Is there anything a prospective naval officer can do to ensure that he/she isn't forced to dodge IEDs in Iraq

Question

I want to serve, but not in a nation where each ethnic group supports its own terrorists. Is there something wrong with that?

Man, what a heap of haters. I'm not the one afraid of dying for my nation--you can find plenty of those folks in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

I have a great deal of respect for the troops that are dodging IEDs in Iraq, but I wish they weren't there either.

Ya'll are right. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow...

Answer 1

Where exactly is a Naval Officer going to come into contact with an IED?
If you were going to be a Marine or an Army Officer, than I could give you some pointers.
Some basic facts:
1. You are as likely to be murdered in New York City or Los Angeles as you are to become a statistic from an IED in Iraq.
2. When you choose to serve in the Military, you choose to go into harms way. If that is not for you, stay home and read the Newspapers accounts of what is happening.
I spent 31 years in the Military, survived two tours of combat, and have been closer to death in car accidents and training mistakes than I ever was in combat. The concept that you are going to die somewhere, sometime just does not seem to sink into our culture until you are quite old.
3. When you get to my age, and have lived through it all, you look back and wonder why you survived and so many others did not. All I can say is that the Military is an honorable profession full of rewards, but just not for everyone.

Answer 2

From reading the answers here, there is a big misconception that NAVY isn't involved boots on the ground. Well they're wrong. There are Navy personnel doing all kinds of jobs boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Explosive ordinance disposal, Medical personnel (both enlisted and officer), The marines use Navy Hospital Corpsman for their ground units, so any time a marine unit goes on patrol there's a Navy corpsman with them. Navy is also involved with convoy escort, detainee camps in Iraq and Afghanistan. Special forces (SeAL) are there too. So yes there is the possibility for Navy personnel to be killed by IED's, in fact there have been several Navy Hospital Corpsman killed in Iraq. The Navy doesn't only have ships.

Answer 3

If you're in the US Navy, aren't you on a ship? Why would you be anywhere near an IED in Baghdad? If your carrier group is sent to the Middle East, you will be out in the Persian Gulf or the Mediterannean Sea.

That said, serving in the military is your choice -- we don't have a draft any more. However, once you make the choice, you get no say in where you serve or whether you go into battle or not. Think very carefully before you commit yourself.

Answer 4

Flipping the motor vehicle isn't the popular way IEDs kill, they kill by using destroying the motor vehicle, not crashing it. The IED's are frequently on the factor of the line, not below it so including greater armor to the backside does not be useful. to not point out the certainly uparmoreds that we've are already so heavy that the fee and effectibility are decreased fairly. you are able to upload each and every of the armor you pick, yet at last it is going to easily be a huge metallic rock unable to go. we've designed greater useful automobiles because of the fact the commencing up of the war yet presently they're purely given to precedence section troops as there arent that many yet.

Answer 5

You could be a sub-mariner. The safest place to be in peace-time, then again if we got into a major conflict you would probably die there too! I don't blame you for not wanting to be target practice. I think it's a stupid tactic to be dodging ied's and sniper bullets, I feel sorry for the soldiers who face that threat. Then again you probably would be more likely to die in an auto accident than from the insurgents. How about joining the coast guard? It would be a lot easier knowing that if you died it would be protecting the coasts of America rather than some $#!T hole place know one knows the name of and the population wants you out of anyways?

Answer 6

I believe you came to the wrong place this is a military question site, therefore i believe most of us have served of country.
We took an oath..........................We live in a country who supports all ethnic groups right or wrong.,
So said prospective if you do not want to chance it stay a prospective. Sir, the military is not for you as a noncom I would not respect your attitude my *** would be in front of yours SO I HIT the IED first anyway

To the other men and women who served God Bless you and the time you gave our country

Answer 7

Yep. There sure is. It might called "protecting one's best interest" to not do such and such, however, every decision you make as a Naval Officer will affect someone somehow. So, if you decide you don't want to do what you signed on to do, are you willing to make your best friend do it? Do you have that kind of nerve that says you are willing to sacrifice friends, family and country, just so you can save your own *ss? Because if you do, you are going to make the worst officer in the Navy. If you get into trouble with the higher-ups, who is going to defend your b*tt when you've already sentenced all your friends to hazardous duty?

H*ll ya, there's something wrong with that!

Answer 8

Try the Salvation Army.

You can serve without the thought of dodging IEDs.

Answer 9

Several Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal techs have been killed while serving in Iraq. If saving your skin is your biggest concern, then you shouldn't be serving.

Answer 10

Is there something wrong with that???? Yes. But, if you can't see that, then you aren't really ready to Lead Sailors into Harm's Way in any instance.

Stick to a civilian job, the Military does not need you.