Courtesy Photo | Capt. Seth Musgrove, commander of C Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment,...... read more read more
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By Staff Sgt. Pat Caldwell
TIKRIT, Iraq — What goes around comes around. Capt. Seth Musgrove is more familiar with that adage than most, especially when it comes to Iraq.
One night six years ago, far away from his home, Musgrove, who is a La Grande, Ore., native, drove over an improvised explosive device.
Musgrove, then a lieutenant in the Oregon Army National Guard, and his crew walked away from the attack that shredded his Humvee with only minor injuries. Musgrove recognized his luck, acknowledged the power of the IED, and then went back to work as a platoon leader in Ontario’s Guard outfit in Kirkuk, Iraq.
Fast-forward to February 2011. Musgrove is back in Iraq. Now, though, he is no longer a platoon leader but the commander of the same Ontario unit he served with in Iraq in 2005.
On a convoy mission to Kirkuk, Musgrove traveled down the same road past the same place where he was struck by an IED in 2005. And there, on the road, Musgrove saw the still-scarred asphalt from that nighttime attack.
“We drove over the spot; I couldn’t fathom I was back there again,” Musgrove said.
Musgrove conceded there is more than just a touch of déjà vu regarding his latest deployment to Iraq. While his outfit, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), is situated on familiar ground in central Iraq, a lot has changed since the unit’s first tour in 2005.
One key difference for Musgrove’s unit, consisting of mostly soldiers from southeastern Oregon and western Idaho, is that it is no longer tasked with finding insurgents. Now its mission is simpler: escorting logistical convoys that trek across central Iraq.
The mission is a critical one for obvious reasons, Musgrove said. Even as the U.S. military conducts a reposturing of forces in Iraq, resources from food to equipment must still be moved from one location to another.
There remains a certain level of risk for soldiers who spend most of their time out on the highways of Iraq escorting convoys.
“We are on the road a lot and it is still dangerous,” Musgrove said. “There is a constant threat.”
Each convoy mission the company performs demands a large commitment of planning and resources in terms of manpower, Musgrove said. As commander, he must focus on an array of issues and then analyze the information and try to anticipate all of the scenarios a particular convoy escort team may encounter on the road. In the end, his focus always narrows to the soldiers.
“They are the first thing on my mind as they go out the wire,” he said.
The tempo for C Company has increased since it arrived in Iraq. The company has conducted more than 160 convoy escort missions in the past months.
“I kind of had a suspicion we’d be busy,” he said.
Musgrove also said that the company tackled the fast-paced tempo with enthusiasm.
“The company has performed admirably,” he said. “They’ve done an outstanding job. Morale is high and they are still motivated.”
Musgrove said he faced his own transformation as a leader when he deployed to central Iraq.
“As a platoon leader, you don’t have the big picture as you do as a commander,” he said.
He said, in the end, success for his unit rests on fundamentals.
“We must stay vigilant. Keep rested. Focus on attention to detail,” Musgrove said.
| Date Taken: | 01.11.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2011 12:12 |
| Story ID: | 67810 |
| Location: | TIKRIT, IQ |
| Web Views: | 107 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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