Photo By Kimberly Hackbarth | A native of Marysville, Wash., Pfc. Robert Moritz is now a radio telephone operator...... read more read more
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BAGHDAD — Pfc. Robert Moritz, a radio telephone operator with 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, awoke one afternoon in Nasir Wa Salam, when the driver of his Stryker vehicle barged in with news of a mission.
No stranger to this kind of wake-up call, the native of Marysville, Wash., put on his gear, readied his M4 carbine and headed out to where the rest of the members of the scout platoon were waiting.
Even with a mission as simple as escorting interpreters to a nearby joint combat outpost, the team must have every aspect of the mission worked out. That's where the importance of Moritz's job comes into play.
"Communication is the key to success. It's important that everybody knows what's going on within the battalion," Moritz said. "It's important that the [platoon leader] communicates to all right people about the situation."
Not only is Moritz an RTO, he's an infantryman whose training included more detailed infantry skills, such as performing combat missions in an urban environment. Even though the focus of U.S. forces has altered from a combat force to one of assisting and advising the Iraqi army, Moritz and the rest of his platoon trained hard for the deployment; despite the fact that they're all fairly new to the battalion. The pre-deployment rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. was the first time the platoon trained together as a team and since then they've continued to grow.
"For the most part, we all know each other pretty well. We all understand each other pretty well. We know what's expected of us and we do our tasks the best that we can," he said.
Moritz's attitude is one of the things that get him noticed by those in charge of him, including 1st Lt. Shannon Kay, from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
"He does everything a leader or [non-commissioned officer] asks him to do and he does it without complaining. You don't hear positive or negative out of him; he just does it and he does it to the best of his ability. He's the type of Soldier any platoon leader would want in his platoon," Moritz's platoon leader said.
After only being in country two weeks, Moritz admits his first deployment isn't exactly what he had imagined it would be so far.
"I figured it'd be a lot more kicking in doors."
He knows the brigade's mission is to assist and advise the Iraqis. While he hasn't taken part in any partnership missions, he is ready to assist with the mission in any way.
"It's important that if we're going to leave Iraq that we all help each other out so we can leave it in the hands of the Iraqis. Whatever [the commanders] see fit for us to do to help with that effort, then we'll do it."
| Date Taken: | 10.14.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 10.14.2009 02:30 |
| Story ID: | 40071 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 910 |
| Downloads: | 879 |
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