With all due respect Centex and respect your service to the country....the Missions that the United States Coast Guard performs and what our soldiers in Iraq are doing cannot fairly be compared.
The USCG is more of a rescue/law enforcement operation, which yes, is very dangerous and many have died in the line of duty, however, the soldiers in Iraq are in a very different WAR situation. They are in a completely different country as well and totally environment. This is not to diminish the value of the Coast Guard by any means, but the situations are very different. Both are very dangerous, and ideals similar...but situations very different.
Sometimes you need to make a soldier stay out of the game for awhile, whether he wants to or not. A soldier is useless if he is not taken care of...including himself. Sometimes a soldier on the ground doesn't see the big picture or does not see what can be seen from the outside. So sometimes a soldier doesn't know when its time to take a break or get out. Much like when in a fire situation and I am in position ready to work and I am told to get out...the situation looks decent enough to fight it and maybe get the fire out to me, but on the outside the roof is sagging and fire is blowing out the eves of the building and the roof just self vented...something I can't even see on the floor I am on...yet seconds after I get out, still bitching, the roof collapses, right where I was.
If you want soldiers in good enough shape to work you must take care of them...and that doesn't mean letting them do what they want...like continue to fight...or as you say "never leave their post until their mission is complete". Once again, I am forced to take a long break after working a fire, instead of getting a new air tank and going back in...why? Because I am tired and don't even know it...and I would probably be sloppy and put others at risk and myself. I have seen it happen before...but sometimes you have no choice.
Proper Rotation is as important to our troops as taking care of them when and if they return. Its a part of taking care of the troops...you have to take care of them while they fight as well as after they fight.
Excuse me?
Surely your not suggesting that there aren't ANY members of the United States Coast Guard in Iraq are you?
The first maritime prisoners captured in the Iraq war were captured by the United States Coast Cutter Adak.
It was the United States Coast Guard that helped seize and intercept Iraqi mine laying vessels in their ports, and currently provides port security in Iraq, Kuwait, and the port of Umm Qasr, in addition to Iraqi oil terminals in the Arabian Sea.
At the height of the conflict, the Coast Guard deployed 1,200 men and women, 11 ships and a port-security unit to the theater to conduct maritime-interception operations and coastal-security patrols. The port- security unit and five — soon to be six — patrol boats remain on duty in the northern Arabian Gulf, where they work closely with the Navy and Marine Corps under the command of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
That's IN ADDITION to work being done to secure our ports here in the United States of America, while performing aids to navigation, search and rescue, fisheries operations, and drug interdiction.
So please don't suggest, that while the Army, Navy, Airforce, and Marines were playing war games preparing for a war that they hoped would never come while I served my tours of duty, that the United States Coast Guard isn't a part of
this operation, and that they have no presence in Iraq, and that I have no idea what's going on amongst the troops over there.
Sources:
Coast Guard is Active Player in War on Terrorism
Caught Between Iraq & A Hard Place!
Arlington National Cemetery
COAST GUARD SUFFERS FIRST COMBAT DEATH SINCE VIETNAM
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nice post.
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