IVAW member still shooting off his mouth in Chicago
A week or so ago, I wrote about SGT Alejandro Villatoro who was publicly complaining about the fact that he hasn’t trained his troops properly for combat. There’s an article in the Chicago Tribune today that continues his bathering;
Alejandro Villatoro, 28, is one of about 160 soldiers from across the Midwest in the 656th Transportation Company, based in Hobart, Ind. He said he didn’t want his unit to be unprepared like his was in 2003.
In Kuwait, Villatoro said, his unit conducted missions with trucks used in the Korean War and trained using Vietnam tactics, like digging foxholes. When his unit invaded Iraq, some soldiers did so with scant bullets.
Korean War trucks, I’m sure. maybe the design was from the Korean War, but the trucks themselves? Hardly. Everyone needs to know how to dig a foxhole, I don’t care what conflict you’re in. I dug foxholes in Desert Storm in the Forward Operations Base before we launched the Ground War. It only makes sense that soldiers are prepared for any contingency.
The article goes on to say that Villatoros has complained to Dick Durbin, his senator., and Luis Gutierez his Congressman. I hope he didn’t look too foolish when they discovered that his unit is slated for five more weeks of training before they deploy.
I understand his concern for his troops, if it’s real, but it appears to me that it’s more of an opportunity for him to protest the war and maybe preclude himself from the deployment. The more he runs his mouth, the more the latter looks to be the case.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War
I went through the training in Kuwait in 2009. Unless they changed the program drasticaly in a year he is a complete liar.
The training is conducted in uparmored Humvees and PLS vehicles and is completely focused on COIN and convoy operations.
Unless he was digging holes for his own entertainment, he is just making up stuff to get attention.
In AF basic training we used ww2/Korean Conflict M-1 carbines. After tech school I was stationed at McClellan AFB in CA and lived in a 1 story barracks that was supposed to be torn down in 1947, this was 1955. The squadron of several barracks was located in the middle of a civilian PARKING lot!
After a year there, I was transferred to Whiteman AFB, MO. SAC thought we were warriors I guess as we were issued M-1 carbines, 10lb pisspots, gas masks, pistol belts, 1st aide kits and 150 rounds of live ammo. No…really.
After a double murder on the flight line, when we drew our..cough.. equiptment for a SAC alert, we got all the afore mentioned stuff, but got a slip of paper that stated;”You have been issued 150 rounds of live ammo! BANG, you’re dead.
Whiny-boy dipstick… he’d be better off claiming a service-related disability from PowerPoint.
Needs an Article 15, busted to E1, and then deployed. NCO’s don’t run to the media if there is a legitimate issue. That is what the chain of command is for.
Wait, didn’t a USAR Colonel just get fired and booted from his job in Afghanistan for complaining to the press without going through channels?
Matt, didn’t a general just get fired by the President for complaining to the press?
POS NCO
In the early 90’s I was a Tactical Adviser for several Transportation units in the Philadelphia area. Some of the companies had M35’s made in the early 1950’s. So it is possible that they had vehicles from that time. They were stick shift and had less then 25,000 miles. So they might have been around.
But the reason that these units were paying me Mandays was because of the mandate that the units be fully tactically trained for the AirLand Battle. The concept being that the Extended Battlefield would expose Service and Service Support units to increased tactical threat. So we taught the soldier skill tasks _and_ made sure that each unit ran a REAL weapons qualification program and that _all_ weapons were used. Including M60 and M2 mgs (which were not fired frequently at all during that time)
Also, after the USAR was stripped of it’s combat role many USAR combat arms officers went into those units. My former XO went into Iraq commanding a transportation unit. I know he was completely tactically proficient and would have trained his troops accordingly. In fact, I’d say that Reserve Units had a better chance of being properly trained then some RA units because of that combat arms density in senior officers and NCOs. Additionally, Reserve units did not have the daily tasking that RA units have to deal with in scheduling such training on post.
“656th Transportation Company, based in Hobart, Ind.”
Hobart, Ind.?????????
That Sgt better watch his butt or 1st LT Kyle Barwan will have his aide, Pvt MoHAMmed kick his NCO rear. This is all right in the front yard of those two.
Old equipment???
In 1960, in my 101st Airborne Div Battle group, they had me assigned to the antiquated Browning Automatic Rifle. Never mind that it was, (at least then), the most accurate small bore auto rifle in the world; it was old! That I watched a Division Rifle team Major put 20 rounds in the bull at 500 yds, Blindfolded after firing 2 rounds to find the target, it was old!!!!!!
Waaaaaahhhhhh, just another crybaby afraid to do what he is trained and expected to do. Not a bit better than that asswipe private who now claims to be a conscientous objector.
Well, in Kuwait prior to the invasion we conducted training on clearing trenches, so I guess we were being trained using WWI tactics. As for foxholes, we dug into FARP Shell. Our “hasty” fighting positions (supposed to be dug in less than an hour, according to doctrine, IIRC) took a few hours to get deep enough for us to lie in the prone; after a few days of constant improvements some fireteams had rather elaborate positions to show for all the broken mattocks and etools. I don’t think digging in will ever go away for combat troops.
Oh, and as for the “scant bullets” during the invasion I guess I’ll cry about our squad only having two handgrenades, or the lack of grenades when I was in Infantry training. I pride myself on being one of the few Infantrymen to have never thrown a live grenade. 🙂
They need to have him take a pee pee test. That boy’s smoking something if he thinks he was using trucks from the Korean War. The Marine Corps doesn’t throw anything away, but I never rode in a vehicle from the Korean War even in the Eighties.
He’s not much of an NCO if he thinks digging a fighting position is Vietnam tactics. Some tactics never change no matter the war or century.
Having served in the Company prior to it’s current designation, formerly the 542nd trans I will give him old equipment..but as for the crybaby attitude and finger pointing..WTF! Soldier up and carry on. I deployed for a tour in 04 to Iraq and we traded vehicles with another unit. While in country I had the pleasure to see our former vehicles come join us on vacation as well. Guess they came for the warm weather to retire. I always try to prepare for the worst, expect the best and deal with the rest. former AR SGT Davis
sound’s like a crybaby to me.to lazy to dig a foxhole.changing my pro pic to me in a foxhole I dug in Saudi Arabia in 91.just before the push.with an M60-A1.7TH Corp’s 656 trans co.oreeration desert shield/storm.2ND COSCOM combat patch.where’s all my people today.that means you Butts and Langencamp
I served with the NCO in question. He was deployed at the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003/ Part of the invasion. There is more to the story than what is being said here. As a result of his actions more training was conducted to a satisfactory rate of all the investigations that followed the article.