My name is Ryan Austin, I am a 1997 Graduate of North Kitsap High School, and have lived in Poulsbo all my life. I served in the U.S. Navy for four years before joining the Army National Guard. For one weekend a month and two weeks a year, I drilled before being called to active duty last November in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I am a Sergeant in a Cavalry Troop, which are always on the front lines.

But not this time. My unit is stationed at Camp Doha in Kuwait. We are acting as a supplemental security force, which means that we only act when the government contracted security needs us to, which never happens. We also guard a communications site here in Kuwait that was once under Saddam Hussein’s power before being overtaken in the first Gulf War by U.S. forces in 1991.

The hardest part about being deployed for one year or more is leaving my wife Andrea and my two sons Jordan, 4, and Caleb, 2, behind.

Many of the soldiers in my unit are upset about not being up in Iraq, and who can blame them? This is what the Army trains us for “WAR.” But for me I see our mission here as a true waste of time, we work one day on and two days off, which in our time off we can do almost anything we want: go to the movies, gym, post exchange, even a “resort like” place everyone calls “ The Marble Palace,” which has a huge swimming pool, batting cages, even a miniature golf course.

To be called to active duty is a very noble calling that everyone should be proud of and I am, but to be taken away from my family, job and life to come here and be “bored” as most of my peers put it, seems to be a waste of the government’s money. Many soldiers are doing the exact job they were trained to do but we are not those soldiers.

The weather here is very hot — 115-120 degrees every day and it is only going to get worse in the summer months to come. The living conditions are far better than those in Iraq. We sleep in three-person rooms, and although small they are accommodating. We are not allowed to go into Kuwait City for some reason.

A lot of people ask why: Why did they send us here for one year for this?

For me, I love serving my country, but this mission has truly left a bad taste in my mouth. Many are needed at home with their families rather than here at Camp Doha. Most of the time my unit is out of work and they have to literally find things for us to do so that we stay busy. This isn’t at all what I expected when I was told I was coming over here, but I will do what they say in the Army and “suck it up.”

I just can’t wait to be reunited with my family and get back to living a normal life.

Ryan Austin is a Sergeant in the U.S. Army National Guard who is currently stationed in Camp Doha, Kuwait. He contacted the North Kitsap Herald several weeks ago and asked if he could update our readers on how he is faring overseas.