Active shooter training range in the DC area
My name is Greg Talamantez, and I am student at George Mason University (GMU). This page is part of the Digital Past class, which is takes history and technology to combine them into an interesting course that fulfills the IT and Ethics requirements. A much preferable option to the boring here’s how to type classes.
Prior to becoming a fulltime student, I was a member of the Army Bomb Squad for the past five years. I deployed to Iraq once as a bomb squad guy, and another time as a paralegal. My bomb squad deployment was much more interesting than my paralegal one. We were there training the Iraqi Bomb Squad how to operate independently of American forces. The idea was to turn over the role of “bomb squad” to Iraqi forces as soon as possible. While in Iraq, I got an email from the branch manager asking if I still wanted to go to DC. I sent a one-word email back “yes”.
So, from 2010-2013, I spent the last three years of my Army career providing bomb squad support to the National Capital Region. I have discovered the DC area has many nick names for itself. At last, my Army career has to come to an end. It was time to pursue different life goals, and now I find my self in the classroom.
My project is more about recent history. This project is about how the U.S. was not able to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi People, because were too risk averse. This forced many negative U.S.-Iraqi encounters, and these negative encounters were handled in the context of cultural misunderstanding.
“Occupation, no matter how benevolent is ultimately a corrupting experience for the occupiers and a traumatic one for those occupied. The skills of occupation are those of police, administrators, politicians, not the military.” – Chas W. Freeman, Jr.1
“You can’t win the hearts and minds behind the barrel of a gun. You may win their compliance, but not their hearts and minds” – Greg Talamantez IV
Speak your mind