|
STORIES Kenneth Anderson
| Clint Summers Trying to help an Iraqi understand the freedoms that we enjoy and have been privileged with for over 200 years now is a daunting task. Also daunting is telling an Iraqi soldier that he and his fellow "battle buddies" are fighting and sometimes dying for a cause of which they have no concept simply because they are not old enough to understand life without a dictative regime. When I am not an extra-board train dispatcher on the Virginia Division in Roanoke, I am Staff Sgt. Clint Summers an Army Reservist with the 7th Brigade, 80th Division in Salem, Va., and now living in downtown Fallujah, Iraq. I am here with a couple of fellow NS employees -- engineer Carey Jones on the Piedmont Division with me in Fallujah and Tim Jones, engineer on the Va. Division who is now in another sector of the country. We have different occupational specialties there at home, but here we are members of ten-man MiTT teams. MiTT is the acronym for Military Transition Team. It is my job to train, advise and mentor the fledgling Iraqi Army into something that one-day may resemble ours. I also am responsible for the logistics of resources for our team and 700-man Iraqi battalion. Our job here will ultimately determine the functionality of the Iraqi Army, and in turn will determine when we, as the armed forces, will be withdrawing and returning to home. I take pride in that I am making a difference here and making history at the same time by possibly creating something that we take advantage of everyday -- our freedom. |