ya don't have to like it... ya just gotta do it!!! did he really think he would LIKE being in Iraq when he joined???
Posted on 01/15/2008 3:54:16 PM PST by got_moab?
Albert Jordan, 21, isn’t one to hold back, especially when he describes what it’s like being a soldier in Iraq.
“It sucks…It’s definitely an experience, but it sucks being in Iraq,” said Jordan, a U.S. Army Specialist, during an interview with the Beacon, a day after returning home from his first tour of duty.
“At first it’s kind of exciting because you’re doing different things. You’re doing what you see in video games, but then a couple of IED’s [improvised explosive devices] go off or a couple of bullets go by your head and you go, ‘Whoa, what is this I got myself into?’ And then you start thinking too much.”
The 21-year-old 2004 Pilgrim graduate who lives on Parkview Avenue joined the Army in May of 2005, and was sent to Baghdad, the world’s most dangerous city, in 2006. He spent both his 20th and 21st birthday in Baghdad.
To illustrate the extreme danger soldiers face on a daily basis, Jordan told a story.
One afternoon in Baghdad, Jordan and his comrades were on patrol. They noticed a mound of fresh dirt in the yard of a residence—a telltale sign of a hidden weapons cache. After affirming their suspicions and finding barrels full of weapons, the group followed protocol and checked the lot next door.
Jordan, a staff sergeant and an interpreter approached an Iraqi man in the next house and began to question him.
“We were just kind of standing around, and then we heard a single crack and the wall, just a few feet away from my face, exploded. It went Ka-boom,” said Jordan.
He was the target of a sniper.
“We didn’t know where it was coming from, but someone’s not just going to shoot randomly…We got out of there and I was like ‘Wow, I almost got shot in the face,’” he said.
The story isn’t an isolated incident. It’s one of many that Jordan chose randomly.
That’s the reality of being an Army Specialist in Baghdad. The threat of a sniper’s bullet, an explosion of an improvised bomb or even a drive-by shooting, is as pervasive as the sand during a windstorm.
“You go out and you say to yourself, ‘Is this going to be the last day that I woke up,’” said Jordan.
How does one deal with the reality that death could realistically come at any given second?
“You just don’t think about it. You try not to as hard as you can,” said Jordan.
As time passed, Jordan began to question the purpose of the mission.
“Every day someone is getting killed, and we’d ask ourselves, ‘What is this for,’” Jordan said.
Jordan granted that while he doesn’t like being in a war zone, it does come with the territory. What makes the Iraq war an even harder pill for him to swallow is the fact that he doesn’t understand the rationale for it. After all, Iraq never attacked America, he notes.
Some will argue that America is establishing democracy in the Middle East, but Jordan counters that democracy is something that must come from within, it can’t be imposed.
Most troubling, he said, is the fact that since the invasion, the military has acted less and less like a military and more like police.
“We’re not police officers. We’re trained to go and kill people in battles, not keep them in line,” said Jordan.
Like many in the private sector, while he doesn’t agree with the mission set up by his superiors, he follows orders dutifully.
Jordan said he believes the surge has been successful in reducing violence over the last year, but notes that it also increases the likelihood of soldiers being killed because with more American troops comes more targets for the Iraqi insurgents.
And although he doesn’t agree with the war, he rejects the notion of setting timetables for withdrawals, as some prominent Democrats have suggested. It wouldn’t be wise, Jordan said, to tell an enemy when you plan on retreating.
He believes the U.S. will treat Iraq like South Korea, Japan and Germany and remain there indefinitely.
Jordan joined the Army for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, he comes from a military family. His sister, Shannon Wyatt, is also a member of the Army. His older brother, Don Moyer, a Warwick lawyer, was also in the military before becoming a lawyer.
As a child, Jordan always wanted to become a career military man. But he didn’t get around to joining the Army until a couple years after graduating from Pilgrim. He lacked direction, and decided to do his country a favor by enlisting in the Army.
After completing his first stint in Iraq, Jordan said he has no intention of becoming a career military man.
Despite his distaste for the current war, Jordan deeply respects the military, and is thankful for the benefits of being a soldier. The tax-free pay he receives as a soldier is better than that he earned at his last job before enlisting—he worked at Ocean State Job Lot. Also, before he enlisted in the Army, he was in debt. Now he’s debt free.
When he completes his service, he hopes to either parlay his military experience into a position at a local police department, or attend college.
He fully expects to get sent back to Iraq sometime next year, but he isn’t looking forward to it.
“I’m not happy over there. I’m not happy,” said Jordan.
And he’s an INTERPRETER???? I would NOT have him dealing with ANY LOCALS! BEWARE.
Wow, a soldier not happy in a war zone, that has probably never happened before President Bush was CIC.
Soldiers do it even when it sucks, the kid is a soldier.
It’s every soldier’s God given right to gripe. I thought Vietnam sucked. In 1945, my Dad thought the South Pacific sucked. In 1943, my uncle thought Europe, viewed from a B-25, sucked. It’s not a pleasant job, and no one has to pretend it is; it just has to be done. Even when it’s FUBAR.
Dear Jordan.....
You bitch whine and complain all you want while yer in harms way. It’s a GI’s right too do so .......just be careful ya vent too .....just other GI’s and not the public.
Then ya become something I do not condone at all !
Thanks for taking your turn in the barrel Jordan. I didn’t like SEA, SWA, Grenada, Panama, Beirut or Mogadishu etc etc either...bitched like it was the 28th day every day and it did me no good but piss off my team and those around me so I quit when I learned that hard lesson.
Suck it up troop and get even , not mad. If ya want to make it a career ya have to get yer head straight NOW !
Stay Safe !!
this is my feeling too, this reporter has an agenda (you can tell by reading some other recent news stories he penned in the Beacon) and he uses this kid to give that agenda some street cred. I just felt kind of bad reading it, almost like the kid didn’t know what he was getting into (when he gave this interview)..
They use anecdotal snivelers to paint the mission.
IMHO...he got a job with a fat bonus that he thought would keep him safe away form the front lines.
The recruiter probably had some hand in fostering that idea.
The Hussein regime never honored the armistice/surrender agreement.
.
What, do you think he's the only guy over there with those opinions? Most likely everyone in his unit feels the same way. They sit around between patrols saying to each other, "God, this place sucks!"
Yeah, I've heard that, that in a war zone there's a good chance someone might shoot at you. Where'd this guy get his training, Miss Prim's Finishing School? WTF indeed.
Yep, if Patton were still around he'd probably slap him, too... /grin
There’s always going to be some, even in an all volunteer Army. The enemedia has a talent for finding them.
Which is why we need to go back to the tried and true system of military control and censorship of the press in a war zone which was imposed and enforced by the Democrat administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.
Not a chance in hell I’m trusting a reporter who writes as this one does to give any soldier an honest quotation. This story drips with agenda. IMHO.
Probably one. Try finding guys to say, "I love it over here! This place is awesome!" Good luck with that.
Man, there's a lot of delusional people over here lately.
Blue State Media Blather.
“I don’t blame him for a word he said.”
I do. It was a left-wing political speech based on left-wing nonsense. America didn’t ‘impose’ democracy on Iraq, as he accuses. The Iraqis freely choose democracy, despite death threats from Al Qaeda. The elections exceeded international stadards and they elected a pro-western government.
I’m fine with that.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this guy completely made up the story about even going to Iraq, or even being in the military.
After reading this and noting the agenda of the reporter I wonder how many of the quotes that are attributed to this soldier are accurate? Every time I have been associated with a news story they end up putting words in my mouth that I didn’t say!
ya don't have to like it... ya just gotta do it!!! did he really think he would LIKE being in Iraq when he joined???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.