Tell her this: And it is very, very important that she knows:
Where we are fighting right NOW has nothing to do with where we WILL BE fighting in the future. We won’t always deploy into deserts in a MidEast area.
Making it worse, since we’ve fought several times in the desert (recently! Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq (twice), Kuwait, and Saudi deployments) there is LOTS of experience about how to do that. That keeps everybody and safer and better prepared - but ONLY for that kind of desert environment.
Older skills (like fighting in jungles and the European area and extremely cold winter areas) are very easy to get lost, and stay lost, if you don’t re-train regularly. Re-learning those lessons is one of the most costly, most wasteful cause of deaths early in every war.
Cook is right. We have to be ready to fight in any type of terrain at any time.
That's for sure - My grandson's unit spent the winter in the high Hindu Kush range in northeastern 'ghan - on a tiny firebase they literally pickaxed out of a mountainside - no running water, no PX or 'mess hall' - only shelter what they could cobble together - no heat for the majority of hours. Then the summers in up to 130 degrees - in full gear - and the mountain terrain that challenges mountain goats -
There's another article on his unit in the current (Oct) issue of Vanity Fair - There was a documentary last year on them on ABC, an article in Feb in VF, a cover story on them in NYTIMES Mag., and there will be a movie and book coming up. This little band from the 173rd ARIBORNE - "The Rock" has made quite a name for themselves - and were in over 1,000 firefights in their 15 month deployment. They've done their part - but, of, course, will be going back. (12 of them recently were given medals by Admiral Mullen himself, (grandson inc.) as the Admiral knew them well and insisted on going there and giving them the medals personally.
link to last article: (and live link next post) http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/10/afghanistan200810 link to article: