Why I Never Deployed To Iraq

Call it luck, chance, grace, or the hand of God himself, I never saw combat. As an 11Z5VF7, at times I felt cheated. I guess it all boiled down to the timing. Joined in 1979 so I was too young for Nam. My Company in the 82D deployed to Grenada 2 months after I left. I was an instructor during Desert Storm/Shield. Deemed "mission critical". Spent countless nights teaching deploying Soldiers how to effectively use their AN/PVS-4 with a variety of weapons systems. After that Gig, I got "stuck" in one Staff weenie position after another. Finally retired in 2003. In 2005 I was contacted by ARPERCEN to see if I wanted to go to Iraq. My 50% VA rating pretty much shot that idea down.

I don't harbor any ill feelings nor inadequacies. Sometimes shit happens, sometimes it doesn't.

I would say that people of my era, should, even by dumb luck, have been deployed at least once with only rare exception (like FAOs). However, the folks who have come in since 2010 or so may not have had the opportunity. As I had seen over the last two years a formation is 50/50 with deployed experience. It is increasingly the norm with junior folks now not to have a deployment, those deployed may not have been in a designated combat zone. I am sorry she missed her turn because of the poor, unprofessional conduct of her senior. I have not walked a mile in her shoes, and will not claim understanding. I was frustrated as a young LT in 1994, not by being maligned, but by circumstance. Many of the Captains and most senior NCOs all deployed to ODS, Panama, or in some cases Somalia. It would not be for nearly half my career before I would deploy the first time (2003). Consider this, if you entered service between 1973 and 1980, and were not in the right corner of the Army for ODS or Panama, then you didn't deploy either in a 20yr career.

I had a 7 year break in service (93-2000), i was not allowed to deploy during Desert Storm because I was in an "In town EOD" unit. Then i came back in March 2000, 9-11 came and I figured that I would get a few deployments in, no such thing happened. I was with a WMD unit then and required to train soldiers going over. I switched back to EOD hoping to go, nope, training NCO. Does it bother me? Hell yes! I had to train (in my eyes) kids to go! I volunteered 7 times for desert Storm, 3 for Iraq and tried to volunteer for Afghanistan when I was told that I was too broken up to go, my best bet to finishing my career was to train folks and leave quietly. I don't regret my career, I trained a lot of fine soldiers and to my knowledge, they all came home. I do feel remorse that I was not allowed to serve beside them when they had to face the dragon's breath, alone. As a coach and father, every soldier I trained became my son and daughter, it became my job to protect them and I was not afforded the opportunity. I will go to my grave pissed at the powers that be made the decision that I was to stay home.