Hope you all enjoy, Thank you
@jhungary for giving us the time.
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Introduction:
My name is Gary, I was born on the 1980 in the United States. My father is a Mexican-American hailed from Central Mexico and my Mother was Vietnam Born Chinese. I am of mixed Heritage, I have Chinese, Iberia, Anglo-Saxon, Hawaiian and Aztec heritage. My first language is Chinese, English and Spanish. I also speak some Swedish and German and some degree of Arabic.
I spend my child hood in Hong Kong and Southern China (Shenzhen) and was educated in various school in both places, I attended both Chinese University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University for between 1999-2000, then I left Hong Kong in 2000 and went back to the US, studying in Colorado.
I enlisted in the US Army right after I arrived back in the US, and have went thru Reserve Officer Training Corp at CU Boulder with the Golden Buffalo Battalion thru something called Green for Gold scholarship.
I was commissioned as a 2LT with the US Army at 2002 after I graduated from college with a BA in International Affair, and was assigned as a 19C Cavalry officer, as I enlisted as a 19D one station training, I was a cavalrymen.
My First deployment come in the opening hours of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I was with the Third Infantry Division and I was in charge of a platoon of soldier act as mounted troop to drive all the way to Baghdad, I served around 13 months on that tour, volunteer to stay behind and help out the Marines until mid 2004. And rotated back to the US afterward.
Stateside, I was promoted to 1LT and assigned another billing, before I apply for Airborne School and went pass the Airborne school and subsequently attend Ranger School. Afterward, I went to Army Intelligence School for HUMINT Training for 4 months. Promoted to Captain in my fifth years of service. And billed as a Battalion S2 for the 82nd Airborne Division.
Afterward I was deployed again to Afghanistan in 2005 to a classified location in charge of a TOC between a few SpecOp team operating in the area. I was in charge of intelligence gathering and interrogation. These team bring their POW to me and I will extract intel from these individual, or if it was a time sensitive job, I am going to fly to these outpost for the job.
I was seriously wounded in this tour, I was send back stateside and afterward discharged from the Army, afterward I work in private sectors in the US, UK and Canada, and then I help a friend of mine train local police in rural Kansas town, and move to Sweden in 2008 and got married there.
After Sweden, I live between US and Hong Kong for a period and finally settle in Australia in 2011, which I am currently reside. I graduated from International College of Management, Sydney with a Master in International Business, and currently studying in Australian National University with the MPhil Research program in Strategic Studies.
I am married without children. My wife was a Major in Swedish Armed Forces, she was a lawyer and she is currently working as a legal consultant to a human right group in Australia.
I am a keen photographer, I like driving, writing computer programs/apps, I like study history, I am a big documentary buff, I also like topic related to economics, military, tactics.
I am also very keen in sports, I had played baseball for CU boulder, and I had joined quite a few leisure softball league, I also love basketball.
I have 3 pet cats with my wife.
If a combat soldier had to go to Vietnam war and Iraq/Afghan war, then what differences would he face as a soldier? Which one was the bigger and more difficult war?
Jhungary: Although I wasn't in Vietnam, (Can't be, I will be -15 years old then) and my dad never really did talk about his time in Vietnam. I would have imagined there is not much difference between the two wars.
Granted, technological advance give us a bit more goodie to play with, and it make your fight a bit easier, but by no mean it would be easy to fight a war, especially in a close quarter.
Of course, the environment and exposure is different, while one war happened in a jungle in South East Asia, and the other happened in a desert in the Middle East, the nature of the warfare is also different. In a jungle, where you literally cannot see your enemy, they can be hiding everywhere, a hut in the field, under the vegetation, tunnel under the rice paddy and so on. In the desert, beside the urban area, it’s basically wide open.
The enemy we face is both determined and know what they are doing, perhaps the most important of all is that we are fighting in their turf, they know more than you, while you need to study everything, weather, terrain and population.
But Perhaps the biggest different of all is the people who fight the war, in Vietnam, more than half the US force there was draftee or selective servicemen, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the soldier who were in those wars are professional, the minds of the soldier have been shifted from just trying to stay alive in battle for most GI in Vietnam, to actually trying to achieve the objective given to us professionally.
As for which war is more difficult, I have never understood the tenacity soldier faced in Vietnam, for my own experience, a war is a war, when you break it down, you are doing the same thing in each war, maybe the road it take you to your objective is longer in one and the other, but the ultimate goal is the same, and I can imagine whatever I have bitched about in Iraq and Afghanistan, the heat, the constant fighting, supplies, hygiene and home sickness, I am pretty sure those are the same stuff Vietnam vet bitch about in Vietnam. I guess, for me, a War is a War; there is no war which is particularly difficult, or particularly easy.
A soldier is expected to kill the enemies but what emotional turmoil does a soldier go through after killing one? How does a soldier maintain his sanity after different operations?
Jhungary: You feel nothing, at least at that moment.
You train to react to contact, and everything starts from there, you basically don’t think about it, you just do it. In fact, unless the decision of killing is conscious, like I am a sniper shooting at someone far away, you probably won’t remember what you did at all with adrenaline pumping, What you do know is that you have just kill someone, and you move on.
What happens is when you have time to think, the so called “Downtime” you started replay the situation over and over again, you see the same picture in your mind, but at the same time, you don’t actually know what happened. It is a strange feeling to remember something clearly when you don’t remember the detail. Then, your brain is trying to play tricks on you; you started to fill the gap with your own imagination, trying to make sense of the situation.
Then you try to give the scenario details you won’t possibly know. Like their name, what they were doing, their back story. One day you are telling you they did that, so they deserve that, other day you tell you with different detail and that you may have another option.
Contrary to common believe, your first kill was hard, your second kill does not make thing easier, it’s actually harder, because you have expected for your first kill, you run up all kind of scenario in your mind, you expected, you anticipated for your first kill. For your second, you don’t have your bravado, your anticipation to push you over that obstacle anymore, you are doing this alone. But once you did it 5, 6, 7 or 8 times, then you sort of get used to it. And at that point, you just do it.
It is essential for soldier to have soldier get in touch with civilization and reality when they have a down time. Time to relax, time to go back to your normal self, trying to go back to your routine, get in touch with your family via phone call or e-mail, or play some games. Everything you will do when you are not at war.
This is very important, because even a bit of civilization that make you felt like you are back home, will bring you out from that mentality and keep you from going insane.
What does a soldier pack when he's deployed to places like Afghanistan or Iraq?
Jhungary: Not much you can really bring on your deployment, most of your stuff are government issued gear, you will have to bring your Personal Weapon (Rifle +Sidearm), Personal Protection item (Like Body Armour, Helmet, Vest, Padding and so on), Accessories (NVG, Blanket, Sleeping Bag, Gasmask and so on) and personal item (wallet, phone, computer and so on) Ammunition and Rifle Accessories are provided when you are over there.
You are allowed a box of comfort item, for an officer, it's about as big as a standard footlocker, which can be outside Army regulation TO&E, which can be books, board games, portable gaming console, ipod, plush doll (especially if you are a girl) and so on. They can be handy for you to stay at war but still enjoy a touch of home.
What do you think of the America's decision to invade Iraq for reasons which were not revealed to the American populace? Should America have used its soldiers as pawns? What is your opinion as a soldier?
Jhungary: As a soldier, I don’t think much on the issue whether or not US was hiding facts for the reason we invaded Iraq, as a soldier, this is what you do, you follow order, whatever, wherever and whenever your CO asked you to move out, you go. A soldier’s duty is not to reason why, but to do and die.
As a soldier, you do not have the luxury to question your order, an army works because you know the person below you will carry out what you said to their best ability, you will also carry out what you have dealt with to your best ability, when soldier started to question the morality of an order, then things will start to go pear shape from there, because if you can question this order because of that reason to which end can you question an order? In the end, you will end up doing nothing but questioning orders.
As a person, I believe the war is right, and the reason is justify enough to send US boots on the ground, however, I also believe the whole handling of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is wrong. You never overthrown a government without some sort of backbone government left for implementation, the years of in-fighting and insurgency in Iraq is borne from power vacuum, the coalition should at least retain a framework from former Ba’ath Sunni government to help with the transition, the Shia party have been targeted for a long time and it cannot be effectively govern the whole country.
In Afghanistan, the situation can be best be describe as summer camp, I don’t see anyone trying their best to put the country back together, there are people who are willing and able to do that, but those people are not in any way at any leadership capacity. The US and ISAF troop was there basically to protect the Kabul regime, not to help their own independence post Taliban era. As such, the country is in turmoil simply because we were there, not because of the country trying to get back on its own feet.
As for whether or not the US government used US soldier as a pawn? I would like to say we are a tool for the politician, Von Clausewitz once said war is simply an extension of policy, and soldier have the extended duty for politician. The question is, we all know that when we join, nobody is forcing anyone to join the Military in the US, so I cannot say we are used as pawn, but an instrument of politics.
How do you see American policy of military intervention globally, changing in next 15-20 years?
Jhungary: It’s my view that the American Foreign Policy will not change in the next 15-20 years, the military intervention will continue, but with significant difficulty and resistance from regional power, such as Russia, China and Middle Eastern power.
What was our experience during war being posted abroad? How the locals see foreigners and treated you/foreign forces on any occasion?
Jhungary: The local see the foreign troop with a mistrust and confusion. At first, when the US/ISAF/NATO troop overthrown the respective regime, they welcome the troop and their decision, however, as times goes by, and they did not see we leave, they then started to wonder why the foreigner is still in their country.
At a point when they don’t understand why or for what purpose we are still there in 2008 when the mission was supposed to be accomplished in 2004 in Iraq, mistrust started to set in.
Notice that most of these local people have low education or no education at all, they simply don’t understand the need of foreign troop in their country to stabilise the situation. For a local shepherd or farmer, they don’t know much about politics or concept of military operation, the only thing they do understand is that, we were there, then the Taliban or insurgent then started shooting at us, and we bomb the crap out of them and destroying their farm, field or sheep. Then the distrust set in, and we started to hate them when they did not tell us bad people are going to ambush us in their village.
The war would have been so much easier if the local people have basic understanding on what we were doing over there and if they understand their value, and what we are doing, it’s with my estimation they will lean more toward the foreign troop.
What is your opinion on Trump's policies and what impact will they have on the world?
Jhungary: While Trump is the POTUS (President of the United States) Trump’s in fact does not have a major swing in foreign policy. The one biggest impact for Trump’s Policy is the fear factor, Trump is the kind of person will try to scare you straight and manipulate you to do what he wanted or what you’ve been told.
However, in reality, this probably works in a company, but for a country, the United States is govern by 3 separate and equal entities, the Congress, the Senate and the President, Trump only represent one of the pillars, Trump can threaten a country, but without Congress funding and Senate approval, that would always be an empty threat. And people see Trump as a monkey and a clown; it would be a long way for Trump to win over both Congress and Senate to do what he wants.
At the end of the day, it’s always the Republican Party’s policy that matters, not Trump, Trump is simply a figure head, we had seen it with Obama, and we had seen it with G W Bush.
If you were asked to end terrorism in the world what major steps would you take?
Jhungary: There are only one way to end terrorism for sure, and that is a world in harmony, where every country, every religion and every race is equal. Because if one of them is not, then there be war, and if one side think they cannot win a war with another party, then they will resort to terrorism.
However, I don’t think we can achieve world harmony, may be I am a pessimists, I do think war are going to be there and keep going until the day I died, or even until the day my children dies, so the second best step I would take is to establish an international reaction team, where they have the authority to deal with terrorism related activities worldwide, for which intel can be exchanged, and have the capability to strike and prevent terrorist attack world wide.
Advantages of F-35 over A10 in a close air support role? And was it a mistake on part of US to stop F 22 production? Answer should also talk about the F-35 program itself.
Jhungary: Not an Air force man, maybe you should ask
@gambit on this and he will give you a more technical satisfying answer.
For me tho, A-10 can
NEVER be replaced, if it is up to me, I would never replace both A-10 and AC-130. Not because they have a great payload or how they help out ground troop, but simply because of the scare that injected into the enemy’s mind when they see one of them over the horizon and the comfort they give you when you see one above you.
The best weapon of an A-10 is the psychological effect casted on both you and your enemy. When you see an A-10 above you, you know everything is going to be okay. And times and times again, the enemy disappear when they saw the A-10 appear in the AO.
Physically, A-10 have a larger payload, longer loitering time, but F-35 hold one distinct advantage over A-10, which is the radar system. A better ASEA suit can detect target or sometime jam target within a larger and longer spectrum, it will give you a better picture of the battlefield, and it helps you if you have more information on the table.
F-35 is a good platform, it wasn’t matured as of yet, but it will at the end of the cycle. And by then it will be probably one of the most potent platform in the world.
Most people do not understand F-35 is there not to be an air superiority fighter like F-15C or F-22, but as a multi-role fighter. They are to be used in conjunction to other platform, thus either act as force multiplier themselves or enjoy the boost from other platform.
Standalone, F-35 probably cannot goes toe to toe to other platform, they may not be as good a dogfighter or stealthier than F-22, or have more payload than an A-10, or the sensor is not as good as E-3, and ASEA radar may not be as powerful as Growler, but when you combine F-35 with other platform, you will basically get a super group that allow you to do and perform every single function in the battlefield, which is the main point of a fighter like F-35 exist.
F-22 is a test platform, it serves its purpose, rather linger on and make more F-22, the USAF should use those resources to devote to 6th Gen fighter to stay ahead. So I would say the US is right on terminating the F-22 production.
11. Which gear/equipment/weapon do you think will be a break through for Soldiers in modern warfare?
Most people will say its firepower, other will say it’s protection equipment, for me, it’s COM.
I think it doesn’t matter if you are using the latest state of the arts M4 with ACOG with PEG-2 and Flashlight, or how ergonomically the grip can be, yes, it may make your life a bit easier, but in the end, you give me a Vietnam era M16 or XM-177, I am pretty sure it’s the same.
COM, on the other hand, make more impact on a battlefield then soldier usually credit it for, yes, you curse at your COM when it was on a frizz, but when it did real good, you probably never going to appreciated that. In fact, COM allows you to be connected to other people in the same field. COM allows you to understand not just what’s happening to you, but also what’s happening to other unit.
In War, we always going for the big picture, only you know what is happening everywhere in your Area of Operation, you can control the battlefield. And the only way to do that is by communication, simply because you cannot be in 2 places at once, and the only way you can do is by communicating with the person who was there in a different place.
So, for me, the next breakthrough of a modern battlefield is the field of communication. Like how to shorten the range of communication; increase its security (both way); how to communicate clearly between two places; and how to provide a better quality communication equipment.
During the duty/posting abroad while seeing locals around and families, how much did you miss your home? And how does it feel to return home from a tour?
Jhungary: Probably everyone will say the same, when you are over there, you constantly thinking about home, but when you are at home, you constantly thinking about going back over there.
Over there, you constantly compare the local to your local street or city, you keep seeing kids play in the corner of the street, the image you got in your head is that it could have been you playing downtown at your home, you started to feel more at home when you try to get comfortable to the life over there, to a point by the end of a year of deployment, you would think your home is in Iraq or Afghanistan.
But then eventually, you do go home, and when you see local street kids playing ball in the local park, you started to think back your time in Iraq or Afghanistan. And you started to think you don’t belong there.
How does a soldier prefer to chill or relax during tensed times of war especially while posted abroad?
Jhungary: Everyone have a different regime to chillax, I cannot be able to say for most, for example, one of my fellow officer relax by reading case file of his own homicide case (He was a reserve officer he is a police detective by day) I never understand how that can relax him, but I guess it is up to him.
For me, I relax by a combination of writing letter back home, sports, watching TV (Mostly Cartoon) and games, not really into the music and movie scene and I did not own an IPod/IPhone until 2008….
I guess whatever different than the day to day life in war (Which is quite repetitive and boring) will relax you.
I mean, I wasn't the one that pull Saddam Hussein from the cave or the one that shot dead Osama Bin Laden....
