Major Hackett is a Civil Affairs Officer. His commercial refers to "following his marines" to Iraq. What does that mean? Did he command any marines? Who? To whom did he report? What were his duties exactly?
I do not believe it is a combat function. Since its mission is to interface with civilian populations it probably does not deploy into areas where one would not want civilians to come...
I am more curious than anything to find out more about the exact Hackett war experience.
Of course, Mr. Minamyer says this is not meant to be criticism, but somehow I still managed to view it as such. Paul Hackett is an officer, therefore he is a leader regardless of what he was "leading" his fellow marines to do. Mr. Minamyer is a veteran, he spent many years in the Navy. It would seem that he should know that officers are considered leaders based solely on the structure of the Armed Forces. I know he knows this, he is merely trying to pick at anything he can where Paul Hackett is concerned.
Paul Hackett aside, I take Mr. Minamyer's desire for minutiae personally. Every attack he makes feels like a slap in the face to those who have friends and family in Iraq. I'm sure that was not his intent, but belittling a service members' function, seems an attempt to downplay the seriousness of the events in Iraq. My brother-in-law spent a little more than a year in Iraq. He was part of a public affairs unit. Public affairs is also considered a non-combat role and my brother's unit was in a "secure" area. Did this keep them out of danger? Of course not. Did this keep us from worrying day and night about his safety? Absolutely not. I know with 100% certainty that my brother would have been safer sitting in his living room than being anywhere in Iraq.
In yet another post, Mr. Minamyer goes on to say,
I understand that Hackett did not participate in combat at all. It is still dangerous over there as I can personally attest. Let's just not act as though we led marines in combat if we did not, okay...
I have asked the question time and again, what role did he actually play?
Given all the opportunities he has had to say "I served in combat" one fair conclusion is that he did not.
On any given day, all you need to do is read the paper or watch TV (even Fox News) to know that Iraq is a combat zone, even those areas considered "secure" are not immune from danger. Mr. Minamyer acknowledges that all areas of Iraq are dangerous, but continues to harp about Paul Hackett having a non-combative role and misleading people by saying that he "led" marines or that he "followed his fellow marines".
Paul Hackett volunteered to go to Iraq. I think that counts as following his fellow marines. Mr. Minamyer was in the first Gulf War in a non-combat role, I would never attempt to downplay his role. I am thankful for people like him that are willing to serve our country. It just burns me that Mr. Minamyer has such a strong desire to make light of Hackett's service. I personally do not care if Paul Hackett did nothing more than play Tiddlywinks by the light of the moon for the 7 months he was in Iraq. The fact that he was there put him in situations that he would never encounter on Given Road.
I may be in the minority, but I do not need the details of Paul Hackett's time in Iraq to be thankful for his service to our country. Just as I don't need to read the minutes from every Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati meeting to know where Jean Schmidt stands on abortion.
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