Matthew Stys

I'm a veteran of the Iraq War. I deployed to Iraq for 13 months with the 183rd Maintenance Company and was attached to 101st Airborne Division. I was a squad leader who worked as the NCOIC of an entry control point on the Victory Base Complex. Hundreds a vehicles a day would gain entry through this ECP on the western side of the Victory Base Complex (VBC). A good majority of the traffic was U.S. and other NATO military vehicles/convoys. The only time non-military traffic was "supposedly" allowed to gain entry was during the 1st shift. We were in charge of identifying VBIED's, watching for snipers in the area, conducting personal searches of the foot traffic and drivers of vehicles. We were under the threat of mortar attacks, rpg, small arms fire, and VBIEDs while we were operating the ECP, but luckily we were not directly attacked. My MOS was 52D-Power Generation Tech or Generator mechanic. My unit was a maintenance unit that was working as if we were MP's. I wondered why I could not work on a generator while in country. I was told, "only the contracted civilian mechanics were allowed to work on the equipment, it's apart of their contract". The civilians contractor were from all across the globe but the majority of them were Americans. These contractors made usually over a hundred thousand dollars plus to do the same jobs that the military trained service members to do. Why? So, that is one aspect of how the American taxpayer has been screwed and used. I was prior service member from the early 1990's and i rejoined the U.S. Army in 2005 because I felt I needed to get my life grounded and I also felt that I needed to serve in a war for my country or my service would not have been complete. So I did experience war from a different prospective and convinced me that war is not just and the war waged on Iraq was invalid. The lies told to Americans. We bought into the lies. I bought into the lies even thought deep down I know that the actions of our government was not for worldwide democracy. I am now more grounded in my beliefs against war. I want to keep others Americans, especially our youth, from being used by our government. From what I see so far, I like the direction of IVAW and I want to be more involved.