Troops Who Led Iraq Invasion Prepare For Unprecedented Third Tour

[bigtree]

December 16, 2006 12:13 PM

FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) - {snip}

While U.S. policymakers weigh bleak assessments of Iraq's future and Americans question the war's slow progress, the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division will begin deploying in January for its third tour.

With its latest deployment orders, the 3rd Infantry has been called to duty in Iraq more than any division in the Army. Its tanks and armored Bradley vehicles were among the first to rumble into Baghdad in the 2003 invasion.

The Fort Stewart-based troops have either been at war or training for it ever since. They deployed a second time in 2005 as Iraq elected its first democratic government. Now, a year after soldiers came home to their families, they'll be saying goodbye again.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the division commander, estimates about 60 percent of his soldiers have served at least one tour in Iraq.

That experience has come at price - 147 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry died in its first two deployments to Iraq, more than two-thirds of them during the division's second tour.

Having served in Iraq twice already with the 3rd Infantry, Staff Sgt. Robert Dove knows the stakes. Framed photographs of eight soldiers killed in 2005 from his unit - the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment - hang on the wall outside the office of Dove's battalion commander.

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=NATIONAL&ID=564859053768312362



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[Rageneau]

1. HOO-AH!! These lucky troops get to kick more Iraqi ass.

HOO-AH! I bet these troops are cheering like they first did back in "Shock and Awe".

I bet they're happy for another chance to show how enthusiastically our volunteer army can kill.

After all, nothing says America like mindless brute force.

HOO-Fuckin-AH!

[leftchick]

2. I know a Marine who has been to Iraq twice and

Afghanistan once. He thinks he is home for good and promised another assignment stateside. I hope he is right.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. It's a wonder anyone enlists knowing these conditions.

Are they really that loyal to BushCo?

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. No they are that hungry

this is why it is called an economic draft.

For many of these troops this is the only way out of the hood

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. True, but a sign of the desperation experienced by many kids.

Thanks to this miserable bastard in the White House.

[QuestionAll...]

6. that miserable sackless bastard

that miserable thoughtless bastard.
of course I'm thinking from the Pleebs view. He's doin' quite fine for the 2%'ers. and that's what this is all about.

yes, Virginia, this is a class war.

[brer cat]

7. Or simply desperate period.

A friend of my daughter's went to pick up his younger brother at a party, found a fight in process, and waded in to pull his brother out. Just then police arrived and took every one in. My daughter's friend was told he could face arrest or enlist!!! He and his wife were in a desperate custody fight to gain custody of his son from his major drug-using ex. Their case was solid, and he didn't dare rock the boat with an arrest, so he agreed to enlist. Fortunately, he failed the physical, and later gained custody of his son. Happy ending this time, but that's probably rare. This really nice young man would have done ANYTHING to get his son away from the hell he was living in, and the US government was quite willing to force the father to "choose" some years in the hell of Iraq.

Class war, it is.

[bigtree]

8. kick

:grr: