- "Quite honestly, I'd rather not go. By the time
you get back and start to adjust to being at home, it's time to come back
here, and you get back to Iraq more depressed than you were when you left."
-
- TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) --
It's called rest and recreation, but it could hardly be more stressful.
-
- After seven months in Iraq, many soldiers from the 4th
Infantry Division based around Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit are
due for mid-tour leave -- two weeks back in the United States and a chance
to catch up with family and friends.
-
- But while 14 days' vacation after 30 weeks of confronting
the daily dangers, heat and dust of Iraq may seem like a simple decision,
for many it is far from straightforward.
-
- For a start, 16 soldiers were killed and 24 wounded earlier
this month when a Chinook helicopter carrying them to Baghdad airport for
the start of R&R was shot down west of the capital.
-
- And convoys carrying soldiers to Balad, a town north
of Baghdad from where they catch R&R flights to Kuwait and on to the
United States, have also come under fire in recent weeks.
-
- Yet it is not just the risk of attack when trying to
leave Iraq that worries soldiers, it is the stress and strain of returning
to distant wives, girlfriends, husbands or children and the emotional turmoil
that can bring.
-
- And then two weeks later returning to the war zone.
-
- "Quite honestly, I'd rather not go," said Sergeant
Antonio Carrizales, 39, who is based at Fort Hood, Texas.
-
- "By the time you get back and start to adjust to
being at home, it's time to come back here, and you get back to Iraq more
depressed than you were when you left."
-
- As well as occasional trips to the United States, soldiers
are also offered R&R in special facilities in Iraq and in nearby Middle
Eastern countries.
-
- EMOTIONAL TENSIONS
-
- Carrizales, a 20-year army veteran, knows the risks of
taking R&R with high expectations of having a good time, only to be
left deeply disappointed or worse.
-
- "There's a lot of guys out here who've received
'Dear John' letters telling them their wives have left them," he said.
-
- "They go home thinking they can work it out, but
they discover it's for real and have a hard time dealing with it."
-
- Sergeant Brad Owens, a sniper with 1st Battalion, 22nd
Infantry Regiment, returned from R&R leave in Texas nearly a month
ago and has mixed feelings about his decision to go.
-
- While home he got married to his pregnant girlfriend,
spent more than $10,000 on a motorbike, a wild four days in Las Vegas and
a ring for his new wife, and hung out with friends.
-
- "It was fun, but it was pretty stressful too,"
he said. Aside from the roller-coaster speed of it all, Owens found it
difficult to adjust to being around people who couldn't relate to what
he'd been doing.
-
- "I arrived at the airport in Baltimore and almost
the first person I saw screamed 'baby killer' at me," he said. "Then
you have those who ask things like 'don't you feel bad for killing people?'
After being here you don't have patience for people.
-
- "I didn't feel relaxed when I got back here because
I was thinking about all the things I should have done but didn't do."
-
- Soldiers receive counseling from a chaplain before they
go, with the message generally 'don't expect too much and don't be surprised
if you're disappointed'. They can also receive counseling when they get
back to Iraq.
-
- Despite misgivings about whether it's a good idea, many
can't resist the prospect of two weeks' relief from the daily round of
patrols, raids and firefights with Iraqi insurgents.
-
- "I'm pretty excited because I'm going to see my
fiancee and we're going to get married," said Sergeant Chris Gardner,
a 23-year-old from Killeen, Texas, who leaves for R&R Monday.
-
- But as well as the parties he'll have and the money he'll
spend, Gardner also has concerns.
-
- "I worry about what it's going to be like when I
get back, and I feel guilty that I'm getting the chance to go home while
other soldiers in my unit have got to stay here and suffer."
-
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-
- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=3794584
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