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Army Staff Sgt. Matt Sitton was “totally on board with sacrifice for my country,” but was so concerned about how the men he commanded were being forced to walk through a “mine field” everyday without purpose that he reached out to Rep. C.W. Bill Young, via a deliberately reasoned email in June.
Sitton wrote that he tried to bring his concerns to his chain of command, but was told to “stop complaining” and that he reached out to Young only as a last resort to help his men.
Sitton, 26, of Largo, was killed Aug. 2 in the same field in Afghanistan he complained about along with 1st Sgt. Russell R. Bell, 37, of Tyler, Texas. Both men were killed by an IED.
Young today released a copy of that email at a hearing where he called question into the actions of the Defense Department agency charged with protecting troops from IEDs.
“I am only writing this email because I feel myself and my soldiers are being put into unnecessary positions where harm and danger are imminent,” Sitton wrote. “I know the threat of casualties in war and am totally on board with sacrifice for my country, but what I don’t agree with is the chain of command making us walk through, for lack of a better term, a mine field on a daily basis.”
Sitton was a staff sergeant in a 25-man platoon in the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division. He wrote that his men were being worked too hard, in unreasonably dangerous circumstances, for no apparent reason.
“We are operating at a tempo that is set for a full 35-40 man infantry platoon,” he wrote. “We have been mandated to patrol twice daily for 2-4 hours each patrol on top of guarding our [Forward Operating Base] and conducting routine maintenance of our equipment. There is no endstate or purpose for the patrols given to us from our higher chain of command, only that we will be out for a certain time standard.”
The end result, Sitton wrote, is that as “a Brigade, we are averaging at a minimum an amputee a day from our soldiers, because we are walking around aimlessly through grape rows and compounds that are littered with explosives.”
Sitton wrote, “I am concerned about the well being of my soldiers and have tried to voice my opinion through the proper channels of my own chain of command only to be turned away and told that I need to stop complaining. It is my responsibility to take care of my solders and there is only so much I can do with that little bit of Rank I have.
“My guys would fight by my side and have my back in any condition and I owe it to them to have their best interest in mind. I know they would and I certainly would appreciate it if there were something you could do to help us out.”
Apologizing for “taking your time like this,” Sitton wrote that he was told to reach out to Young by his grandmother, “who said that you helped her son (my uncle) out many years ago.”
Young, chairman of the influential House Appropriations Committee Defense Subcommittee, said in an interview that Sitton’s letter helped him change his mind on Afghanistan. Young is now calling for a withdrawal of troops ahead of President Barack Obama’s stated 2014 deadline. He also called a hearing into the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, which receives nearly $3 billion in funds to fight IEDs.
That hearing began at 10 a.m.
Stay with TBO.com for updates.
Original URL: http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/sep/20/bombs-spurred-doomed-soldier-to-write-letter-ar-507285/
