"No one understands what we've been through" - Missouri families

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1218796,00.html

Debbie Roath and Rachel Trueblood are just two of the wives from the 129th Transportation Company who are waiting for their husbands to come home from Iraq.
The company numbers 295 people from five different states - the vast majority are men - and they are part of the US army reserve. Some, like Rachel's staff sergeant husband Rony, were in Iraq the last time round, as Operation Desert Storm raged, and then petered out.

Debbie's husband, Sergeant Jeff Roath, has never been a full-timer, but the two men left their homes in the Kansas City area of Missouri in January 2003, arrived in Kuwait in late April last year, and have been driving heavy supply equipment lorries up and down the dangerous roads of Iraq ever since.

They were told initially that deployment would be between three and six months. Three times they have been expected home by their families, and three times the tour has been extended at a late hour. Last Thursday, Debbie and Rachel received calls telling them to expect their men home sometime later this week:

"The worst thing is telling the kids. They've been disappointed so often in the past that we've started lying to them. We don't mention they might be coming home now," says Debbie.

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Favorite bit

"From the beginning it's been a case of the three P's: piss-poor planning."


Maybe we ought to have new DU t-shirts made with this as our motto.

in the US Press....

And I can certainly undrestand her ... but many in this country cannot