Comments on: Veterans don’t need pity

By: chrishernandezauthor

chrishernandezauthor — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 06:41:25 +0000

In reply to Alex.

Alex,

I don’t see any way you can characterize Iraq or Afghanistan as anything other than “real” wars. In the entire history of warfare, most wars have been low-intensity rather than huge conventional force-on-force fights between organized armies. Having served in Iraq and Afghanistan, I can assure you those wars were real.

Please step back in time with me and walk into the Alasai Valley in March 2009 or the Shpee Valley in August 2009. After that, please tell me you weren’t in a real war.

Regarding your comment, “You attack with your IFV, tank hits you, you are dead before you get out. When you manage to get out, machine gun fire mows down half your squad. When you survive this, experienced enemy marksmen will kill you with ease from prepared positions. They will hit, they are as skilled as you are,” you remind me of an instructor we had in Marine boot camp. He taught us about Soviet HIND helicopters, and told us that if we saw one, “Just give up, you’re dead already.” That was from someone who I don’t think had ever been to war, and believed everything they heard in training.

In real life, your script for combat doesn’t necessarily happen the way you think it will. If it did, I would’ve been shot by the sniper I made myself an easy target for. The .50 rounds my gunner fired at a suspected car bomb would have killed everyone inside, instead of leaving someone alive to drive away. RPG rounds would annihilate their targets. Armored vehicles wouldn’t be defeated by IEDs. War is not a mathematical equation; numerous factors affect the way things are “supposed” to happen.

You sound like you’ve never been in combat.

And by the way, I do have a close friend who was severely wounded in Afghanistan. He is still extremely proud of his service.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 10:37:24 +0000

The thing is, as a soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq, the chances of getting out without injury are very good compared to “real” wars of the past. I served in the mechanized infantry, never had to go into real combat, just training. Still, we learned our chances of survival pretty fast. You attack with your IFV, tank hits you, you are dead before you get out. When you manage to get out, machine gun fire mows down half your squad. When you survive this, experienced enemy marksmen will kill you with ease from prepared positions. They will hit, they are as skilled as you are. Lets face it, when there is an “equal” enemy, war becomes a lot less of an “adventure” compared to when there are a few inexperienced guys with a 40 years old rifle firing a couple of rounds in your direction. Don’t get me wrong, of course there are occasions also in afghanistan, where it will be almost the same for some individuals, that happen to experience such situations. But those are rare compared to other wars. In wars like vietnam (and that was no equal enemy either), there were more or less conventional armies fighting. The casualties speak for themselves. + in general, a guy who lost both legs and half of his face will have another opinion about the war, than somebody, who got lucky and survived without injury.

By: chrishernandezauthor

chrishernandezauthor — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:32:01 +0000

In reply to Jay J Lopez.

Jay,

I’m really happy being home with my wife and kids, but as far as my work goes, nothing I’ve ever done has compared to what I did in Afghanistan. I miss it, and have to fight the desire to go back.

Thanks for your service, Jay.

By: chrishernandezauthor

chrishernandezauthor — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:25:08 +0000

In reply to Sapper. Sapper, Hey brother, thanks for your service, and I hope you get everything you've earned.

By: Jay J Lopez

Jay J Lopez — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 21:56:45 +0000

This was a GREAT response. I truly liked the last part where you referenced the myriad of worries reduced to only 3. I feel like life here is SO much harder than life in Afghanistan or Iraq. The way I described life over there was the ONLY thing I had to do was not die and everything else was taken care of. Now in America we have so many other stressors that I wish on a daily basis to go back to Afghanistan.