January 22, 2008: The public is
generally unaware of how involved the U.S. Navy is with the ground war in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Currently, 14,000 sailors are serving with army units, mainly
in Iraq (the "sand box"), but also in places like Guantanamo Bay. This small
army of sailor "augmentees" are assigned to fill army support jobs overseas.
In the last seven years, over 50,000
U.S. Navy sailors have served as "IAs," (individual augmentees), to
assist the U.S. Army. The number has been increasing, and it's no longer
voluntary. While most of the IAs are still volunteers, many who have not been
IAs, and are up for a new assignment, are being told to do an IA tour, or not
be able to re-enlist. The navy has been downsizing over the past few years, so
they can get away with this. The navy still has no problem getting the recruits
it needs.
The IA work involves six, or, more
usually, twelve month assignments. Most of the IAs possess skills similar to
those performed by soldiers. The IAs get 17 days of training at an army base,
to familiarize them with army procedures, weapons, and the specific dangers
they will encounter. Most of the sailors never get out into combat, but
concentrate on support tasks in well protected bases. This ranges from
maintenance to handling logistics. Many navy EOD (Explosives Ordnance Disposal)
technicians serve in the danger zones, taking care of roadside bombs, and other
dangerous devices. But mostly, the sailors free up army personnel for things
like base security. The IAs also help army morale, as they make it possible to
not send key technical people overseas so much. Most sailors volunteer because
they want to get involved. As the old saying goes, "it's the only war we've
got," and this one does not involve a lot of naval action.
The navy has been constantly tweaking
the IA program, to make it less disruptive to a sailors career. This includes
awarding a lot of Combat Action Ribbons. This is an award established in the
1960s, but not seen much, at least for ground combat, since the Vietnam war
ended. Now, with so many sailors seeing ground combat (usually as EOD
technicians clearing roadside bombs, or working convoy escort duty), the
blue-yellow-red-white ribbon has now appeared on the uniforms of thousands of
sailors.
The navy personnel procedures have also
been adjusted several times to accommodate IAs. The latest wrinkle is to select
sailors for IA duty at the end of a tour of duty (on a ashore or on a ship), so
that they have more time to arrange their next regular assignment. By the time
the fighting dies down in the sandbox, 15-20 percent of sailors will have had
the experience of serving with the army. No telling what long term effects that
will have.
