Specialist Josh Rose returns to Iraq after extended leave

Connie Srebnik of Posen did not want the moment to arrive. Her son, Specialist Josh Rose, who had been home on leave from the Army for several weeks, would be leaving to continue his year-long tour of duty in Iraq. Rose has served four months in an infantry unit as a striker driver and was to begin his trip back around the globe Tuesday. ?I hate to see the day come,? said Srebnik, as she stood in the driveway of her home nestled in the heart of farmland northwest of Posen. ?I worry about him a lot. With my son, I am blessed because he calls me quite a bit. But if he doesn?t call me after four days then I start to worry. He does call me quite a bit.? Rose is a 2004 graduate of Posen High School. After 14 weeks of infantry boot camp he received training for the mission in Iraq.

DURING ROSE?S time home he hunted, fished, visited with friends, and went to a couple of football games. His leave was extended by five days after he rolled his rental vehicle near the Montmorency-Presque Isle county line trying to avoid a deer. It gave him an opportunity to see a deer in the preferred method: from a deer blind with a bow in hand. He woke up at 7:30 Monday morning to see the six-point buck, and did not miss his shot. He has enjoyed the time home; the friendly greetings from friends, the ?thank yous? from strangers, and above all, the fresh air of Presque Isle County. He said the air in the Middle East is worse than sewage. It does not help that temperatures are routinely above 100, people are constantly burning garbage, and raw sewage runs in the streets, he said. Rose served along the Syrian border as well as the streets of Baghdad. He is the driver of the heavily armored anti-tank unit. He has been involved in patrols and the arrests of insurgents.

?WE GET TIPS once in a while from the Iraqis about people with explosives,? said Rose. ?We take them to jail and take their stuff.? Rose?s unit recently arrested six people and confiscated sniper rifles, suicide vests, mortars, and explosives. Rose and his comrades have indifferent feelings about the situation in the country. ?We?re making progress with them, we?re just not making a whole lot of progress,? said Rose. ?They are still trying to kill us. A lot of us feel that we are fighting for nothing. We have trained a lot of the Iraqi police and a lot of the Iraqi army. A lot of them know their stuff. They know what they are doing.

?We are just sitting over there ? I don?t know why ? but we are still there. How can you change a whole country into what we want to change them into. Say someone tried to come into the United States and tried to change us. It would never happen. As soon as we leave, it will go back to the way it was. There is no changing them.? Even after Rose completes his

remaining eight months of duty in the country, he could be held over for an additional four to six months by the Army.

WITH THE fall-like conditions of northern Michigan, the heat may take some getting used to again. Rose looked fondly upon his time home. ?I had a blast,? said Rose, the warmth returning to his voice. ?I went to different places wearing my uniform for the first couple of days, because I did not have any clothes. A lot of people came up to me and shook my hand and said ?thank you.? I did not know who they were. A lot of people are proud of what I do.? He even received a free meal at one restaurant.

?It is so nice because a lot of people thank him,? said Srebnik. ?Encourage people to thank these guys, it means a lot.? Just as Connie and her husband Wally, and Josh?s sisters, waited for his leave, the day to go back always seems to arrive quicker. The tough part of going back is leaving loved ones behind; the other is the uncertainty of the task. The one certainty is the family will try to remain strong ? until that next leave home.

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