I am a soldier in Iraq and hate it, Do i try to get out?

Question

my sargent is an *** and makes us work harder than everyone else on the flightline....longer days, no down time, unreasonably high standards. we are all about to go nuts on him, but he is not doing anything that we could really report him for. i could find a way to get out of the army...but dont really want to. i could maybe find a way to go back to my duty station to be with my wife and 2 kids, but not for sure. all i know is i am miserable here...so what do i do?

Answer 1

I've been in your shoes before. I've been all over the world for this country and I have been to Iraq 3 times. In fact, I've been on 8-9 (lost count) different deployments away from home. That doesn't matter though. What matters is that you probably should talk to the chaplain about your issues. That always seems to help. Remember this though. You chose to serve and you can make it through this. Once you do get through it, you'll feel good about yourself and proud that you served your country with honor. Don't take the easy way out, because you will regret it later. Stay strong!

Answer 2

I basically agree with everyone else that you are a cry baby and will ask why did you join the Army? If you joined for an eight hour a day job and home every night with the wife and kids then you were really easy and taken advantage of. If you find a way to get out of Iraq that will be good but do the country and the Army a favor and get out of the military when your contract is up because it might happen again and you can't handle it which means you will be doing this again and someone will have to take your place. The military is not the 40hr week job in the U.S and home every night you seem to think it is-if it isn't more then that and a paycheck to you get out. The best thing to do is just suck it up and do your job; with his being mean and setting high standards you have a better chance of coming back alive then having a sergeant who is well liked, easy going and lets you get away with minimums. I guess you are in aviation since you talked about the flight line-try living for a while with a grunt unit then you will see how easy you have it. Your duty staion is Iraq-the place where your wife and kids are is home base.

Answer 3

You suck it up and drive on. This is the military, not a civilan job. If your SGT is in any way abusing his powers, then that is the purpose for the open door policy and a chain of command. My husband is a SSG in Iraq now, his unit has had 4 people "pull a crazy" and yes, it did manage to get them home from Iraq. However, one of these individuals is currently pending a court marshall for his actions, another was released from the Army for having a "personalaity disorder". When you fake something, trust me, your chain of command will know. Your comrades will know. You will lose all respect from both and be viewed as a coward for letting your "brothers" down. How do you plan on supporting your wife and children when the Army puts you out with a less than honorable discharge?

My advice to you would be to give everything you all, your fellow soliders deserve that from you. Once this deployment is over and your ETS dats rolls around, make a choice to stay or to leave. Don't do anything to damage your reputation, integrity or your family.

Answer 4

Are you really a marine? You didn't spell SERGEANT correctly!

It's completely normal for your sergeant or commanding officer to be a pain in the *** until you've either earned a lot of respect, or you outrank him. If he isn't doing anything out of regulations that you could report him for, then I guess that just makes him a better leader!

To answer your question, you have the legal way, and the way that will screw you over for life.

Legal: Wait until your tour is up, seek a career councilor, or catch your sergeant in the act of doing something against regulations, but that would probably just get you moved to a different squad with an equally infuriating leader.

Illegal: You could attempt running away, but then you'd be stuck in Iraq with a crime on your record with no way of knowing which civilians are pro or anti American.

I'd stick to the legal routes.

Answer 5

First I have no personal experience with the Army. My husband is a new enlistee being trained in Infantry. Ok, people have different personalities but I've known him first as a friend (good friend!!) then bf, and finally husband for many years. I know he would never complain like you but do his job to the best of his ability. If his sergeant said "jump" Jamie's only question would be "how high".

My grandpa tells me about some soldiers in his unit in vietnam that sound a lot like you. My grandpa had no picnic there but he served (he got into a little trouble and lost pay grade from Specialist to PFC for disrespecting an officer) but overall he's glad now he served honorably. Years from now when you are an elderly man, do you want to carry the baggage of having done something outrageous to get out of service, and never be able to "fix" it. Maybe you want to be like a soldier in my grandpa's unit who purposely shot himself to rotate out a few months early. My grandpa thinks that man probably has boxes of paperwork trying to fix his discharge and get back his honor, not to mention of the reminder his foot must give him every winter. Would you do that to get out of a little work?

I think you need to fix your attitude.

The answerer above me questioned whether you were really in the Army because you misspelled "sergeant". There is another thing that you said that might indicate that you are not the "genuine" article. You said that you work on the "flightline". Now that would mean to me you cannot be in the Army because a flight line has to do with an airport. I could be wrong but I don't think the Army does "airplanes". Maybe you are one of these "Moveon" people trying to smear our brave heros.

Answer 6

honestly you need to just stick out and when your time is over you get out...everyone has days when they hate being deployed and hates being away from their families but you signed on that dotted line and you have an obligation to finish out this enlistment...

my husband is a sergeant and he is harder on his sqd then any other nco in our company and that's because he knows what his men are capable of doing and their abilities and yes he can be a real *** and yells alot but he's doing to make sure that all his soldiers come home alive...

everyone over there is miserable it isn't a fun day at sea world over there you are not the only person over there missing their wives,husbands, kids...family period... you just need to suck it up and deal with it...right now you are a danger to not only yourself but your squad because you are not thinking straight and if you don't pull yourself together you will end up getting etiher yourself killed or wounded and god forbid someone else because you are not completely mentally there..deal with it and move on...

also you work on helicopters...since you mentioned the flightline...so you are responsible for the men and women that fly those helicopters...just keep telling yourself how many days you have left there..how many days you have left in the army and move on each day

Answer 7

I must agree with Mustangsally on this. My husband has been in Iraq 3 times and he never complains this much. I know he misses me and our son, but he does what he signed up for, and calls or emails whenever he can. He actually volunteered for this tour in Iraq, and he will most likely go back in the next year. You singed the contract, you need to finish you time, and then get out of the military.

BTW: Are you kidding me? You're Sergeant is an ***? This must be the first time in history a SGT has been an ***, especially in a comabt situation!! (that was sarcasm, in case you couldn't catch that)

Answer 8

No, you don't try to get out. Let's review your oath of enlistment, shall we?

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

The officers appointed over you have ordered you to Iraq. This is part of military service. It isn't only short haircuts, a cool uniform, medals and ribbons. We both know you're going to come back here and say "I served in Iraq," and leave out the part about how it was so hard you wanted to come home.

Serve with honor until your enlistment ends and then don't reenlist. That simple.

MSgt, USAF (Retired)

Answer 9

Suck it up and drive on! You should know this a NCO can always add to a Regulation but not take away...Standards are what we live by, this is not the Girl Scouts...there are one of two things you can do, and they both have to do with just sucking it up, and quit whining...the first...stay in Iraq with your buddies and then get out when your enlistment is up...or two, stay in Iraq with your buddies and use this as a learning experience...I was told by my NCO Mentor, to take from both sides, good and bad leadership...if you do not like something, then when you become an NCO don't do it...but training above Standard keeps you alive...and it is spelled Sergeant...

Answer 10

Grow up...My husband is currently in Iraq and has been there 14 months....he works 16 hours a day 7 days a week, and I know him and all his soldiers (plus everyone else there) wants to be back home with their family...and Im guessing you have enough "downtime" to get on yahoo answers and ask a stupid question... why arent you using your precious limited downtime communicating with your wife instead of whining on yahoo answers!!!