The Omnibus

Issue date: 5/13/04 Section: Feature

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There really is not any way I know to begin to summarize my experiences I had while serving our country overseas in Iraq, let alone try to summarize them in the space I am allowed for this article. There are so many stories I could tell, so many people I could introduce you to, so many tragedies I could illustrate. With all the bad news airing on CNN about how we are losing the battle in Iraq, it is hard to grasp all the good things we have done for the Iraqi people. It is hard to grasp that they truly want peace. 

Matt Sneed (far right) served in Iraq with (from left to right) SFC Krause, SGT Hulland, 2LT Dianich, SSG Burd, SPC Caperton, SSG Brown, SGT McRoberts, SSG Brewer, SPC Padgett, SGT Horn, SGT Ragland and SSG Bray.

My opinion and viewpoint are just that, my opinion. There are thousands of troops who have served, and are still serving in Iraq, and each one of them has their own unique perspective on the situation. Some experiences have been good while others have not been. Let me start with a little background information on myself and my unit.

My military occupation, or MOS, is a Combat Engineer or 12B as it is know in military terms. My unit's official pre-war mission was to lay and remove minefields of different shapes and compositions, as well as constructing and destroying battlefield obstacles. With the collapse of the Iraqi army and the unexpected lack of minefields and obstacles, our mission changed completely to something that none of us were even trained or experienced to do.

With the dissolution of the Iraqi army, a guerrilla war began to ensue with Iraqi nationals and terrorists. With this new enemy came a unique threat to the lives of our troops, Improvised Explosive Devices. This is just another fancy term the military likes to use to describe a homemade bomb.

Sneed gets a little shut eye before moving out on another daily mission.

The guerillas used anything from trash to debris left along the roads by explosions and fighting. The insurgents placed these bombs in key locations such as underneath bridges and behind guard rails, even burying them in the medians and shoulders of the roads. These bombs would be detonated once a convoy passed through the area. Later attacks began to combine these bombs with coordinated attacks such as RPG's, small arms fire and other guerilla tactics.

With an increasig number of these attacks, many different units were tasked with scanning and locating these devices and disarming them before they harmed anyone. Our team was given a special mission: to test out a new set of experimental equipment originally intended to be used for minefield detection and removal. Our job was to sweep the roads, medians and shoulders for any buried devices and visually check to determine if any threats existed along one of the main supply routes through Iraq. Along with the detection phase of the mission, we began the process of clearing the roads of anything that could be used to conceal a device, and grading the dirt in so future patrols and scans would be able to perform the task much faster and more effectively.

Now that you know a little about what my role in the war was, I would like to talk about the state of mind of the Iraqi people and of the troops serving to bring freedom to them. My experience with the local nationals is somewhat limited and therefore my opinion may not be the current consensus of the people. Nonetheless, from the opinions I gathered and the people I talked to, they have great hope for the future and foresee that one day they will be able to once again have a free and prosperous nation. I was able to speak with a former Iraqi air force air traffic controller who had turned to being a translator after the disbanding of the Iraqi military. He told me although life was very difficult now compared to when Saddam Hussein ruled, and poverty was now a way of life for many people, there was still a great hope the economy would recover and, like many of their Arab brothers, they too would once again become a prosperous nation. He also said that despite the economic turmoil they were experiencing, they would have done it all over again just to have one chance at freedom from Saddam's oppression.

Matt Sneed and SSG Bray try to win the hearts and minds of these Iraqi nationals.

From what I was able to gather from my fellow soldiers and those of others I talked to, their opinions were much like those of the Iraqis I had talked to. They believe, as do I, that if the Iraqi people accept the fact that we are there to help them without intention of ruling their nation as one of our own and they put their minds towards rebuilding and making their nation prosperous they would indeed succeed. Every soldier I know is still committed to the cause and will not give up until the mission is complete. They know without their presence there the Iraqi people would not experience peace or freedom for very long. This opinion may have changed with some of the recent events that have happened, but I hope it has not for the sake of what we have already accomplished. There is no telling how long this fight will take, and I do not think any analyst or military commander can predict it either. All we can do is hope and pray a resolution to the crisis will come soon and end the need for bloodshed.

I would like to ask for continued prayers and support for the troops serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan. They need our support now more than ever, especially with the proposed transfer of power to the Iraq government. Pray for the leaders of both our country and theirs that they would be able to bring order to their countries. On a personal note I would like to thank the entire Southwest Baptist University community for their support and prayers while I was gone. Without it I do not think I would be here to share with you my story.

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