A memorial service was held February 6 at Camp Ramadi for two soldiers killed in attack on Combat Outpost Grant in central Ramadi on February 2. The soldiers, Spc. Alan Eugene McPeek of A Company, 16th Engineer Battalion, TF 1-37 Armor, and Pvt. Matthew Thomas Zeimer, with HHC, 3-69 Armor Battalion were killed repelling the attack. It was Pvt. Zeimer's first day in the combat zone.Back on February 12, I wrote a post on a young soldier named Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
Pvt. Zeimer, a mere 18, was killed in his very first day of combat in Iraq.
Back on the 12th of February, when I wrote that blog story, this is what I asked;
"Pvt. Zeimer and Spc. Sieger were 18 years old. How much training could these two 18 year olds possibly have had? The United States is suppose to send their young to die in Iraq after only a few months of training but Bush, and all those who still support our presence in Iraq, think we should give the Iraqis more time to stand on their own?"
This is what happened to young Pvt. Zeimer - I ran across this information on him almost by mistake when I was reading the article from Raw Story that appears in the following post. I recognized his name and of course, his young age. Here's what is written;
Earlier this month, the Savannah Morning News reported that one soldier "rushed" to Iraq in the Bush's "surge" had, along with his entire brigade, missed a final combat exercise, and was killed within a week of his deployment.Who will take responsibility for rushing 18 year olds off to die in Iraq without the proper training?
"At least 143 soldiers joined Fort Stewart's 1st Brigade too late to participate in a final combat exercise before their units deployed to Iraq," Sean Harder reported for the Georgia newspaper. "Last week, one of those soldiers - Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer, 18 - was the first from the brigade to be killed when he was hit by enemy fire in Ramadi, the stronghold of Iraq's Sunni insurgency."
Zeimer "missed the brigade's intensive four-week mission rehearsal in October when more than 1,300 trainers and Iraqi role-players came to the post as part of the most realistic training program the Army offers for Iraq operations," because he had only "arrived at Fort Stewart on Dec. 18 after basic training and deployed to Iraq just a few weeks later."
Bush's rush to complete his idiocy of a 'surge' is directly responsible for sending these young men to die and no spinning by Tony Snow will ever change that.
Pvt. Zeimer was sent to Iraq only 'a few weeks' after boot camp. We have been training the Iraqis for 3 1/2 to 4 years. We gave Pvt. Zeimer a 'few weeks'.
Those of you who don't protest this travesty are shameful, troop-hating, phony patriots.
I called it back early last month when young Pvt. Zeimer and Spc. Sieger were killed. I knew immediately that these young men could NEVER possibly have had the proper training!
But to those in charge, it didn't matter.
I at least spoke out - What did you do?
