Today’s War, Today’s Warrior
An opinion from someone who’s been there
Staff Sergeant Adam W. Skillen
Allow us to stop for a moment; to freeze time if you will. Look around you, what do you see? When it comes to war, and America’s presence in Iraq, I’ll tell you what I see. I see a country divided. I see people who are for it, and I see people who are against it. Nothing new you say? So do I, sort of. In every war there have always been the nay- sayers. Those who, regardless of the decision made by our country’s leadership, will never be satisfied. There are always those folks who are on the fence. They support the president, if only he’d just…. Or if he hadn’t of done that… This, I’m afraid, will never change. But perhaps I could, if I may, shed some light on what it’s like for the modern day warrior.
Today’s Soldier is a volunteer. This person has relinquished many of their civil liberties in order to protect the greater good. Now there are as many different reasons as there are Soldiers for why one would choose to do this. Some of the reasons are college money, a regular job, or those, who like me, are just plain patriots. As far back as I can remember I have always wanted to be a Soldier. I liked and craved the idea of becoming a warrior, to fight for good in the battle against evil. Like any young infantryman, I didn’t mind the idea that I may also get to blow stuff up. Coming up through the ranks I was very motivated, strong and courageous on the “field of battle” in all of my training exercises. I longed for the day when I would be able to prove myself in combat. I could often see myself fighting various enemies in hand to hand, or up close and personal in room to room fighting. Then came the 11th of September, 2001.
At that particular time in my life I was a young Sergeant, an infantry fire team leader. Now for you to understand this, I must explain a little bit about the infantry, its mission, and how the team leader fits into this role. The infantry’s mission is to close with and destroy the enemy by means of fire and maneuver, (One group shoots while another group moves), to seize terrain, to kill or capture him, and rappel his counter attack, among other things. You see, in spite of all the modern technology, it still requires that somebody go over to the bad guy and kick his butt, up close and personal. Or at the very least, ensure that they are all defeated. It takes an infantryman to stand on the ground and say I have taken this here piece of dirt from you, my enemy, and I will do with it as I please. Now unlike the Hollywood movies we are used to, nobody does this alone, we work in teams, fire teams. This is a group of about four guys who are lead by one man, usually a Sergeant. This man is the shining example of what the warrior ethos is all about. His leadership is applied through his own personal example. “Follow me, I am the Infantry.” When he shoots, his men shoot. When he moves, his men move. He will not demand anything of his men that he first has not done, or that he would not do himself. When his men are in doubt, he will show them, “Like this, watch me.” His purpose is to teach, coach and mentor so that his men can be like him so if he should fall on the field of battle, they will continue the mission without him. In my opinion, there is no greater honor than to be an infantry fire team leader.
As I watched in total disbelief the towers falling before my very eyes on Fox News, I was in my living room with my wife. I was changing into my uniform preparing to go back to work after an already long morning of physical fitness training. The live report came on after the first plane had hit and I remember thinking how could a pilot make such a mistake in perfect weather like that? Then when the second one hit, I looked at my wife and said, “Honey, we are under attack.” I stood up, grabbed all of my field gear, and gave her a hug and kiss and said, “I will probably be gone for a long time.” The reality of impending war began to set in. The words be careful what you wish for now rang in my ears like mad. As an infantry fire team leader in one of our nations most elite combat units, the 101st Airborne Division, I knew I was about to make history.
Now here I sit, typing this story in front of a computer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. Time is frozen and I’m looking back. It all happened so fast. First Afghanistan, then the invasion of Iraq, after which I decided to get out of the Army because of too many deployments. I figured I had too many children to risk abandoning them and making my wife, who had already suffered so much, raise them alone. I had decided to join the National Guard in California. You see, you can take the man out of the infantry, but you can’t take the infantry out of the man. I felt that in the Guard, I would be deployed locally to help with disasters or domestic issues in my home state and country. I was wrong, kind of. Four drills later, I was going back to Iraq for my third combat tour in four years. I was now a Platoon Sergeant, responsible for the lives of forty men, a responsibility I did not take lightly. I had about six months to take my years of experience and two previous tours to combat, and give it to them. I had done the best I could to show them their own strengths, not mine. To share my experiences and how they applied to what they were doing. At this point, I didn’t want to appear as the all knowing warrior, I wanted them to see that they were no different than me. They were just as good, if not, better than I was. I would pull from the group and have them teach rather than me. I would only interject at what I felt were critical points, and again would relate them with actual experiences I had encountered. I tried to earn their respect, never demanding it. I could have, but if I did, would they follow me? Would you follow an arrogant jerk; or someone you felt truly cared about your survival?
After an Improvised Explosive Device nearly ended my life I look back on all I’ve been through. All the friends I have lost, all the lives I have taken, all the lives I have saved. Was it all worth it? Did I get the “glory” I so desperately chased? I feel that glory is just an idea. It is an idea conceived from the minds of those who don’t understand what war really is. Yes, glory exists, but it isn’t what you think it is. You see with glory comes blood stained hands. It comes with the painful memory of watching young soldiers breathe their last breath. It comes with pictures burned into your brain that you dare not describe. Glory is followed with an eerie feeling that will follow you wherever you go for the rest of your life. It’s a silence in the middle of a crowd that makes you feel alone. It’s the habit of scanning each and every window, street corner, and vehicle that you see as you walk the streets of your home town. It’s the pain of knowing you had to kill another human in order to stay alive. Someone who was influenced to believe a twisted set of beliefs from someone else who was too scared to fight himself. All of this to come home and deal with just one person who feels it’s wrong makes my blood boil. For with all of the horror comes the good that is seldom spoken of in the media. The media loves to report the horror and evil of war. They often end up making our young Soldiers look like murderers who want only to kill. They can turn a simple mistake into a murder trial with a few chosen words and pictures of bodies. (It’s easy see, in war there are often bodies.) If a young Soldier mistakes a potato or a rock for a grenade and kills the thrower because he felt his life and the life of his brothers was in danger, he’s a murderer. But if he mistakes a grenade for a potato, he’s dead, or worse, he’s maimed and his friends are dead. When the media reports situations like this it creates an environment that has Soldiers afraid to shoot for fear of going to prison. I have seen people die because of this. The other side of the coin has us treating known terrorists as if they had the same rights as American citizens. I feel that a known terrorist has one thing coming to him, and that’s JACK! They will do anything, stop at nothing, to kill or influence others to kill an American, or as they see it, “the infidel.” They will even kill their own innocent people to get those still alive to kill Americans. To play nice is to lose the battle and increase their ability to strike on our own front door. If a man believes in a cause strong enough that he is proud to give his life, you cannot change his mind. In his mind his cause is greater than himself. How do I know this; because it is that way with me. I believe that my country and its people are more important than me. I would die so that my children and others could live in freedom from tyranny and oppression. Of those who protest, how many have actually been there? How many of them have had to fight to stay alive? How many have had to carry 75 plus pounds of equipment day in and day out for 18 months? I don’t think that any of them have ever enjoyed the smile of an Iraqi child, or the feeling that you get when a little girl hugs you because you gave her a doll. They have never seen the joy in children who can enjoy a game of soccer because you gave them a ball, or played some hide and seek in streets that used to be run by someone who would kill them simply because they were Kurdish. The Shia are no longer dirt poor, and the Sunni filthy rich. It’s not about oil; and Weapons of Mass Destruction may have been the biggest fear, but it wasn’t the only reason to invade Iraq. There was genocide in Germany and we got rid of Hitler. There was genocide in the Balkans, so we went there. There was also genocide in Iraq, and it’s only right that we do something about it.
There will always be soldiers like us to defend the rights of those “ignorant” souls who argue about our actions over coffee each morning in the safety of their nice and comfortable homes. Ignorant souls who have never been there and will never do that but seem to think they know what’s best or right. It is my opinion, and here’s the moral of the story, if you’ve never carried a ruck or held a rifle in defense of your country, then don’t argue about war. If you’ve never cast a vote, don’t complain about your president. Because there will always be, for the protestor, the ability to sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. The only thing I would ask is that if you enjoy your freedom, then don’t critique us on how that violence is accomplished. Leave the war fighting to the warriors and enjoy your peace, it is there because of the Soldier. If what you see disturbs you, just do as I do and change the damn channel.
An opinion from someone who’s been there
Staff Sergeant Adam W. Skillen
Allow us to stop for a moment; to freeze time if you will. Look around you, what do you see? When it comes to war, and America’s presence in Iraq, I’ll tell you what I see. I see a country divided. I see people who are for it, and I see people who are against it. Nothing new you say? So do I, sort of. In every war there have always been the nay- sayers. Those who, regardless of the decision made by our country’s leadership, will never be satisfied. There are always those folks who are on the fence. They support the president, if only he’d just…. Or if he hadn’t of done that… This, I’m afraid, will never change. But perhaps I could, if I may, shed some light on what it’s like for the modern day warrior.
Today’s Soldier is a volunteer. This person has relinquished many of their civil liberties in order to protect the greater good. Now there are as many different reasons as there are Soldiers for why one would choose to do this. Some of the reasons are college money, a regular job, or those, who like me, are just plain patriots. As far back as I can remember I have always wanted to be a Soldier. I liked and craved the idea of becoming a warrior, to fight for good in the battle against evil. Like any young infantryman, I didn’t mind the idea that I may also get to blow stuff up. Coming up through the ranks I was very motivated, strong and courageous on the “field of battle” in all of my training exercises. I longed for the day when I would be able to prove myself in combat. I could often see myself fighting various enemies in hand to hand, or up close and personal in room to room fighting. Then came the 11th of September, 2001.
At that particular time in my life I was a young Sergeant, an infantry fire team leader. Now for you to understand this, I must explain a little bit about the infantry, its mission, and how the team leader fits into this role. The infantry’s mission is to close with and destroy the enemy by means of fire and maneuver, (One group shoots while another group moves), to seize terrain, to kill or capture him, and rappel his counter attack, among other things. You see, in spite of all the modern technology, it still requires that somebody go over to the bad guy and kick his butt, up close and personal. Or at the very least, ensure that they are all defeated. It takes an infantryman to stand on the ground and say I have taken this here piece of dirt from you, my enemy, and I will do with it as I please. Now unlike the Hollywood movies we are used to, nobody does this alone, we work in teams, fire teams. This is a group of about four guys who are lead by one man, usually a Sergeant. This man is the shining example of what the warrior ethos is all about. His leadership is applied through his own personal example. “Follow me, I am the Infantry.” When he shoots, his men shoot. When he moves, his men move. He will not demand anything of his men that he first has not done, or that he would not do himself. When his men are in doubt, he will show them, “Like this, watch me.” His purpose is to teach, coach and mentor so that his men can be like him so if he should fall on the field of battle, they will continue the mission without him. In my opinion, there is no greater honor than to be an infantry fire team leader.
As I watched in total disbelief the towers falling before my very eyes on Fox News, I was in my living room with my wife. I was changing into my uniform preparing to go back to work after an already long morning of physical fitness training. The live report came on after the first plane had hit and I remember thinking how could a pilot make such a mistake in perfect weather like that? Then when the second one hit, I looked at my wife and said, “Honey, we are under attack.” I stood up, grabbed all of my field gear, and gave her a hug and kiss and said, “I will probably be gone for a long time.” The reality of impending war began to set in. The words be careful what you wish for now rang in my ears like mad. As an infantry fire team leader in one of our nations most elite combat units, the 101st Airborne Division, I knew I was about to make history.
Now here I sit, typing this story in front of a computer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. Time is frozen and I’m looking back. It all happened so fast. First Afghanistan, then the invasion of Iraq, after which I decided to get out of the Army because of too many deployments. I figured I had too many children to risk abandoning them and making my wife, who had already suffered so much, raise them alone. I had decided to join the National Guard in California. You see, you can take the man out of the infantry, but you can’t take the infantry out of the man. I felt that in the Guard, I would be deployed locally to help with disasters or domestic issues in my home state and country. I was wrong, kind of. Four drills later, I was going back to Iraq for my third combat tour in four years. I was now a Platoon Sergeant, responsible for the lives of forty men, a responsibility I did not take lightly. I had about six months to take my years of experience and two previous tours to combat, and give it to them. I had done the best I could to show them their own strengths, not mine. To share my experiences and how they applied to what they were doing. At this point, I didn’t want to appear as the all knowing warrior, I wanted them to see that they were no different than me. They were just as good, if not, better than I was. I would pull from the group and have them teach rather than me. I would only interject at what I felt were critical points, and again would relate them with actual experiences I had encountered. I tried to earn their respect, never demanding it. I could have, but if I did, would they follow me? Would you follow an arrogant jerk; or someone you felt truly cared about your survival?
After an Improvised Explosive Device nearly ended my life I look back on all I’ve been through. All the friends I have lost, all the lives I have taken, all the lives I have saved. Was it all worth it? Did I get the “glory” I so desperately chased? I feel that glory is just an idea. It is an idea conceived from the minds of those who don’t understand what war really is. Yes, glory exists, but it isn’t what you think it is. You see with glory comes blood stained hands. It comes with the painful memory of watching young soldiers breathe their last breath. It comes with pictures burned into your brain that you dare not describe. Glory is followed with an eerie feeling that will follow you wherever you go for the rest of your life. It’s a silence in the middle of a crowd that makes you feel alone. It’s the habit of scanning each and every window, street corner, and vehicle that you see as you walk the streets of your home town. It’s the pain of knowing you had to kill another human in order to stay alive. Someone who was influenced to believe a twisted set of beliefs from someone else who was too scared to fight himself. All of this to come home and deal with just one person who feels it’s wrong makes my blood boil. For with all of the horror comes the good that is seldom spoken of in the media. The media loves to report the horror and evil of war. They often end up making our young Soldiers look like murderers who want only to kill. They can turn a simple mistake into a murder trial with a few chosen words and pictures of bodies. (It’s easy see, in war there are often bodies.) If a young Soldier mistakes a potato or a rock for a grenade and kills the thrower because he felt his life and the life of his brothers was in danger, he’s a murderer. But if he mistakes a grenade for a potato, he’s dead, or worse, he’s maimed and his friends are dead. When the media reports situations like this it creates an environment that has Soldiers afraid to shoot for fear of going to prison. I have seen people die because of this. The other side of the coin has us treating known terrorists as if they had the same rights as American citizens. I feel that a known terrorist has one thing coming to him, and that’s JACK! They will do anything, stop at nothing, to kill or influence others to kill an American, or as they see it, “the infidel.” They will even kill their own innocent people to get those still alive to kill Americans. To play nice is to lose the battle and increase their ability to strike on our own front door. If a man believes in a cause strong enough that he is proud to give his life, you cannot change his mind. In his mind his cause is greater than himself. How do I know this; because it is that way with me. I believe that my country and its people are more important than me. I would die so that my children and others could live in freedom from tyranny and oppression. Of those who protest, how many have actually been there? How many of them have had to fight to stay alive? How many have had to carry 75 plus pounds of equipment day in and day out for 18 months? I don’t think that any of them have ever enjoyed the smile of an Iraqi child, or the feeling that you get when a little girl hugs you because you gave her a doll. They have never seen the joy in children who can enjoy a game of soccer because you gave them a ball, or played some hide and seek in streets that used to be run by someone who would kill them simply because they were Kurdish. The Shia are no longer dirt poor, and the Sunni filthy rich. It’s not about oil; and Weapons of Mass Destruction may have been the biggest fear, but it wasn’t the only reason to invade Iraq. There was genocide in Germany and we got rid of Hitler. There was genocide in the Balkans, so we went there. There was also genocide in Iraq, and it’s only right that we do something about it.
There will always be soldiers like us to defend the rights of those “ignorant” souls who argue about our actions over coffee each morning in the safety of their nice and comfortable homes. Ignorant souls who have never been there and will never do that but seem to think they know what’s best or right. It is my opinion, and here’s the moral of the story, if you’ve never carried a ruck or held a rifle in defense of your country, then don’t argue about war. If you’ve never cast a vote, don’t complain about your president. Because there will always be, for the protestor, the ability to sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. The only thing I would ask is that if you enjoy your freedom, then don’t critique us on how that violence is accomplished. Leave the war fighting to the warriors and enjoy your peace, it is there because of the Soldier. If what you see disturbs you, just do as I do and change the damn channel.
posted by Skillen | 12:38
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