I'm A Phony Soldier

According to Rush Limbaugh, I'm a phony soldier. I don't comment much on national news, but this statement by Limbaugh irks me.

As you can see by clicking the link, Limbaugh says that soldiers who advocate withdrawing from Iraq are phony soldiers. I guess real soldiers just want to stay and fight forever. My position has been that we either should mobilize most of the reserves and flood the zone for a couple of years and then get out, or just go ahead and start drawing down.

So, I’m a phony soldier.

I volunteered for the Army in 1973, during the Vietnam war, and was on active duty through 1976. Other than a brief stint as a member of the Individual Ready Reserve during college, I have been actively participating in the Army since. My pay stub says I have 34 years of service.

Since 1981, I have spent at least one weekend every month training, and two weeks during every summer. During the first gulf war, I was a company commander of a National Guard tank company; we didn’t get called, but it was considered.

To stay in the National Guard, I’ve had to pass physical fitness and weight tests, once or twice a year. To pass the tests, I had to take up running, which I do several times a week. I’ve taken innumerable urine tests for drugs. I am physically committed, on an ongoing basis.

After I went to mandatory 4-month training in Kentucky, I returned home to a marriage that had gone sour in my absence, and divorced not long after.

I was placed on active duty in April 2004, left Boise in June, landed in Iraq in December, and finally returned home in November 2005. I missed my daughter’s entire junior year of high school, and half her senior year. My favorite uncle died while I was in Iraq; I didn’t get to go to the funeral. A soldier I had known for years, and who worked for me for two years, was killed in Iraq. When I returned, my job had been given to someone else and I didn't get it back.

During our 11 months in Iraq, about 75 rockets landed in our base, two of which landed within 40 meters of me. The rockets and other experiences turned me from a calm person to an anxious one. Even today, I am still jumpy at sudden noises. Almost every time my phone rings, it startles me. I am startled several times every day, and it's not getting better.

A few days ago my son called me and asked, “Dad, you’re in the National Guard aren’t you.” Irrationally, my first thought was that he had heard a news report that my unit was getting activated again, and I felt myself go cold and my stomach flopped. He was just asking about applying for a scholarship.

My experiences are similar to most, and I make no claim to arduous or hazardous or exemplary duty. Still, I don’t think I’m a phony soldier. I think these experiences qualify me as a real soldier. I think that Rush Limbaugh is a jerk.