Headed Home

Early this morning (November 17th, 2007), I finally landed in Kuwait. After a few days or so of personnel out-processing, I'll be on my way back to Germany after spending the last fifteen months and two weeks in the Middle East. Fifteen months is too long of a time away from those you love. What makes it especially difficult is the Army's steadfast dedication to stripping away any semblance of predictability or give straight answers regarding our timeline throughout the deployment. To summarize: we deployed in August; we were supposed to come home in June 2007, then August 2007, then early October 2007, then late October 2007, and now, finally November 2007. I'd very much like to give the military the benefit of the doubt on this front: I know there are all kinds of exceedingly complicated decisions and a multitude of variables and contingencies involved with the herculean task of managing troop levels and movements. But on the other hand, senior leaders in the Army just do not seem to understand that the only thing a Soldier's spouse or mom wants to hear is when are they coming home. Families know they can't expect an exact date, but continually deferring hopes on this point over the course of fifteen months simply frustrates and demoralizes them. Furthermore, in the case of my Task Force in Ramadi, we were complete with all combat operations by 11 October. Why are we just now flying home a month and a half later? Once again, I'd like to give the Army the benefit of the doubt, but without a single adequate attempt at a justification or rationale for this five week delay by the chain of command, Soldiers and junior leaders are left to stew in their own cynical conclusions or assumptions.

At about fourteen months (mid-September), the constant drag of the deployment caught up to me--like running away from a fixed point attached to a giant elastic band. We were simultaneously handing over our area of operations in western Ramadi to a Marine battalion while preparing for a large-scale clearance operation far to Ramadi's north partnered with the Iraqi Army. Our mission was to support their clearance of a lawless expanse of land along the eastern shore of the Thar Thar Reservoir (the large body of water right in the middle of Iraq). The key aspect of the mission was to complete the initial force protection of a combat outpost for the Iraqi Army so they could maintain a permanent presence in the area, partnered with another US Army unit. The mission was a great success: we (with Iraqi Army in the lead) found numerous caches and IEDs, and detained a few insurgents. The particular area has been one of Al Qaeda's strategic bastions for the past few years: situated along a key route between Salah ad Din and Al Anbar provinces (the main road runs from Fallujah to Samarra), and close enough to provide a base of support to Baghdad. The new operating base will fully disrupt insurgent operations in this key area, and greatly contribute to the security of Fallujah, Ramadi, and hopefully Baghdad; it will also cut down on the notorious hijacking of civilian Iraqis that has occurred in that region for a long time. Best of all, no one from our battalion was seriously hurt or killed.

Suffice to say, this was our largest operation of the deployment. Preparations were detailed and stressful, with about a week of living on edge in the desert. It was a deep moment of relief to return safe and successful to Camp Ramadi. And then I was done. The tension of fourteen months reached its limit, and without the propulsion of external action, ennui set in. So I spent the past five weeks stretching five days worth of redeployment work activity into a month, haphazardly studying for the GRE, loafing, and booking a sweet second honeymoon to Barcelona with Robin that I now have to cancel because the Air Force couldn't manage to bring me home on schedule (but really it's my fault). I also did not care to update my blog for those few who manage to read it. I'm sorry to those of you who were wondering what was going on and hoping for an update. I tentatively plan on periodically commenting on various aspects of the War from my perspective, and if any of you have something particular you are wondering about, feel free to post here or email me at david.h.bradley@us.army.mil. It's been a long war for Robin and I, and I'm ready to spend some time at home.