The 3rd Brigade has once again deployed overseas. Those soldiers have been deployed about as often as they have been home since I arrived back here in 2001.
The terror attacks of 2001 certainly have affected our community with the impact on the soldiers and families of Fort Benning, let alone the effect on the Reserve component forces of all services in the vicinity and public safety officials and their families.
Now the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade must once again defend the cause of freedom, and they and their loved ones endure another time of separation. We must not become complacent in our outlook on our active duty military forces.
We citizens who sit safe at home must guard against these repetitive deployments seeming to be commonplace.
The cycle of units deploying and returning now seems normal. That’s a dangerous occurrence. It is not normal to be at war in such a steady state.
The wear and tear on the soldiers and their families is not normal — not for them nor for any of us who now sit and watch. We need to remember that every time someone on the television or print media expounds on the need for more or fewer soldiers to go someplace, that has a very human impact on someone. The child who has to say goodbye to Mom or Dad with a face of tears out of fear for their return is very real. The sacrifices we now demand are a difficult burden for the military community.
I admit I worry also when our national leadership cannot make up its mind and when debates over numbers occur in the open where our enemies can laugh and marvel at our inability to accept that they really do want to kill us.
Too often we still seem to be a nation at peace with our military and intelligence forces at war. That’s dangerous for all of us. We could easily slide back into the pre-9/11 mind-set and think that no one could really hate us that much.
I fear some people in this great nation already think that way. If our leadership, whether due to true commitment or misguided political theater, decides to let up on our enemies, we will see thousands more killed. Until we either kill all fanatics (hard to believe we’ll ever be that successful) or convince the world that freedom requires work and sacrifice so that they will help us, we had better keep up our guard.
A kinder, gentler America is not necessarily a safer one. I’m very proud of the soldiers in the 3rd Brigade, the Rangers, and all of the military units that continue to defend us overseas in dangerous places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
I’m proud of all of those who are recovering from a deployment or getting ready to deploy again as well as those soldiers and families in Europe, Korea, and elsewhere around the globe. I just hope that people not directly affected by the sacrifices of our military men and women also accept that the world remains a dangerous place.
John M. House is a retired Army colonel who lives in Midland, Ga. His e-mail is housearmylife@aol.com.
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