Unsustainable Tempo

Michael Roberts will leave San Diego next month aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. They will stop in Thailand for two weeks of joint maneuvers, then proceed west and north into the Arabian Sea. The Marine Corps hasn’t announced their ultimate destination. Possibilities include Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq, or they could remain aboard ship for a while as something called theater force ready reserve. They are scheduled to be gone for just over six months as is customary but in February the marines announced that the 15th MEU, currently in Iraq, would stay for an extra 45 days. Just last week they announced that elements from the west coast attached to the 31st MEU in the Western Pacific will remain for a full year. Lynne and I went out to Yuma two weeks ago to see Mike off, a month early but the training schedule had him at sea for ten days of final workups beginning last week. He will be back for a short time to make final preparations and say goodbye to Keli and the children. Our visit was interesting. We rode in a marine truck to the edge of a staging area and watched harrier attack jets being loaded with bombs (some live, some concrete practice versions) for a training exercise. In the years Mike has been flying we had never before seen them taking off or landing. They are pretty spectacular. This will be Mike’s fourth deployment, his third to a war zone. He has no complaint. He’s a career marine and this is what he signed up for. Besides, others have been asked to do more, some a lot more. I expect this tempo will continue for several more years. Michael may not be spending much time at home for a while. Frankly I don’t see how it is sustainable. Of the four attack squadrons stationed at MCAS Yuma, Mike’s was the only one there intact. There were hardly any other harriers to be seen. Most of the marines there are either deployed, about to deploy, or just returning from deployment only to start workups and go again. The same is true all across the Marine Corps and through much of the Army. I’m not sure what we do if another crisis develops requiring significant ground forces. There doesn’t seem to be much spare capacity. The stress on families is enormous. I know. I left the army 37 years ago because I had spent two of the first three years of my marriage in Vietnam and found myself facing a third tour. My wife and children were strangers and I had to choose. Today’s military provides better support than Lynne ever got and Keli has a very strong network of friends who understand the issues she faces. That makes a huge difference. Mike can count on a strong and stable family at home. Still, a fatherless household is no walk in the park. Growing children produce marital strife in the best of circumstances. Not all of these separated families are as fortunate as Mike’s. We’re not among those who have turned against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now that they have proved difficult. Nor do we agree that they are un-winnable. On the contrary, we believe the festering sores in the Middle East that produced 9/11 required a serious response and that hasn’t changed. Stable and sane (if not democratic) regimes must be in power in both those sad places if there is ever to be peace in the region. There must be peace there if there is to be peace here. We would not like to see another generation caught up in this so called War on Terror but the Army and Marines are over extended. We’ve got to do something about it. Be that as it may, we’re proud of our son and of the men and women who are going with him. We wish them God speed.