War is a powerful tool

Graduate ‘08 - Deployment ‘09

I enlisted in the military in 2007. At the time, there were two wars going on. And I was a young and dumb hormonal teenager at that time. It’s like all I wanted to do was enlist, go to war and be the next in my family to be a war veteran… Now that I’m older, all I want is people to not experience war in any sense. Heroes are glorified, immortalize in word, print and picture. But that is all we try to focus on. Or we focus on the loss. Maybe even the potential loss. But what we don’t talk about is the true cost. The real price. The neighboring nations having to take in refugees aren’t always a better option. Exploitation of refugees can be very prevalent. Not everyone protects non-citizens of their nations. Not to mention the children that are born there. Not every nation will welcome them as citizens. They can be citizens to a nation they might never have the chance to go back to.

War is not something that can be taken so lightly. My current nation’s leadership decided not only should they attack a nation for change… they openly say things like, “no stupid rules of engagement,” “no politically correct wars.” I don’t have enough energy to fully express just how much I denounce this.

Rules of Engagement

On my deployment, I was in Al Asad Air Base in the Al-Anbar Province of Iraq. My unit was tasked with numerous jobs throughout the base. And replaced several Marine and Army units. I deployed with the 1139th Military Police Company and was attached to 3/319th 82nd Airborne Division. Everyone made it home safely. During one of the numerous tasks my unit was responsible for, there was something fishy going on out in the distance. We could see a vehicle leave an exit lane, stop wear only the military typically stops. They waited outside their car, and then another vehicle came over from an area a vehicle shouldn’t be. The two groups of people convened for several minutes with one leaving, past the exit lane and the original vehicle proceed to return through the exit lane, and started to accelerate. My training kicked in, and proceeded to use our rules of engagement. The vehicle proceeded and I escalated to the next step. The driver instantly stopped, and in the thickest East Coast accent, “I’m fucking American, you dumb fuck.”

I won’t explain what happened next for OPSEC reasons. But I was commemorated for this. My leadership went to bat when this individual came after me. And my leadership’s biggest defense was, “if he didn’t do what he did, you’d have a .50cal round hole in your chest. He is our best shot on this system.”

Pain

My hands shake, tears well up when remembering this and my deployment. So when I hear people take this so lightly… I just want to send them instead of our troops. You perform this war, because it’s not defending America.