My final day in the Army was 20 years ago today. I resigned my non-commission, so I picked the date purposefully. It also brought me to exactly 13 years 6 months 0 days of active service, and fulfilled my 2 years in grade (SFC/E7) commitment.
It was fun until it wasn’t. In Iraq, I was betrayed by my entire chain of command, plus many of the other officers I had to deal with on a regular basis. They went out of their way to make life hell. I get to see first hand the rampant incompetence that is common among officers. What I didn’t expect (although I should have) was the complete lack of care for both the mission and their soldiers. The days of the professional officer corps I knew from Reagan’s army were long gone by 2004.
My occasional nightmares aren’t about the dangers of combat. They’re about not being allowed to do anything useful to help.
