Tuppence

779th Battalion insignia

The bees work.
Their work is taken from them.
We are like the bees—
But it won't last
Forever
--Black Workers, Langston Hughes

What you gonna do
When the well run dry?
You gonna sit right down and cry
--I'm Walkin', Fats Domino
________________

Ranger's going to take down a local feel-good story, not because he is a killjoy, but because the subtext feels very bad.

A simple gesture to ensure one soldier was not left out of a family tradition led to an entire battalion of some 2,000 soldiers in Iraq uniting for a run/walk.

First Sgt. Jay Monismith of the Tallahassee-based 779th Engineer Battalion wanted to observe April 24 by wearing a tan shirt that acknowledged the sudden death of his niece, Sarah, who died 37 hours after birth due to a heart defect in 2001.

Monismith, who's stationed in Iraq, asked his captain if the section could march in remembrance of Sarah on the day of the March of Dimes run/walk in Charlotte, N.C., where Sarah's family lives (Soldiers of the 779th In Iraq Unite for March of Dimes.)

His request morphed into the "779th Engineer Battalion Birth Defects Awareness Day Fun Run/Walk."

Ranger is certainly not against the March of Dimes, a righteous organization if ever there was one. But the darker implications of the battalion's act are two-fold:

[1] Can we actually believe the 779th is defending anyone's freedoms if they have the time to stage Fun Runs?

If this were really war and if they were really executing an effective military mission, time for such non-military activities would not be available. Further, it is difficult to imagine physically executing a run in a hostile environment. Obviously they will run in a safe area, making the claim that they are "fighting a war to support us" questionable.

[2] It costs $1 Million per year to keep a U.S. soldier deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Since the 779th has 2,000 soldiers, we would save $2 Billion by bringing them home from a senseless, useless phony war, and could then use that money for infant mortality issues.

This would benefit the Homeland more than 2,00o soldiers walking in the sand for nickels and dimes.

A tuppence compared to the waste to which they are made a party.

Deconstruction

Homeboy in Iraq

Now in these dread latter days of the
old violent beloved U.S.A. and of the Christ-forgetting
Christ-haunted death-dealing Western world
I came to myself in a grove of young pines
and the question came to me:
has it happened at last?
--Love in the Ruins, Walker Percy
________________

The Tallahassee Democrat ran a public affairs piece on the near deployment of a local company, but one part of the PR piece didn't sound too good (Tallahassee-based troops prep for Iraq). Below is the standard pitch:

When the Tallahassee-based 779th Engineer Battalion Headquarters Company (HHC) and FSC are deployed to Iraq this summer, it's possible they'll face the enemy in crowded, urban environments. They'll have to be ready for snipers, ambushes and enemies who attack soldiers, then drop their weapons and disappear into the crowd.

But here's the kicker:

"We don't know the specific details of our mission at this time. But we're preparing for both construction and combat-engineering operations."

Construction work could include building roads, bridges, buildings and other infrastructure. Combat-engineering operations could include placing and removing obstacles and clearing improvised explosive devices from roadways.

Why are two companies of Engineers embarking on final training for deployment unclear about their mission? If HQ does not know their mission, how did they get tagged for deployment? The confusion is indicative of the ad hoc nature of the entire Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©).

The 200 or so men and women who make up the Tallahassee-based companies are spending about five weeks at Camp Blanding outside Starke for pre-mobilization training ahead of their deployment to Iraq.

You can bet the farm that WW II units who trained at Camp Blanding knew their exact mission before they started training and before they deployed. To do otherwise is military ignorance.

Our troops, to include Reserve Components, deserve professional leadership. The chances are good that these units will be red-headed stepchildren when attached to active component units. They will be placed on the "Hey - you" duty roster, which is not a good place to be.

Oh well, victory is right down the road.

Except these engineers don't know whether they are going to build it or blow it up.