Ask Sergeant Drew: Fears

Staff Sergeant Drew Koch, Iraq Correspondent

Staff Sergeant Drew Koch shares his views about current happenings in the Middle East. Everything said in this article is of his own opinion and not to be confused with the official standing of the U.S. Army. This week’s question: What is your biggest fear during your daily life and what is the scariest thing you’ve ever faced?

Again, I must emphasize that the answers I give are of MY opinion, and are in no way actual Official answers.  I am not able to answer on behalf of the Army, the Government or any office there in.  These are MY opinions and answers.  MY viewpoints: no one else’s.

Interesting question. I have no problem with any question that you guys send. I am a big boy and I can handle it. These ones are the interesting ones anyway.

My biggest fear is death, maiming and disfigurement. These things always sit in the back of my mind and contribute to my thoughts periodically. Although the majority of people here have no ill will toward coalition forces, all it takes is one guy who does.

This has been a pretty mundane deployment compared to my previous ones.  It still doesn’t take away from the fact that we (my men and I) are in a foreign land, thousands of miles from home performing our duties in a harsh environment. Of the millions of people that reside in this country, only a small percentage would do us harm. It is that small percentage is why we must be vigilant, why we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Every mission is prepared for the same way. The exact same way. The one time you go out thinking, “Nothing is going to happen; nothing ever happens” that is when Murphy’s Law takes effect and you are caught unprepared.

The vast majority of the time, nothing does happen. You go out on mission, conduct the mission, come back and hit the showers. That small percentage that would do us harm though, they are always out there and if you get complacent, that is when bad things can happen.

I fear most for my life and for the lives of my men. With the technology on the battlefield of today, the bad guy doesn’t even have to be good at what he does. He can get lucky and wreak havoc. They use indirect means of engaging us. If it were as simple as them versus us, we would kick butt. They dress like everyone else, so you can’t see them. They don’t engage you directly. They use roadside bombs so that they don’t have to be anywhere near. They use long-range sniper rifles so you might not be able to identify where the shot came from.

The worst thing that they do: the terrorists use other people to attack us. They find a poor person and say, “Hey, we’ll pay your family X amount of money so they can live better if you wear this suicide vest and attack the Americans, or we will kill your family if you don’t suicide attack the Americans.”

I believe that most of the people, who are the suicide bombers, aren’t even really the terrorists. Don’t get me wrong; this place is way more peaceful than my first trip here in 2003. However, there is still that small percentage of people out there that want to do us harm. That is all it takes to make this a dangerous place.

The scariest things that have happened have been a couple of explosions.  Thankfully no one has been injured!  I hope that this sufficiently answers the questions.