active service in a foreign land

[brazen]

during my time in the army i never saw service overseas or at a truely operational level. my cousin was a logistics officer(a truck driver ;) ) and was part of new zealands commitment to the east timor peace process but i missed out on this by a matter of months. there is no doubt that if had enlisted 6 months later i would have been involved in foot patrols through the jungle, and possibly in firefights.

what i want to know about is what are peoples thoughts about being commited to active duty in a combat zone? while timor wasn't iraq, it was a dangerous place and several new zealanders(and australians) have lost their lives to ensure their freedom. i am sure that the big factor in the success of the mission their was in many ways due to the fact that australian and new zealand soldiers had the full support of their countries. when new zealands commitment ended early this year there were parades in the streets.

i read that many american soldiers are worried about the fact that this war in iraq is not going to be popular. they are worried about the 'vietnam' syndrome reappearing. that they will be spat on for doing their duty by people that fail to understand the difference being made. but i also see brave faces and comments like ' we don't need the rest of the world, we are america"

and how about your opinions on permanent military bases such as the american commitment in japan and south korea? where there has been negative sentiment expressed towards continued permanent presence(eg at okinawa)

i know several of you have seen service overseas, and some have served in combat. does public opinion matter? does it effect the way you feel about being there?

the mental state of a soldier is vital to the wellbeing of a unit in general. the most well oiled regiment can fall to pieces if its members feel like they are not in the 'right'.

(this thread is not an invitation to start up a discussion on the current political situation in iraq)

(and the emotional state of a force is somewhat difficult to simulate in a computer game... :casstet: imagine trying to attack with a demoralized bunch of m1a1's that just don't feel confident)

[Mpat120]

Being deployed in time of hostilities is part of the job, you may have signed up to go to collage, but you signed your name.

Your always worried about not what the people think, but what your loved ones are thinking, about what they are puting up with because you are over there somewhere, and people dont like it.

I dont think we should have permanant millatary bases in other countries, but we do and someone that makes more than i do thinks we should.

Public oppinion matters to some, but even if it does, you still have a job to do, and youhave your orders to carry out.

You always hav those who dont want to be there and do their job, thats what happens when ideaoligies clash, but you have to drive on, even if the person on your left and right is unhappy for one reason or another.

[labrat]

I was in the 1st Gulf War with the USAF in Saudi Arabia as an aircraft mechanic. I didn't serve in combat, but I was involved in combat flight operations. At the time I was 18 years old and a little scared. The thing that I thought about the most was not letting the people around me down. I had a job to do and if I didn't perform well, it affected the rest of the people on my team. Looking back, in my situation, public opinion didn't matter to me as much because I was focused on getting the job done. We launched and recovered airplanes at a break neck pace. There just wasn't time to worry about what people thought back at home. We worried about our aircrews and eachother most of all.

[ShotMagnet]

I had orders to Dhahran, I spent 3.5 years in Korea, and another in the UK. As regards being overseas, there wasn't an instance where I was not made to feel welcome. I got to know Koreans and British on a first-name basis, I got to be friends with both Korean and British. Whether or not the US military should be overseas is largely overshadowed by the fact that we are, for reasons which still have relevance, as the events of today have shown.
As for being in a combat zone, it isn't something one dwells on. There's a job to do; the fact that it's in a combat zone just makes you more focused on doing the job. Public opinion, same thing. The people 'back home' literally have no idea what the real situation is, how it's affecting you, or why (by and large) there's trouble in the first place. Usually, in my case anyway, protests concerning the American military did not translate into generalized hostility toward the members of that military.
It should be noted that, in the countries I was in, there were people who remembered fighting the Nazis, or lived under Japanese occupation. Not a one of them thought that we didn't belong overseas. They knew what could happen, what would happen maybe, if we left.

Shot