By Phil Gingrey
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine if we are adequately arming our troop transport vehicles (Humvees) and if the soldiers are being properly utilized, especially the Guard and Reserves.”
These were the paraphrased words of Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) just before my departure for a four-day bipartisan congressional fact-finding trip to the Middle East over the Christmas holidays. I was one of a group of five members of the House Armed Services Committee permitted to fly into Iraq just a few days after the dramatic capture of the despotic Saddam Hussein. While carrying out this mission, over four grueling days with litter sleep, I was able to visit many of the “hot spots” and our military and civilian leaders whose identity have become household knowledge since the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Every few days, the media report another cowardly, savage attack on our young soldiers who are performing their duty in Iraq. Many of these devastating incidents are the result of improvised explosive devices along the patrol routes in the particularly dangerous area known unaffectionately as the Sunni Triangle.
The troops arrive at their duty stations by way of Humvee transport vehicles. While all wear the best of body armor, some of the vehicles are not reinforced with enough steel to withstand the potential devastation of these powerful homemade bombs placed in their paths. In the short time that we were in the theater of operations, four new American heroes were added to the list of the courageous patriots killed in action. All of these deaths were the result of improvised explosive devices.
There are more than 1,200 Humvees in Iraq, but only 30 percent currently have adequate protection. As we add new vehicles to the theater, all have factory-installed protective steel reinforced to the floor, sides, and roof. A larger engine must be installed to power the additional weight.
Unarmed units currently in the combat zone are being jerry-rigged by ingenious Corps of Engineer members, often with the help of unemployed Iraqi citizens. While I came away convinced that our military leaders are doing their best to solve this problem, this is one of those times in life where our “best” is flat not good enough. We simply must do more. Whatever expense, whatever time, however much money its takes, failure to protect the life and limb of our warrior patriots is not an option.
Since the onset of hostilities, shortly after I was sworn in as a new member of Congress, a hotly debated issue has been about the proper use of our citizen soldiers in the National Guard and Reserves. These part-time fighters are a vital part of the Total Force of the U.S. military operation and have been since the dawn of our nation.
Now we find many of these volunteers called upon to serve an inordinate amount of time on active duty, with very little notice for family and employer preparation. In some instances, their deployment to active-duty status results in an initial holding pattern assignment that only wastes precious time away from home and their full-time civilian life.
Once Guard and Reserve units are called to duty, especially in a combat zone, do the professional soldiers and their leaders sometimes treat them as second-class citizens? There have been complaints about the pay, the housing allowance, leave time, length of deployment, training and equipment. All of these issues must be adequately addressed.
While it is the secretary of defense and our impressive service academy graduates who are calling the shots on the ground, it is clearly the duty and responsibility of Congress to perform its oversight responsibility for our constituents. In discussing these issues with both our combat commanders and the rank and file soldier in Iraq, we have been assured that the Reserve and Guard units are a “seamless” part of the fighting force. The respect shown them, especially by their officers, seemed genuine and deep.
But my impression, after 100 hours in this difficult and extremely dangerous part of the world, is that the Armed Services Committees of the 108th Congress must continue the have serious dialogue about length of deployment of the citizen-soldier, their training and equipment, and the numerous “quality of life” issues that are brought to us by their families. We also must assure that the end strength of our total force is adequate to defend ourselves and if necessary wage war in more than one part of this dangerous world of the 21st century.
This trip was the hardest thing that I have ever endured. Despite intense security measures for congressional visitors, I remained somewhat anxious about personal safety. But imagine the guilt I felt as I viewed the temporary coffins carrying the remains of heroes aboard the C-130 flight we took out of Baghdad on the last day of our journey.
We were going home to enjoy the holidays with family and friends. These two warriors, killed on Dec. 22 by an improvised explosive devises while on patrol, were going to their heavenly homes but their families must endure their worst Christmas ever. Because of these and many others whose sacrifice has been the “ultimate,” we must not even think of failure in the Middle East. The commitment has been made.
Continuing to argue about methods and motives is something for future Congresses and historians to discuss. Our duty is to win. We owe this to freedom-loving people of the entire world. We owe this to those who continue to suffer human rights violation at the hands of other tyrants and evil dictators. But mostly we owe victory to those who have given life and limb, shed blood to nourish the tree of Liberty, died to “make men free.”
Their battle cry from above now becomes the words of that famous World War I poem: “Take up our quarrel with the foe, to you from failing hand we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high, for if you break faith with those of us who die, we shall not sleep though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.”
For this, it should be easy to put partisan political bickering aside and join hands as this small group of Democrats and Republicans did.
