The beginning of the end: a period of unrest among today's foot Soldiers

Photo By Spc. Alisha Hauk | A Soldier with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade...... read more read more

Photo By Spc. Alisha Hauk | A Soldier with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, stares out the front gate of an Iraqi police station in the Diyala province of Iraq while his non-commissioned officers meet with the IPs inside to discuss upcoming patrols.  see less | View Image Page

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

02.17.2009

Story by Pfc. Alisha Hauk 

14th Public Affairs Detachment

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By Pfc. Alisha Nye
14th Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq - Wars all end the same way in Hollywood. The hero in the combat flick brings battle to an abrupt conclusion in a blaze of glory after, quite possibly, having lost his best friend in a torrent of gunfire.

Real wars don't always end like that. Sometimes a transition takes place that winds violence down slowly and eventually brings it to a halt – without the climactic finale Hollywood so often depicts.

Endings like this are what cause a necessary unease to shroud foot Soldiers. It is such an ending that is currently taking place on the urban battlefields of Iraq, bringing a state of restlessness to many young infantry Soldiers.

"I don't mind things being quiet as a mouse and everyone going home the same way they came," said Command Sgt. Maj. Kyle Crump, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. "The younger guys, they want to get out there and be gung-ho and do all those things they see in the movies."

However, the war in Iraq is no movie and its ending is proving to be something less than sensational. U.S. forces are, overall, working toward transitioning the government of Iraq back to the Iraqis. Above all, explained Crump, this requires stable and capable security forces.

"Our biggest role here is being in more of a partnership with the Iraqi army and Iraqi police, trying to get them to work together more on missions and information flow, as it comes, and letting them handle it," Crump, a native of Springfield, Ma., said. "We just coach, teach and mentor. As things are going, we won't be here for much longer, so we've got to leave Iraq to the Iraqis. We've got to let go."

This transition is leaving some infantry Soldiers on edge.

"An infantry Soldier is used to leading from the front," Crump said. "But now it's time to step back a little bit and observe to make sure Iraqi security forces are doing the right things."

However, knowledge of this has done little to put the restless foot Soldiers at ease.

"We all have this mindset of what an infantryman would do in, say, World War II," said Spc. Justin Howard, infantry Soldier, Company A, 3rd Bn., 21st Inf. Regt. "We have all these ideas from movies and historical facts."

These ideas, as well as months of training on infantry tasks before deployment, are what have been causing the underlying restlessness, said Howard.

"Every day in the rear we would train to do our job – infantry skills, infantry tasks," he said. "We got drilled every day. It was eat, sleep, drink, infantry stuff. Then we got here and we're stepping back."

Howard said he understands this transition needs to occur but infantry Soldiers are still somewhat disappointed in the role change they are experiencing.

"Stuff could happen," he said. "But when it doesn't, a lot of the lower enlisted, like me, get mad because we want our Combat Infantry Badge. Not because we want to get blown up or shot at, but because it's the right of an infantryman."

While the role foot Soldiers are playing is imperative to the mission of U.S. forces in Iraq, these soldiers still feel slighted of their glory.

"It's disappointing to come here and not have the opportunity to do what we trained to do and instead have to play the middlemen between Iraqi security forces," Howard said.

Crump said, with time, Soldiers will completely understand the significance of the role they are filling.

"I think the Soldiers will see that they are playing a bigger role by stepping back and shadowing," Crump said. "They can see the things that aren't being done right and can help the IA a little bit more on the procedures and things they should be doing."

Soldiers like Howard understand this already.

"We all signed up for the same cause and we're working at it – whether it be by going out, getting in a trench and shooting or by playing the middleman," Howard said. "We're just going to get more restless until we all get it in our minds that this is what we do now."

With patience and understanding, infantry Soldiers will soon put their ideas of Hollywood grandeur out of their heads because, as Crump describes it, the war in Iraq is no place for the red carpet.

"They're doing their missions," he said. "They're doing what they're supposed to be doing. They may not be running up and down the streets shooting or grabbing people, but, at the same time, that's a good thing. They're a little bit restless right now because things are calmer, but that's what we came here for. We came here to make everything peaceful."