Guest Post: Day at the Beach

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba by JTF Guantanamo

We recently opened YouServed.com for contributions from all Military members and Veterans. SGT Hovertank, a nine-year Army Reserve Veteran and now a VA Mortgage Center.com Loan Officer, is our first taker.

Each week we’ll post a new part of his article, “Day at the Beach,” recounting the Sergeant’s first-hand stories and observations from GTMO.

I’m not much of a writer but I’ve been kicking myself forever for not taking the time to jot down some of my experiences and the blog was a great excuse. I should probably say that I hope someone else enjoys reading my observations or is somehow enriched because I’ve chosen to share my memories. Frankly, that would be a lie. I’ve amused myself so much retracing these steps and remembering all of these people that I’m not terribly concerned anymore if anyone even reads it, much less likes it. Just in case, however, here is an intro to get everyone up to speed.

The most exciting and rewarding job I have ever had was working as an analyst in the interrogation cell at JTF-170. I was fortunate enough to be one of the original 20 people who stood up the interrogation facility in GTMO in 2002. I was literally there when the Seabees built the first tool shed intended as an interrogation booth. I was there when we got to treat our foreign guests to blaring renditions of “Back in Black” and “God Bless America” every morning. You’ll have to forgive me if some of my dates or unit designations are incorrect. All of this has been written down many years after the fact and I’m sure to get some things wrong. I have changed all names, but if you happen to recognize yourself from any of my descriptions please feel free to burn me (in writing) in effigy.

It’s appropriate to give some background for my assignment to JTF-160/170 Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and how an insurance salesman was briefly an NCOIC in the most highly scrutinized facility on earth.

I joined the reserves while still in high school determined to become a federal law enforcement agent. My goal led me to choose a Military Intelligence MOS (The first person to snicker gets their eye-dotted.) So I was trained as a 96B10 or Intelligence Analyst. Interesting stuff if you consider memorizing the Soviet Arms manual fun. The unit I chose was Bravo Company of the 319^th Military Intelligence Battalion. Because the unit commonly offered tours with Joint Task Forces it was an excellent place for soldiers turned law enforcement personnel to ride out their military careers. President Clinton was in office and was busily keeping his promise to balance the budget by bankrupting military resources. It was very similar to saying I’m saving money by not paying my gas bill. It’s a good plan until next winter. Because of the drastic cuts in the defense budget, many non-combat specialties were moved from active-duty elements to the reserves. Somehow I slid through my college years without a single deployment to Bosnia. I did complete several short tours stateside pouring through current intelligence and writing briefs for the confused military action. During one ten-month break between assignments I swear we actually switched sides. If you want to know what’s wrong with a NATO led action talk to soldier deployed to Bosnia. But I digress. The bottom line is that the Clinton administration made it impossible for this country to wage even a small war without a heavy reliance on the reserve element.

My unit was a retirement unit of sorts that provided slots for several cold-war intelligence war-horses. Mostly they were pasty white guys with completely out of regulation mustaches that drank too much and hadn’t passed a PT test since the Ford administration. They were very likely the same guys that left a foot long ponytail on the barber shop floor in ‘67 when they were drafted into ‘Nam. It was a perfect environment to learn about the issues we would soon be facing in the Middle East. Primarily, we were a human intelligence unit made up of interrogators, linguists and analysts. As the Clinton administration busily cleaned house we were restructured in 1999 and became Bravo Company of the 321^st MIBN headquarted in Dallas, TX. As a result we were given the opportunity to cross train in counter-intelligence. It made us a perfect element (on paper) to operate the intelligence facilities we would soon be opening in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Cuba. Strangely, I don’t think it ever occurred to anyone that if deployment ever became an actuality, at least a third of us (read: the good third) would be deemed un-deployable.

Next week: From 9/11 to selection in an active duty element from Southern Command