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 are the politics behind the reason why soldiers are still in Iraq?

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.

I cannot speak to the politics of it, but I believe that we still have forces in Iraq because the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), while they have improved, aren’t totally ready to take over all aspects of security.  They are the primary contingent for all operations, but still need a backup.  

We are set to start the troop withdrawals and reduce the number of forces that we have on the ground here.  I cannot talk timelines, as that is a violation of operational security, but watch the news.  They talk about the troop withdrawals and mention when they could start and how may troops might be withdrawn.  

I compare the situation with the ISF to a child learning to walk.  At first, you have to hold the child under the arms and support almost all of the weight, while they get their feet about them.  Beginning phase of training the ISF: we provided the bulk of people and setup training for the ISF.  Next, you move to holding their hands while they try to walk, thus giving them more of the weight.  The ISF provides equal personnel for missions and mission planning.  Third, you only let the child hold your index finger while it walks, making the child practically walk on its own.  The ISF provide the bulk of the personnel and planning for missions to be conducted. Minor coalition involvement, if any.  Finally, you take away your hands and the child walks on its own.  This is where I feel that we currently are.  The ISF practically run the show.  Now, while the child is walking on its own, without the parent helping. The parent still keeps its hands real close to keep the child from falling and hurting itself.  This is what I do now.  The ISF are conducting missions, but we are on standby to help them if need be.

 We are like a 911 call for them.  If they get into a mission and something goes awry, they can call on us to roll out and get control back for them…like catching the child before they face plants.  While the ISF is conducting its own operations, it is like that child.  It doesn’t have the best balance, doesn’t always have the best direction sense, and sometimes runs into obstacles.  It isn’t necessarily pretty, but it is walking and it is getting better the more it walks.

 It would be a disservice to those whom have lost their lives for us to leave if we leave prematurely and this country falls into the hands of another dictator.  This country is holding elections and is getting its feet about it.  If we were to leave and not be here to catch it when it stumbles, then those whom have died will have died for nothing.  I am part of the first “Advise & Assist” Brigade in Iraq.  Our purpose is not to be primary war fighters, rather to help guide our ISF counterparts and to be here when they stumble.

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 kinds of things are celebrated and how do the soldiers celebrate?

I am currently sitting at a western base on my way back to the unit as I have been at home seeing my family and enjoying my mid-tour leave.  It was wonderful to be home for the 15 days!

 As for your question, what do we celebrate and how do we celebrate; it is a rather simple answer.  When you imagine my guys, picture a frat from any college movie that you might have seen.  Now add to the exploits, a more stringent right of passage, much specified training and a general attitude of invincibility.  My guys are all a fun and exciting bunch to say the least!

 We celebrate everything that you would.  Holidays, birthdays, birth of a child and promotions are the most common.  In general we celebrate them in our own special ways.              We obviously cannot make a cake to celebrate a birthday, so instead it is generally celebrated with a dog pile. The birth of a child equals a barbeque where the new father has to buy the steaks. Holidays are handled with whatever decorations we get in care packages and there is always a holiday meal in the chow hall.  

Every group is different and much of what we do is steeped in tradition.  Maybe not “Army Tradition” but tradition for our specific group.  What happens to the new guys happened to the old guys and will happen to the next set of new guys we receive.  It is done out of jest, and is a simple thing that usually builds stronger bonds amongst the men.  

I hope that this effectively answers your question.  I look forward to the next.

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 the hardest thing about being away from home for so long?

The hardest thing about being away for so long is definitely not being there for my family.  It sucks for me too, but I chose this profession, I chose this way of life.  My children didn’t.  

Think of all the things that your father has been there for.  I have missed three years of my kids’ lives.  My Tristan is seven years old.  I was in Afghanistan when he was born. I came home when he was three months old, left for Iraq when he was eight months old, and came home when he was 17 months old.  Ordered to recruiting duty where there were weeks when I wouldn’t see him (except asleep) until Friday.  I worked six days a week and averaged 11 hours a day for the 33 months that I was a recruiter.  So at this point, Tristan would be 60 months old.  That is five years.  Fun isn’t over yet, I went from recruiting duty back to the 82nd Airborne Division again.  Upon arriving there, went back to Iraq for nine more months.  Finally had 12 months at home.  Following that, 12 months back here to Iraq this time, for a 12 month deployment.  

So one of the hard things about being away, is the volume of time that I have to spend away from my family.  I wish it wasn’t so, but it is what is required of us to keep our homes safe.  I understand the requirements of my occupation. I don’t necessarily like the requirements all the time, but I understand them.  The hardest part though is worrying that my choice of occupation and the time requirements of my occupation will have a negative effect on my family.  

On my children, I have a seven year old son and truly have not been nearly as big a part of his life as I would like to be.  I have been deployed or a recruiter (putting in depressing amounts of hours) for the vast majority of his life.  I only use this to illustrate that in his seven years, I have been mostly absent.  I also have three other children who are all teenagers now and I have been absent in their lives for that time too.  I worry that it has taken a toll on my relationship with my kids and my wife.  These thoughts are what make being away so hard.

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.

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 offical standing of the U.S. Army. This week’s question: What does the average day of a U.S. solider look like? What is your main duty in the Middle East?

I guess that the question that everyone wanted to be asked finally was.  What is a day in the life of a soldier in Iraq?  Simple really!  

There are two phases of operation for the guys and gals here.  There is out in sector, and there is on the camp.  Most of the people here rotate between the two.  When out in sector, we do patrols and act on tips from locals.  In our location, most things are Iraqi driven.  Meaning that we are here to assist and advise the Iraqi Army (IA), they do the vast majority of planning.  They come up with where they need to do patrols, timelines for the patrols, personnel requirements, etc. We offer advice as to the validity of their requirements.  Remember, the IA is a rather young organization. We also send out people with them on the patrols to assist and observe the operation.  It is not very glamorous, but it is good that the IA is able to do this stuff with us just tagging along.  It wasn’t very long ago the roles were reversed, we would provide the planning and the bulk of personnel, the IA would send smaller numbers along to learn how it was all supposed to happen.

             Out in sector, these patrols would happen daily at various times. Guard is pulled 24/7 and is shared by the entire platoon.  During the down time out there the men take care of their equipment (weapon maintenance) and burn time.  Burning time for my guys consists of movies, videogames (laptop, PS3, 360), hacky sack, and playing a little football.

The basic days events would look like this:

Wake up; personal hygiene; breakfast; check the trucks-make sure radios are good to go, check oil, check tranny fluid, etc; prep for mission-weapons clean and oiled, uniform complete, eye pro, gloves, batteries good in devices that require batteries, etc;  roll out; conduct mission; return-clean out trucks, power down all equipment in trucks, weapon maintenance, etc; eat; down time.  Take up some of the down time with guard and the rest is spent doing what one wants (videogames, hacky, football, internet etc).  That is the basic out in sector life that my guys have been living.

On camp is pretty much the same except that details (odd jobs) replace the guard, and there is not mission prep or mission recovery.  The guys might have to spend some time in the motor pool to repair the truck if it was damaged in sector, but mostly it consists of physical training, details and down time.  

If anyone wants to get more specific than that, they will have to ask more specific questions.  For reasons of security, I cannot discuss actual timelines through email, or on the phones.  Please keep the questions coming as I kind of enjoy giving a first hand point of view on the topics that you have interest in.  Please remember that these answers are of MY opinion and are in no way to be associated with official Army views.

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, not to be confused with the official standing of the U.S. Army. This week’s question: How were the soldiers and the citizens effected by what was said at the State of the Union Address, about the troops being pulled out next summer?

I hate to break the horrible news to you, but I don’t think any of my men nor myself caught the State of the Union address.  We have heard grumblings for a while now that the troop pull out would be summer 2011, but it was never more than grumblings.  

You are actually bringing this news to us, so great reporting on your part.  I cannot speak about the feelings of the Middle Eastern people, as I don’t get to associate with them much. We stay in our area, they stay in theirs. We work together on patrols and missions and such.

I am personally quite happy that the President announced a pull out of American troops. I am tired of this region and am ready to spend time at home with my family. Think of it this way, at the end of this deployment I will have spent 30 months in this country and nine months in Afghanistan.  That is equivalent to how many months you will be in high school.  Obviously, not counting your summer breaks.  So, I am at the point where it is great to me that they we saying we are bringing home the troops.  

I will believe it when it happens though.  I personally believe that it might be something that was said to be politically correct.  In general, the people are tired of us being here, and the troops are getting tired of being here, so it only makes sense for the President to say what will make everyone happy.  

It was great to get the news though. I will write more as I get your questions.

Staff Sergeant Drew Koch, Iraq Correspondent

Staff Sergeant Drew Koch shares his view about current happenings in the Middle East. This week’s question: Are soldiers being sent back to the Middle East after their contracts are up?

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 therein.  These are MY opinions and answers.  MY view points, no one else’s.

            The term that you are looking for is “Stop Loss”.  Are soldiers still being sent over here or to Afghanistan in a “Stop Loss” status?  To the best of my knowledge: no.  As of January 1, 2010 the Army was no longer able to enact new stop losses.  Those soldiers who were in the country on stop loss status prior to January 1st can still be held to complete their tour over here.

Understand what a “Stop loss” is; it is basically the Army telling a soldier that more than their original “Active Service Commitment” is going to be required of them.  You see, every soldier signs a contract with the Army.  That contract is for eight years.  The eight years are broken into two types of service.  Active service, much as it sounds, the Army being your full time job, like I am doing now.  The remainder of the eight years is what we call the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR), basically standby.  If you are needed, the Army can require that you come back.  The eight years can be broken into any variety of segments so long as the total is eight years.  So, a soldier can sign a contract for four years of Active Service, thus giving said soldier four years of inactive ready reserve (three active, five IRR, or six active, two IRR). You get the point. A “Stop Loss” occurs when a soldiers unit is deploying and they deem that soldier to be of vital importance.  The unit needs that soldier.  The soldier is therefore “Stop Loss” and deploys with the unit.

The soldier is supposed to be compensated with an additional $500/month for every month stop lost.

The only other thing that might be what you are inquiring would be are soldiers being called back to active service from their IRR status.  Answer: Yes.  The initial contract is again for eight years.

 Let’s say “Joe” serves three years active time and leaves the army.  He is technically still in the Army for five more years.  While those five years he doesn’t have to wear the uniform, doesn’t receive pay, can be going to college, can be working a different job.  Until eight years from the day he left for Basic Training, “Joe” is still under contract with the Army.  In the event of a long term, on going war, those soldiers can and sometimes are called upon to fill the shortages within their specialty.  Once the eight years have passed, then “Joe” is no longer under contract with the Army.  Take me for example, I left for Basic Training on June 18, 1998 therefore, my eight years was up June 17, 2006. If I were to get out of the Army tomorrow, they would never be able to bother me again because my initial contract is up.

Again, these aren’t official army answers. They are just the way I understand it.