Inside Camp Bastion.

[Stealhead]

You guys are misunderstanding my meaning it is clear.I don't need examples I served and was also in Afghanistan for a TDY.I am fully aware that the "enemy is everywhere" but there is a difference between someone who is only on occasion exposed to actual combat and one whose duty is strictly to engage the enemy and nothing else.So I am sorry to tell you that a combat engineer who must go out every day and seek out enemy IEDs all the while risking getting hit by an IED or getting ambushed by the enemy ans someone who is say a mechanic who might on occasion have to face an attack both deal with stresses this is ture and both are in a combat zone this is true as well but one is exposed far more often than the other and that is different.This is not opinion to me it is fact.In war zones there are differing levels of risk to lump them as all being the same is unfair to the ones at the top of the pyramid (the ones most heavily exposed to
danger IE a direct combatant).

You are sitting here trying to tell me that I was in as great of danger as a person out in the field on a combat mission was in Afghanistan that simply is not correct.The entire time I was there the base I was on was never attacked in anyway what so ever.Yet men in infantry units died or where wounded every single day while nothing happened to myself or anyone else while on the confines of the airbase.

[Wreford-Brown]

I fully agree with you but...

The Western world generally runs professional armies of volunteers. Everyone volunteers to join the armed services then volunteers to join the particular arm (branch) that they want.

An infantryman tends to be in more danger than an aircraft technician but the infantryman has volunteered to be in the infantry and is trained to be in close combat. In Iraq, the greatest threat was from indirect fire and everyone was vulnerable but in Afghanistan the IDF is a lessened, almost non-existent threat therefore the combat soldier is at greater risk than his non-combat peer.

You also shouldn't dismiss the level of training that individuals receive - anyone who is expected to close with and kill the enemy is trained to do just that, in detail, but they are also cognisant that without the aircraft technician they will receive no aircraft support and more infantrymen will die because of it.

Please don't put me down as a nay-sayer. As a 'direct combatant' we relied on you guys to keep us both supplied and supported in combat and, regardless of your MOS, respected the contribution which you made.

Thank you for your service.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Wreford-Brown

I fully agree with you but...

The Western world generally runs professional armies of volunteers. Everyone volunteers to join the armed services then volunteers to join the particular arm (branch) that they want.

An infantryman tends to be in more danger than an aircraft technician but the infantryman has volunteered to be in the infantry and is trained to be in close combat. In Iraq, the greatest threat was from indirect fire and everyone was vulnerable but in Afghanistan the IDF is a lessened, almost non-existent threat therefore the combat soldier is at greater risk than his non-combat peer.

You also shouldn't dismiss the level of training that individuals receive - anyone who is expected to close with and kill the enemy is trained to do just that, in detail, but they are also cognisant that without the aircraft technician they will receive no aircraft support and more infantrymen will die because of it.

Please don't put me down as a nay-sayer. As a 'direct combatant' we relied on you guys to keep us both supplied and supported in combat and, regardless of your MOS, respected the contribution which you made.

Thank you for your service.

I am not sure where you get the idea that I am dismissing anyone persons level of training.

Anyway at least for myself I certainly had a lot of pride in my job but I also had a respect for those that had much more dangerous duties than I did.I also had a lot of respect for what different people did.I just dont want someone to put me on the same pedestal as someone who took far greater risks than I did.I always tell people that they should go volunteer for the Wounded Warrior Project or something similar if they really want to show some appreciation.

The joke we made about "What the hell do the others do" was not a put down it just meant that we where so busy doing our job that we did not see what the others where doing though they where as busy as we where and likely joked about the same thing.