troops live on bases with easy links to home, via telephone and Internet.
Many of the troops say, however, that more important are the personalities of those in their platoons and the leadership style of commanding officers.
Despite the better morale, psychological stress on U.S. troops is evident even after tours are over.
A Pentagon report released last month said 12 percent of the more than 222,000 returning Army soldiers and Marines in the study were diagnosed with a mental problem. In all, 35 percent got psychological counseling soon after returning from Iraq, the report said.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
We sure have a lot of views of the Iraq war in the Media. Why does morale and winning the war have to be used as a major criteria for troops? When was the last time we "WON" a war? How do the troops know how it is to win a war, except from books and maybe great grand parents? You might win a battle or ground. This article also talks of fraggings in Vietnam and appears to me to be relating this to morale, some of these fraggings had nothing to do with morale. Morale to me is on an indivual bases and varies from unit to unit. I don't think morale is necessarily linked to winning or losing a war, any more than AWOL's are linked to morale or fear of combat. There use to be a saying that the busyier a soldier is the better off he was in combat might be true, but there was another saying Hurry Up And Wait.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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we were in an exersize off the 'Nam coast when one of our other Destroyers took 50 cal fire to the bridge from a Nam patrol boat... a few rounds... no big deal..
in other words? we were bored.... the military is for fighting... these guys are all volunteers and professional... why would they have low morale...except for not really knowing what the mission is?
the politicains have low morale cuz they screwed up, the troops didn't screw up... they've done exactly what they were asked to do.. and done it well...
saw the movie Jarhead yesaterday... i thought it did a reasonably good job showing the hurry-up-and-wait thing...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
These articles are always interesting. I bet there were times when you were on these boats, (using this term would probably get me in big trouble) that it seemed like these boats were 3 feet long and i am sure that your mood was not the greatest after many months at sea, every one in the service at one time or the other has to feel this way and it does not have to do with winning. The winning is suppose to be considered before the troops are sent, this is the governments "Duty". The media plays up winning as the reason for the decline of morale in the military, i can't imagine why soldiers would not have high morale after several tours of a combat zone, away from family and friends in a hot place where people shoot at you, "But you do have better communications with home". These statements by the press are almost laughable, it is made by people that don't seem to understand what being in the service is in general. I can only guess what a soldier is going thru in Iraq and i could be wrong about how important winning is while in the Iraq combat zone, i can only try and think if winning was real important in vietnam in my unit, it was only from the standpoint of when you would go home. I think of vietnam as maybe a way to relate to Iraq to try and understand what the soldiers are going thru. In vietnam you had mosquitoes as large as airplanes rats as big as dogs, hot and humid and rain that would keep you wet all night, then the leaches would get you and people would shoot at you, the military hands you weapons and the media expects every one to have high morale and behave themselve, .......yeh right. Tomorrow is our fourth year in Iraq, still no exit plan.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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