Dispatch from Iraq: New squad leader takes responsibility seriously

Deploying to a combat zone can be a life changing event for anyone. It can be even more so when you're deploying as a newly promoted staff sergeant with a dozen or more soldiers suddenly dependent on you for leadership and guidance.

How does a man just 27 years old confront such responsibility for the first time? I had a chance to talk to Staff Sgt. Jake Roberts about such an assignment.

Roberts, a Carson City native, is currently deployed as an escort commander with the 1864th Gun Truck Company, Nevada Army National Guard, stationed out of Las Vegas. He is four months into his 12-month tour.

In his civilian life, Roberts works full time for the Nevada Army National Guard, and part time for the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Division. In his spare time, Roberts, like any Northern Nevada, loves to take advantage of the outdoor beauty of our region, fishing, camping and snowboarding.

Although new to the position of squad leader, Roberts is not new to combat. During his first deployment to Iraq in May 2005, he was assigned as a .50 gunner.

His convoy was escorting several trucks to Tala Afar, Iraq when one of the

trucks was suddenly hit by an IE.

"Our Bradley (armored) escort stopped in its tracks, which stopped the entire convoy," Roberts told me. "It was then that we were ambushed with concentrated small arms fire. I got out to return fire when I suddenly started receiving small arms fire from a house behind me."

Close call

Roberts was nearly struck by several rounds before the gunner was able to return fire from the turret and destroyed the house and the insurgents inside it.

Roberts is not quite half way through what is now his third tour, yet this is his first real leadership assignment, having been promoted from the rank of sergeant while still training at Camp Atterbury, Ind., in April.

He said of being promoted, "At first it is a great feeling of accomplishment and success, then after that settles in for a little bit you start to think about how will you do as a squad leader. It sinks in that there is going to be a lot of pressure on you from now on."

After being promoted, Roberts found that his world and his role in it had suddenly changed.

He was now a squad leader, a role he had never assumed before. There's a vast difference between having a two-man crew under you in a gun truck and suddenly having to account for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of government equipment and 14 other lives.

To prepare himself, Staff Sgt. Roberts looked to other senior NCOs who had been there; leaders who had influenced him.

"I talked with some of my former squad leaders and platoon sergeants to get a feel on some key areas I would need to focus on to be successful. I also took the good qualities from them and said to myself, that's how I want to be, and then added some of my own.

"I think it's important for a leader to know his troops inside and out and know that because of his example, that his soldiers will have the confidence in him necessary to follow him without question."

Knowing weakness

A good leader also knows his weaknesses. Roberts stepped up to the challenge and confronted his own head-on.

"My No. 1 fear was, would I be able to handle this task that lies ahead of me? I knew I had the experience but was it going to be enough? After our final training mission at Camp Atterbury before deploying overseas, I felt much more confident. We had completed our final convoy escort training mission and had survived several intense complex ambushes. I saw how our squad came together and how we just clicked as one team. It was then that I knew I was going to be OK."

We all still have a lot of time ahead of us here on this tour. Each time we go out, we wonder if this mission will be the one where we get hit. We wonder about our own mortality and secretly hope that it's not us that wins the "Iraqi Lottery" that day.

Lately we hear of more and more bombings and civil unrest throughout Iraq. We've seen the vehicle bone yards here in Kuwait with the wreckage of war; Bradley armored fighting vehicles, Humvees, and even some MRAPs turned inside out and blackened by fire, and our hearts sink just a bit.

"I don't think there is really any way to prepare for that," Roberts told me, speaking quietly about having to confront the possible eventuality of losing someone. "You just go out and do your job to the best of your ability and continue to train so it's muscle memory, and leave the rest to the man upstairs."