I deployed with the 1st Armored Division in May of 2003. I was a Platoon Leader in a Field Artillery Firing Battery stationed in Baumholder, Germany. We arrived to Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait on May 5, 2003. While we waited to cross the border and go north, we really didn't have a mission. We just knew we were going to Baghdad, that's it. On the trip to Iraq, very few people had SAPI plates, if any. We knew that some of the Officers in the Battalion Headquarters had SAPI plates, but not the soldiers at the Battery level. We finally settled at the Airport. For the first month, we just sat around all day and cleaned our weapons 3 times a day. Little did we know that was going to change.

We eventually ended up doing patrols around the airport, without Armored HMMWV's. We even got hit with two IED's (one hit right in front of my vehicle and shattered the windshield) but luckily no one was hurt. How we survived without any armor on our vehicles, only God can answer that. We finally got SAPI plates, but not enough for everyobody. Patrol teams would switch out plates when not on patrol. We ended up relieving the 82nd Airborne in southern Baghdad and took control over some of their Up-Armored HMMWV's. When we got to the 82nd's FOB, we thought we were in heaven; running water, good DFAC, excellent gym facilities. I'm not going to lie; we were jealous that for the first 8 months, we were living really bad while the 82nd had this nice setup. They took care of their people; not the 1st Armored Division. We were happy to take over this beautiful FOB.

Patrolling in southern Baghdad was a lot more interesting than near the airport. We had Up-Armored HMMVW's, however the 82nd didn't really take care of them well, especially since they knew they were leaving soon. Out of the 4 UAHMMWV's we had, 1 was deadlined from the beginning and never got fixed. Out of the other three HMMVW's, they would switch out when they would fail on us. If we were lucky, we would have 2 UAHMMWV's on patrol with us and 2 regular HMMVW's with the cheap bolt on armor(that wouldn't stop any shrapnel from penetrating anyway). While we were struggling with the UAHMMVW allocation, our Brigade CDR and CSM, along with some other "important people" would have their brand new UAHMMWV's parked in front of their building, hardly ever driven. It was so ridiculous; they would be spotless clean while we were doing IED sweeps with regular HMMWV's; LEAD FROM THE FRONT!!!

We were supposed to be back in Germany in April of 2004 but got extended. During the extension, we didn't have a real mission. We pulled convoy security for Logistical convoys that didn't need any more security than what they had. This mission was pretty much to puff up a couple of OER's and NCOER's. We eventually came back to Germany in July of 2004, after 15 long months.

My overall experience in Iraq is one of the main reasons I seperated from Active Duty in November of 2005 as a Captain. It wasn't the actual deployment itself that made me change my career goals, even though it was part of it. It was how the Army operated as a whole. When we were in Garrison, we trained for wartime. When it came time for wartime, we threw everything out the window and politics got involved when it shouldn't have. As a Cadet in ROTC, I was taught about taking care of soldiers and doing the right thing. That's not practiced in the Active Duty Army that I experienced. Rank isn't supposed to have it's priveleges but it does. Commander's lived like Kings while their soldiers didn't have electricity or even the proper equipment to do the job, and that shouldn't have been.

I want to end my story on this. When I first joined my unit, my NCO's and soldier's weren't fond of Commisioned Officers and I wondered why. Now, after four years of Active Duty, I know why.

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