I had posted my anxieties when he left. Anyway I was grading papers in the coffee shop today when he plopped down at the table and asked me what was up.

He spent the last few months a couple provinces north of Bagdad, on a rapid reaction team that defused or blew up suspected IEDs, along with running patrols and check points. He seemed remarkably unchanged, his cockiness the same as ever.

Interesting stories. He said that his unit was very successful in quelling insurgent attacks on Americans, by keeping the pressure on (stopping cars, responding quickly to incidents), being civil to the civilians, and providing generous contracts to Iraqi construction companies owned by local chiefs. At the same time, he was quick to say that the biggest reason the insurgents stopped attacking his unit is that they found it safer to attack other Iraqis and that the war was hopeless. And this is a real gung-ho guy.

He said that the unit sent to relieve his guys, a National Guard unit from Arkansas, was completely misinformed, unprepared, and unwilling to listen to the people they were replacing. He predicts they will start taking casualties in a few weeks and lose the province in a few months.

He may be going back a third time sometime next year. He doesn't have to, but he wants to stay in the military and get his 20 year pension while he works on his PhD in history.

I'm glad he came back safely!

I remember your post. What sisterhavana said / me too!

This is very interesting, LarryC. Thanks for posting it. What's even more interesting is that his story sounds remarkably similar to all the other stories I've heard (directly or indirectly) from returning soldiers, even the most gung-ho.

Yay for safe harbor soldiers coming home in one piece and becoming PhD's in History so we can teach more gung-ho types to stay home and teach!

Great story, LarryC. Glad your student is still with us.

Very glad he made it back.

But, oh crap, I probably know some of those guys from Arkansas by one or two degrees of separation at most (young husband of one of my young coworkers, for instance). They leave here all hyped up and told they know everything they need to know. I hope they figure out the realities soon. My personal opinion is that the National Guard's work should be here in the States, but that's a whole different topic.

An acquaintance of mine was in psyops (Army Reserves) and got sent home after an RPG tore up the truck he was in. There was some debate about sending him back even with the shrapnel permanently lodged too near his spine to remove. He was relieved to be able to stay home.

I hope he can carry his story about the uselessness of the war into his home comunity. He is froma conservative Republican family in our conservative Republican area. His criticism of the war carries the weight of a hundred professors!