Angels

February 25, 2010
Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan
01:31

Communications were just restored yesterday after at least twelve days. I got in an argument with some of my "co-workers" yesterday because I thought it was only a week or so, but they wouldn't budge. I have to admit, time does go by fast. When you've only got 12 hours off of work (and at least 7 of them are spent sleeping) there's not much time to do anything else but work.

The reasoning behind us being cut off from the outside world is the Marjeh or Marjah offensive. I have no idea what the actual spelling of that city is, whether it's an A or an E before the H. I keep seeing it spelled both ways in newspapers; I guess the press doesn't know either. We get cut off either before a large operation, or when someone is killed in action. The communications are stopped until the deceased's family is notified, or at least that's what people say. No one ever officially gave any type of brief on these cut-offs which we refer to as "being in River City" which confuses people who don't know what it means.

I'd say on average, every other day this week someone has died. They've either blown up, been shot, or died from their injuries afterwards. I can see every report of this throughout the day online with the computer that I work on. When the word "Angel" pops up in the report, you know someone is dead. "KIA" is pretty much never used in the reports that pop up.

The day after someone has died, their body has been sent up to us from Dwyer (a FOB south of here). Their body is brought in a humvee ambulance, taken to the flight line, and loaded onto a C-130 to Kandahar. I leave my office and go out to the flight line where a lot of other Marines gather for these ramp ceremonies. The last one, I was the lowest rank, and the next lowest before me was a Gunnery Sergeant. There were mainly senior enlisted and high ranking officers. We get in two columns and walk out to the plane, which is landed with its engines off. The humvees drive over after we get in formation on both sides of the plane's ramp and wait for the MEB General to get in formation. The chaplain says a prayer. We go to attention. After that, a detail of Marines walks through the middle of the two formations while we salute. The body is draped in the same flag they stood up for and pledged allegiance to in elementary school as a kid. Now they're dead.

If you personally know anyone in 1/6, 3/6, or 2/2, those are the units I've seen casualties from. Someone wrote me a letter asking if I could find out about a Marine who was in a convoy that was hit. In all honesty, that person's family would have found out long before I even would've saluted the body.

Honestly, I cried a little the first couple times the bodies went by me. It was hard to hear the names; people with the same rank as me, probably the same age or younger than me. Now their families have to somehow cope with the loss of their son because the U.S. couldn't dedicate a substantial enough force to this country for eight years. Almost nine years...
I don't even know why we're here anymore. It was for 9/11...and now it's to get rid of the Taliban. It seems like we're doing a good job, but if it's taken this long to do a "good job" than I don't really feel that it's been worth it. We're trying to win the hearts and minds of these people, but we're not trying to win the war.

I saluted the body of an Afghanistan National Army soldier the other day as it was loaded before the bodies of the Americans. Their chaplain was there; he sange a prayer before the body was moved. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. I've heard men sing before, but never like that. And I have no idea what it meant. We all saluted that man. There were four other ANA guys in our formation with us. I'm glad they were there, and I was honored to be in the presence of that soldier. I think it's too late though when there are more of us dying for his country than Afghans. I just feel it's an unfortunate situation. Most people at my level are pretty much here for the money. They don't care about the conflict. That's how far we are from 9/11 now. People go to war for the money, not for their country.

What does the casualty assistance officer say to the family?

"Your son/husband/father/daughter/mother/wife died for freedom..."

And Marines are going to Haiti to pick up garbage and give food to people while other Marines are getting their legs blown off, surviving that, and dying a painful prolonged death later.

I was reading some article about General McChrystal who's in charge of the strategy here. It was all about how wise he was and how important the hearts and minds strategy was to him. It's not my place to comment on official policy, but he's an idiot. HE was the one who requested all the extra manpower here, and why? Apparently, his strategy is to do nothing with it. All anyone does around here is go on convoys, drive around a dirt road for possibly days on end, get blown up, maybe not, come back, sleep, eat, and do it again.

There's my two cents for the week.