28 February 2009

We still have troops where??? Oh, I didn't know that

From the Soldier side: Just before I was deployed to Bosnia in 2003, we had a little going away party. It was very nice cause' I got to see a lot of family and some friends I didn't get to see often. I thought one of the funniest conversations I had was someone asked me: "Doesn't it get hot in Bosnia?"
I said: "ehhhh, I guess so in the summer...huh?"
They said: "Isn't Bosnia in Africa?"

Oh shit...I forgot how many Americans haven't a clue were other countries are. The other thing a lot of people said before I left was: "I didn't know we still had troops in Bosnia."
I guess most Americans don't really give a crap about where the country sends troops. I expect that's what will happen in Iraq...they'll pull most of the troops out, it'll not be in the headlines anymore and fade away. There will still be a bunch there, but America will soon forget.
I know when I was in Iraq, only about .00001 % of what happened everyday made it into the news back home. On a typical day in 2005, over 145 incidents took place...but the news back home might have reported on one or two things.
I have a bunch of really, really good friends in Kosovo who'll be coming home soon. The exact date can't be told due to "OPSEC", but it'll be soon. They'll be excused from National Guard drills for a few months, but I hope most of them show up and stay in. Guys like John, Darin, Dave, Bert, Ski, Paul, Paul and a few others. Some of these guys I deployed to Bosnia and Iraq with...so it's the third deployment for them. I can't wait to see them.
Oh yeah, we still have troops in places like Kosovo, Iraq, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, etc, etc, etc...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Traveling mercies to all of your brothers, D.

Anonymous said...

I did not know the US still had troops in so many places. I had to look on the map to see where Kosovo was. It seems like it is close to that Bosnia place.
I guess I am going to try to keep up on the news for this stuff, but after checking today, I see there is no major news in Kosovo or Bosnia.
Is this a place for National Guard Officers to go to get to say that they have been somewhere without really going to a place where they might actually get shot or mortored or something?