War in Iraq, a Soldier's View

Text

13-Jun-03 6:31 PM

Still stuck in Tallil!!!

I understand it taking a week or two to out-process because of all the turning in and briefings we have to do but a week just to wait for an email that says we can move to Doha? Give me a break, I knew that the Army had problems getting things done but it doesn’t take a week to type an email.

Here’s the whole story.
We came in last Sunday expecting a day or two to get our orders that say were going home; we thought since they knew that the 110th was moving up we’d be moving back and they’d have things done before we got there. Well we roll in and they’re surprised to see us like they didn’t know that we’d come back as soon as we had a chance. So they don’t have the orders printed up and we wait a day for them to be made up, after all printing orders is very official and something that the Army does often, I figure they’d have an Word template or Form Flow template that they would use, they just have to fill in some blanks to identify us and our unit then print out copies.

The next day we ask if they’re done; they tell us that we need to check back that night. That night we check back and they say check back in the morning. We check in the morning and they tell us to come back that evening. This went on for two and a half days.

On Wednesday, our 4th day here, they tell us that they’re making up itineraries and all of the timetables to get us all the way back to Ft. Carson in the states, but it will take another three days. We figure no problem if they’re getting everything planned out then I can wait that long, that way we’ll know what we need to do.

Well it’s been three days and now we’re getting all kinds of info, most of it bad and none of it being our orders to go home. E5 Anderson is telling us that we were told by CFLCC that it would take two weeks to get the orders printed, and get this; they’re not orders to go home just orders to get transferred from 171st ASG. Another rumor of his is that we’re going to get redeployed to another unit in the area, i.e. we’re not going home! He got Garcia spouting his rumors now too but so far as we can tell they have no basis.

The most accurate information we can get is from Slocum because he spends a lot of time with the Colonel to get these things moving. He says that they’ve been emailing CFLCC who is going to send orders to us then we can move down, the last word was that the orders will be ready “soon”, that was a day or two ago. The Master Sergeant said that we’d probably be getting out of here Saturday which is tomorrow. But for us to leave tomorrow we need to get orders tonight so we can leave in the morning. The earlier we start the less time we’ll be in the heat, and the drive is 5 hours to Doha.

That’s one of the other problems facing us now; will our vehicles make it? The 5 ton has had a main seal class three oil leak since we entered Iraq, luckily it only leaks while driving and we can fill up the oil each night and it doesn’t drop too low. At Scandia the Wrecker developed a problem with the spider gears on the 3rd axle; it makes noises but so far no problems. If it goes either the axle will seize or it’ll lose power to the rear 4 wheels. To solve the problem we’re planning to disconnect the main drive axle and shift into 8 wheel drive so the front 4 wheels pull it all the way back to Doha. Now the Troop Carrier has developed a death knock. It’s pretty loud and some days are worse than others but what it sounds like is one of the bearings on the crankshaft have given out and now the connecting rod is bouncing around due to there being to large of gap. If it goes out we plan to tow the troop carrier with the wrecker, all the soldiers will have to stay in the towed vehicle because there’s no room for them in the rest of the vehicles. (I know that in the Civilian world you don’t ride in a vehicle when connected to a tow truck but out here things work a little differently).

Anyway here’s hoping that we get our orders in the next few hours so we don’t have to waste another day here sitting on our asses.