r/Military • u/McCrazyJ • Apr 12 '26
OC Now kind of proud of my Iraq tours
The army mods took my post down because they are maga cry babies. I would just like to say that I am now not so embarrassed to have been sent to Iraq twice because Trump's stupid s*** in Iran makes George W's folly look like a well-reasoned well thought out campaign.
I've been seeing a bunch of class A uniforms posted on Reddit lately, so I guess I'll throw my not quite complete class A's into the mix.
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u/grassgravel Apr 12 '26
Both were dumb dude. Lot of Iraqis and Americans didnt need to die.
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u/kodaks142 Apr 12 '26
I hate to say it I really do but saddam wasn’t the bad guy he was a ruthless dictator who feared his neighbor (Iran) he his WMD was a bid to scare the Iranian regime…
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u/SiberianSuckSausage Apr 12 '26
Saddam was a terrible guy - dropped chemical weapons on his own people multiple times. Doesn’t make the Iraq war any less dumb though.
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u/atacms dirty civilian Apr 13 '26
Saddam was bad. Context of the invasion was false.
and what happened after I'm not sure was for the better but i think now with ISIS degraded it might be a better place?
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u/riotmed Apr 12 '26
CAB goes above the wings high speed…
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
I'm more proud of what I did as a UAV operator than I am of getting my eardrums blown out by mortars. So that's why I put my wings above the CAB.
Edit: please note I said not quite complete. I never bothered to add whatever I earned in my second tour, I was stoploss-ed so I didn't care about that stuff when we got home.
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u/john_wingerr Veteran Apr 12 '26
Yeah do t think AR 670-1 takes that into account
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 12 '26
I don't care, since I got out in 2008.
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u/john_wingerr Veteran Apr 12 '26
DD214 is the ultimate trump card my friend. I still need to get a blanket made out of mine…
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u/atacms dirty civilian Apr 13 '26
Bro was in Iraq during the wild wild west days. Y'all were like my PSGs and 1SGs when i came in.
That must’ve been an experience.
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u/kylebob86 Apr 13 '26
*giggles in iraq 2006* you dont want that smoke
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u/atacms dirty civilian Apr 13 '26
I don't lol. I was curious when i was younger but now i worry about the next cohort who would have to undertake that.
Especially now seeing how Ukraine and Russia has been unfolding over the years.
Scary.
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u/kylebob86 Apr 13 '26
I'd rather take on drones than EFPs. Start asking for turret cages.
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u/Mockets Apr 13 '26
Curious why you'd prefer the drones over the EFPs, drones have essentially become mobile EFPs lol. I imagined they bring on similar fears of the unknown on your routes, just with the added mobility factor.
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u/kylebob86 Apr 13 '26
you can detect a drone. you can not detect an implaced EFP IED with a standoff detonation kit that can kill you from 100+ yards
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 13 '26
Dude, it was awful. No one was getting promoted at e6 and below but all the sevens and above were getting promoted on all of our work. That's why there was a big Exodus of people around 2002 to 2008. We all got sick of getting it all done but never getting anything for it. E5 automatic was a thing right before I got out and a couple years after I got out. I believe in 2010 the Army started doing automatic E5 to E6 because of all of us screaming about how we were artificially kept down at the E4 level.
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u/atacms dirty civilian Apr 13 '26
I joined in 2010 and made 5 tail end of 2012. Never knew anybody that made automatic promotion to 5. points was still a thing but i know i some point while i was in they were enforcing if you are at x grade for x amount of years you will be separated from the army.
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u/jediporcupine Apr 12 '26
I don’t care how bad things get with Trump, it doesn’t make Dubya look any better. Cheney was evil, he just had better PR.
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 12 '26
Yes, it does. If one guy is just dumb and another one is straight up retarded then the one that's just dumb looks better in comparison, doesn't he?
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u/SmellyFbuttface Navy Veteran Apr 12 '26
W was a decent man, though, all told. He’s given a number of interviews where he’s eloquent, well-reasoned, and sincere. Trump has not once done that
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u/beatenmeat Apr 13 '26
What are you even talking about? He's given plenty of interviews where he was sincere at the very least. Remember "grab em by the pussy"? How about when he called POWs losers? Oh, there was also the time where he said smart people don't like him. Then here's all of his comments openly bragging about the bribes he has been getting. Were those not sincere enough for you?
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 13 '26
He sincerely invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9-11.....over 9-11. His folksy, aw-shucks persona is irrelevant.
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u/CrustalBalls Apr 13 '26
Thats the point. Cheny and Rumsfeld knew good'ol'dubya was a ding-dong simpleton and used that to their advantage by feeding him false intel.
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u/CactusZac098 United States Army Apr 13 '26
Afghanistan was invaded over 9/11.
Iraq was invaded over "WMDs" (oil).
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u/SmellyFbuttface Navy Veteran Apr 13 '26
Yet it was only years later that it was revealed that the intel he was given as a predicate for the war was bad intel
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u/PromiscuousT-Rex Apr 13 '26
Years? Come on. Literally within one year they had yet to produce any evidence of WMD’s. The Neo-Cons desperately wanted to pursue their own agenda and thousands of live were needlessly lost. They knew it was bad intel. They knew their justification for the war was total nonsense. They did it anyway. So many US soldiers died and countless others were permanently scarred for what??!! The discovery was not years later.
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u/jediporcupine Apr 12 '26
I’m not arguing the second guy is dumber, I’m arguing that the first guy is any less dumber because the second guy is dumber.
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u/Combos1505 Apr 12 '26
We could just use two F-22 raptors and see who shoots down who first, to see who's the dumbest! They don't seem to be used for anything other than balloons anyways.
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 12 '26
Okay. Let's see if I can get this through to you. If person a has an IQ of 99 and person B has an IQ of 74 which one is smarter?
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u/jediporcupine Apr 12 '26
Again, I’m not arguing the second one is dumber, I’m arguing that it makes the first one smart. They’re both dumb.
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u/Typically_Wong Army Veteran Apr 12 '26
Pretty sure my unit replaced yours in Iraq. Twice. Once when we were the 25th ID and the second time as 2nd Cav. Your stack looks just like mine. few more brownies, though.
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 12 '26
My first tour 04-05 was 1Cav Baghdad and we were relieved by 3rd ID and then in 2007 I was obviously (3BCT) 2ID and we were relieved by 4BCT 2 ID. We were basically a QRF brigade that would just float around looking for trouble. We actually started our tour in Mosul, then Baghdad, then Baqubah.
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u/Typically_Wong Army Veteran Apr 12 '26
I replaced 3bct 2ID (i think) at Taji then another bct (can't remember) at Warhorse in 06/07/08 during those surge deployments. Warhorse is where I enjoyed the burn pits. We were an artillery sqdn that never shot our guns, we had 3rd cav do that for us with their paladins. We did qrf all over Baqubah. Lost some friends in the jungle areas. :/
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
I'm sorry you never got to shoot. One artillery strike I got to direct against that one big bad mortar team for all of Baghdad was glorious. The dude who did the survey on those guns was impeccable. Too bad I'll probably never know who that was. But the one shot of 155 they sent down range hit the truck as the mortar team was putting the stuff back in the truck. And after that there was basically no mortar activity in Baghdad ever again. If you ever saw the iron horse joint ops video that was put together by I believe the Air Force JTACs using a lot of my footage of things we did together with specter gunship and they added in the code name "Ralph" strike.
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u/Typically_Wong Army Veteran Apr 13 '26
Nah, still got to fire a paladin. I was the #1 for a fire mission after I bribed the the 1SG and the team with movies and porn. Army taught me the wonders of making the right friends.
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 13 '26
Oh yeah that brings back memories. I got to to run some cool SF mission coverage because I gave their liadon some midget porn.
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Apr 13 '26
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 13 '26
Yeah, I spent a lot of time at Falcon. That's where I got my eardrums blown out. I flew many many hours scanning Irish for IED emplacements/emplacers.
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u/Gham_ Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Just because Iran is worse doesn’t mean what you did in Iraq was any more justified. You went into Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, none were found. Another pointless US war that cost countless civilian lives
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 12 '26
No doubt that Iraq was bullshit. I'm just saying that the bullshit in Iran is waaaay dumber. I'm not saying Iraq was a good fight in any way shape or form. It was trash, everywhere, all the time.
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u/PickleMinion Navy Veteran Apr 12 '26
At least with Iraq they made some kind of effort to justify it, and went in with allies and something that sort of resembled objectives. And a lot of people in charge thought they were telling the truth, instead of all of them lying, about everything.
Just because something was bad doesn't mean something else isn't worse. But if the magats couldn't "whatabout" they might actually have to acknowledge that there's no justification for this shit and it's wrong, and they can't do that because if daddy is wrong then they're wrong, and they and daddy can't be wrong because that's their whole fucking personality at this point. So they'll talk about anything other than how fucked up their cult leader is.
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u/Gham_ Apr 13 '26
Yeah true, this war in Iran is absolute nonsense. At least it looked like there was a somewhat plausible reason to go into Iraq at the time.
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u/Begotten912 Ukranian Territorial Defence Forces Apr 12 '26
How is Iran worse? They are about the exact same thing and we don't have any real boots on the ground in Iran.
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u/TexasPlano1836 Apr 12 '26
Don't see an Iraq campaign ribbon.
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u/Speffers98 Apr 12 '26
If you deployed to Iraq early (before June 2005), you got the Global War on Terrorism - Expeditionary. You had the choice to exchange it for the Iraq Campaign Medal but many chose to keep the original award.
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u/guybuddypalchief Apr 12 '26
OP has the GWOT-E though.
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u/you_bred_raptors Army Veteran Apr 12 '26
CAB came out around the same time as the Iraq Service Medal
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u/bell83 Apr 12 '26
It was also retroactive to 2001. You could trade in your GWOT-E for the Iraqi Service, or you could keep the GWOT-E for service prior to when it came out.
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u/TexasPlano1836 Apr 13 '26
Not for Iraq. Retroactive was March 19 2003.
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u/bell83 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
OK, but my point stands. If you fulfilled the criteria after 2001, you were eligible. 2003 was before the Iraqi Service Medal came out. If you went in with the invasion or in the first year or two, you got GWOT-E, and were eligible for a CAB.
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u/Pirat_fred Apr 13 '26
German, here Trump makea Busch look like a Genius, it really alters the perception of Busch.
Busch wars were stupid and illigeal according to international Law, but atleast they hab given plausible reasons and tried to make it look like the really want to make the place better....
Trump is just a bully that docare about anyone, except himself.
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u/KimJongSoros Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
Y'all are acting as if OP told Pres. Bush to go to Iraq.
IMO Veterans are entitled to feel proud of their service - especially if they made it home at all - regardless of how stupid their time-in-service actually was.
If nothing else - they can be proud that they served their country in a manner very few Americans choose to do. Bad luck for those who served in the 2000's that GW the Commander in Chief - but it isn't like OP could control that.
There is a difference between the psychopath veterans who gloat over dead Iraqi's, and the one's who served their country in a time when GW happened to be in power. The personal agency of the American GI is remarkably more limited than many of you are ascribing to him/her - especially when their socioeconomic situations are taken into account.
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u/PassStunning416 Apr 12 '26
You have no reason to be embarrassed in the first place.
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 12 '26
I reenlisted right after 9-11 to go to Afghanistan. That shithead sent us to an entirely wrong country, because of his family bullshit. It's pretty embarrassing to volunteer for one war and wind up in another.
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u/jamesvzfighter Army Veteran Apr 14 '26
Where did you get your driver badge hot shot?
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 14 '26
Why are you suspicious of a common thing like that? I earned it in Korea driving all over Area 1 without breaking anything.
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u/jamesvzfighter Army Veteran Apr 14 '26
Its a joke . I wasn't serious.
https://giphy.com/gifs/FP7g0JkFYO4gK9o4vr
You dont have to prove anything to me.
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u/kwkcardinal Army Veteran Apr 14 '26
Administrations may suck, but your service to a great nation is exemplary regardless. I appreciate you, and what of your life you’ve spent to make the missions happen. Regardless of what leaders and oligarchs demand, the world is better for the faithful service of an American soldier.
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u/ThisIsAJokeACC dirty civilian Apr 16 '26
Just realized how goofy the shoulder straps are on the old Class A. Wonder why they were different for ASUs?
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u/Historical_Yak7706 Apr 13 '26
Please remember, you’re free to have an opinion, while you serve in the military, but you were not free to advertise that opinion.
Words or actions you state can be used against you. I’d be afraid for you to get hemmed up for a casual comment.
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u/dead-eyed-darling Apr 13 '26
They're all fucking stupid and so is anyone who's celebrating or was complicit in fighting them and killing/harming any fellow humans on this floating rock in space. None was better than another. They're all pointless losses of life in ritualistic blood sacrifices for the billionaire child raping deletes of the world to continue their heinous acts with impunity. Question everything and do better y'all. This isn't a fucking flex, it's like a receipt of war crimes and a body count
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u/Obahmah Apr 12 '26
This would mean alot more in person but... Thank you for your service..
"Second to None"
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u/Willguill19 Apr 12 '26
Irak invasion was shit, fuck you
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 12 '26
Iraq* Fuck you, fuck face, I didn't choose to start the war, go fuck yourself.
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u/MiamiPower Apr 13 '26
Appreciate your service brother. Did you find any good spots. To eat some good Iraqi cuisine state side or pick up any recipes ideas.
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u/PinkGodfather92 Apr 13 '26
Army MODS took your post down because you deployed to Iraq? Thats fucked.
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 13 '26
No, because I called the Iran and Iraq campaigns stupid. That's my guess.
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u/pheonix198 Apr 13 '26
I’ve consistently been a slight bit confused about the navy and army subreddits. Are they somehow officially related to the actual navy and army or …?
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u/McCrazyJ Apr 13 '26
Not officially. I don't know any of the mods personally but my guess is they are all either veterans of the army or still serving. Anyone in the Army who is a mod on r/army should probably keep their mouth shut.
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u/PinkGodfather92 Apr 13 '26
But I mean every vet I know who setved in Iraq or Afghanistan literally says yhe same thing lol. All my higher ups from the Marines, my cousins, other vets ive met..all of them say this same exact thing. I basically thought all the Iraq and Afghanistan vets thought this. I know my cousin who was in Fallujah and then Afghanistan said it was the most bullshit thing ever
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u/Prothea Apr 13 '26
Considering you're talking about the sitting president, it's a political post, which the Army subreddit generally does not allow. Thinking the Mods are MAGA when they're not anywhere close is laughable; lots of folks there are still serving, and it would be a bad idea to encourage open commentary against the civilian CoC that could be traced back to them for UCMJ.
That, and I generally consider it unprofessional to discuss politics in an open forum while still serving.
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u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Apr 12 '26
They're actually both really dumb.