AL ASAD, Iraq — Grumbling is a storied part of Marine Corps life, the oil that keeps the Green Machine from seizing up. There is no morale crisis among Marines here, but threads of doubt are beginning to weave into conversations.
At this Marine Corps combat base in western Iraq, today's post-invasion, post-occupation guerrilla conflict has left front-line troops on edge, tired, uncertain, frustrated, all at once -- even as they congratulate themselves on the gains they believe they're making.
"Where you're starting to see the strain is among the mid-career staff NCOs, the 10- to 12-year Marines," said Sgt. Maj. David Plaster of Twentynine Palms, Calif. "The question they're starting to ask is whether they want to continue."
They are tired. Not just tired of the scalding heat, the dust storms that abrade their eyes like sandpaper, the ambushes, the roadside bombings and the murky, quicksilver loyalties of the Iraqis they encounter.
They are weary of back-to-back deployments that have separated many of them from their families for 18 of the last 24 months -- deployments that threaten to continue at an "up-tempo" pace for as far into the future as they can see.
They are uncertain. They wonder whether their families can bear it, whether they should have to bear it, whether too much is being asked of too few Americans in this global conflict.
Finally, they are frustrated because the herculean task handed them here is to try to unify a troubled nation. Yet they look over their shoulders toward home and see their own country divided between hope and doubt.
"I tell Marines that for the foreseeable future, they should expect to spend six of every 12 months deployed somewhere," said Plaster, a 24-year veteran who has decided that he has had enough and plans to retire next summer.
He acknowledged that the Marine Corps "cannot afford to lose these people." By virtue of training and experience, these staff noncommissioned officers are the ligaments that hold the Corps together.
The Marines appear to be close to their staff retention goals for this year. But that represents an unwelcome change from 2002 and last year, when reenlistments were booming and ran at nearly 100% of the Marine Corps goals. This year, for instance, the Corps could find itself 17% or so short of the reenlistments it needs for infantry platoon sergeants.
