Task Force Montagua Essay, Research Paper

James E Hogan

Ms. Petersen

English 280

Task Force Montagua: New Horizons II

& # 8220 ; And that & # 8217 ; s when my consciousness was born & # 8221 ;

-Rigoberta Menchu & # 8217 ;

In the early portion of 1999 Guatemala was hit with both a hurricane and an temblor. The United States authorities agreed to trip military personnels to be sent to Guatemala and several of its neighbours. My unit, being Military Police, was sent to supply force protection for all American service members working in and around Guatemala. I will supply some information on Guatemala and so supply a elaborate history of my mission, Task Force Montagua: New Horizons II.

The state of Guatemala is largely mountains with narrow coastal fields and turn overing limestone tableland & # 8217 ; s ( AOL. online ) . The clime is tropical ; hot, humid in Lowlandss ; ice chest in the Highlandss ( AOL. online ) . During my trip the temperatures ranged from 90 to one hundred 14 grades in Puerto Barrios. Guatemala & # 8217 ; s land is largely woods and forest, 54 % ( AOL. online ) . The remainder of the state & # 8217 ; s land is used for the production of java, sugar, and bananas which are Guatemala & # 8217 ; s cardinal exports.

The people of Guatemala are a really diverse group. There are three different faiths practiced in Guatemala, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and traditional Mayan. Burgos-Debray provinces that there are 22 autochthonal cultural groups in Guatemala, 23 including the Mestizos, or Ladinos ( pg1 ) . The autochthonal people of Guatemala are the of the Mayan Indian descent. The Ladinos are Spanish speech production and of Spanish descent from the yearss when this country was controlled by Spain. Mestizos make up about 56 % of the population and the Indian peoples make up about 44 % of the population ( AOL. online ) . Besides there are many different linguistic communications spoke in Guatemala. Most of the population ( 60 % ) speaks Spanish but the remainder of the population speaks one of 23 different Mayan idioms.

Guatemala is a really immature democracy. In 1996, the electors of Guatemala elected Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen president ( World Book. 1998 ) . Before this election Guatemala had been involved in 36 old ages of bloody and ultra-violent civil war. To set the war in simple footings the indigeous Mayan people of Guatemala were contending for the right to command their land in order to hold plenty nutrient to feed their kids. Before the civil war started near to one out of three Indian kids died of famishment. The current decease rate is at about 6.96 deaths/1,000 population every twelvemonth ( AOL. online ) . The civil war saw many Indian peoples tortured, raped and murdered. The leader of the Indian freedom combatants was Rigoberta Menchu & # 8217 ; , who in 1992 won the Nobel peace award ( World Book. 1998 ) .

My trip started at Fort Dix, New Jersey. At Dix we did what is referred to as the palming procedure. This is where we make certain all our paper work, will, power of lawyer, and life insurance, is in order. Separate two of the procedure is where we get approximately eight to ten injections to forestall unwellness over seas. The whole procedure is concluded with a few briefings. Our briefings consisted of tactical ballad out of our finish, enemy menace, and regulations of battle. Rules of battle agencies when, where and under what fortunes we can utilize force, fundamentally the regulations of war. Next we took the five minute drive to Maguire Air Force base which was where we caught a flight to Guatemala metropolis. Upon making Guatemala metropolis we received our in state brief which was fundamentally all the things non to make while you were in state. From there we instantly reboarded our flight and flew to our country of operations, Puerto Barrios.

My unit, the 814th military policeman carbon monoxide, had its cardinal country of operations in the larboard metropolis of Puerto Barrios ( included is a map of the country where we ran our operations courtesy of Yahoo.com ) . Puerto Barrios is the cardinal and busiest port in Guatemala, and it is besides where all US equipment hit the land at. At the port is where our first missions began to take topographic point.

As antecedently stated our primary mission was force protection, which includes supplying security for American military personnels every bit good as equipment. At the port when our vehicles and equipment started to get our missions began. The poorness degree in Guatemala was like nil I had of all time experienced. Anything that wasn & # 8217 ; t guarded by armed military personnels was more than probably traveling to be pillaged. Peoples would really steal our refuse in hopes of happening something of value. Our vehicles became premier marks of stealers and from twenty-four hours one on we had around the clock armed guards baby-sitting our Hummers. Other than holding a few instances of bottled H2O stolen out of a couple vehicles there were no major incidents to talk of.

With all of our vehicles and degree Celsiuss

onstruction equipment now on the land in Guatemala our primary missions began to take topographic point. The 833rd Engineer company, out of Toledo Ohio, came in state to reconstruct damaged Bridgess, roads and edifices. Our primary edifice site was near the Honduran boundary line where a cardinal span used for commercialism was wiped out by ramping inundation Waterss from hurricane Mitch. This was by far the most unsafe portion of our trip because we were working about two kilometers north of Guatemala’s boundary line with Honduras. Guatemala has had armed struggle with Honduras for old ages now over this disputed lodger. The River is where the Hondurans believe the lodger is but the map shows the lodger about two kilometers south. We were right in the center of a known hot topographic point. The amusing thing about this was that we were told that we would be making building that would assist the Guatemalan people. The building was really mending amendss which occurred on Chiquita banana plantations. In other words American soldiers were deployed to a hot topographic point to work for a big American corporation. I have no uncertainties that person in Congress got a big run part.

During our work at the span site no combat took topographic point ( the span is marked on the map ) but a few unit of ammunitions were discharged though. Guatemalan soldiers fired several times on suspected Honduran groups. No American lives were lost at our work site but we did hold a twosome of chilling minutes. There is an unimproved route that leads off the chief hardball to the work site. One afternoon myself and another two adult male MP squad were barricading off the unimproved route taking to the work site. Standing orders were that no civilian traffic was allowed to go through without mandate of the MP Lieutenant, who was oversing security on the other side of the river. We had a white four door Toyota pickup truck pull up to the route block and Begin to honk his horn. My best friend who was watching the gate went up to the truck to oppugn the driver. The driver so parked his truck and exited his vehicle shouting. Once the driver was in clear position off from the truck he pulled a laden and charged.45 quality handgun and pointed it at my friend. I instantly drew down on the topic and told him I was traveling to hit him if he did non take down his arm. The adult male continued to shout, he was making it so fast that I could non understand what he was stating. This incident seemed to last for hours when it merely really lasted for a few proceedingss. Equally rapidly as the incident began it was over. The male capable lower his arm and laid face down on the land as instructed. We so removed the arm and took the adult male into detention. The scariest few minutes of my life had ended and everyone was all right. My brother Larry was visibly shaken and was reasonably quiet for the following twosome of yearss.

There was one more major incident on this trip. The inside informations of the incident have been labeled as classified but this incident saw four American soldiers dead. The inside informations are a small sketchy but it breaks down like this. Four applied scientists were about two kilometers west of us down river reconnoitering a possible building site for a infirmary. Honduran Rebels grabbed them and held them for ransom. When the ground forces notified these persons that the American authorities does non negociate with terrorists, the soldiers were tortured and executed. The organic structures of the soldiers were ne’er recovered. The most distressing portion of this is that the truth was ne’er disclosed to the households and American imperativeness was ne’er notified. This happened about three hebdomads ago.

The remainder of my trip consisted of jurisprudence and order. We patrolled the streets of Puerto Barrios guaranting that soldiers at the local bars and amusement musca volitanss weren & # 8217 ; t acquiring into any problem. We had a few jobs at some of the harlotry houses. Military officers would acquire rummy and seek to take adult females from enlisted soldiers, clearly mistreating their authorization. These officers were put on study and their concatenation of bid was notified. Gratuitous to state their higher-ups were non to happy about them utilizing intoxicant and being mixed up with enlisted soldiers and cocottes. After that other than a few picked pockets everything was all right.

My trip to Guatemala was a really affecting experience. Sing poorness that was worse than I had of all time seen before was upsetting. The Guatemalan people treated us with great regard. The people of Guatemala are a really baronial group. American & # 8217 ; s worry about material things all the clip and all these people want is to be able to eat and observe their civilization. Our mission of force protection was a success every bit far as the leading is concerned. I think it is a failure though, we left four American GI & # 8217 ; s behind because some corporation paid some congresswoman so they could acquire outstanding virtually free labour. I would love to see congress explicate this to the household & # 8217 ; s of the lost soldiers.