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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! September 28, 2004 The Eyes of the UndefeatedBy GreyhawkThe trees sag. I mentioned it to another guy in the truck on the way to the chow hall at another camp, he'd noticed it too. "It's the heat" He said. "You'd sag too if you stood in that all day." Droopy trees. Did I say chow hall? Here's your Iraq Faq of the day (Iraqui Faque Du jour, as the French might say, were they here): It's a dining facility. DFAC, for short, pronounced DEEFAK. Now you too can pose. I saw it first thing early this morning, headed for the shower tent and noted the droopy state of the trees. One of the first things I noticed in country was the number of trees. Not a lot, but more than expected. Then the droopiness of them. They look defeated. Maybe they're a good metaphor for a war-torn land. They stand, but they look pathetic in some ways, beaten down. Like you could topple them if you leaned against them. But still they stand, so you respect that. In little oasis groves here and there through camp they stand, now with folding chairs arranged around their bases - the designated smoking areas. No smoking in the tents of course. And the tents themselves? Droopy. You need a bit of slack in your tent, it has to give a little, and it's fabric, after all. So it sags. There you have it, camp saggy. Drooping tents and trees. Standing there for a moment taking it in on the way to the shower tent in the cool of the morning that name occurred to me: Camp Saggy, Iraq. And hours later driving to lunch I find a couple other guys who noticed that saggy look too. Not everything slouches though, I'll get back to that in a minute. Because it seems that more than a few pundits in America would have you believe otherwise. I'll summarize their main points here: "Iraq is a failure, we're headed in the wrong direction, "ground truth" is different then what the current administration would have you believe, the troops are demoralized, it will be impossible to hold elections in Iraq as scheduled..." On and on, ad nauseam. Now through the elections expect a 40-day relentless barrage of this sort of thing, from many quarters, and from some individuals who should know better. And (que the "insurgents") expect a different sort of barrage to result over here. Everyone I've spoken with does. Small wonder if the troops that move among these drooping trees, that sleep within these sagging tents, that sweat beneath this burning sun, aren't beginning to droop a bit themselves. Those same pundits would certainly have you believe it's so. But here's what I noticed in the DFAC today: young faces. Young determined faces. Not much older (but far wiser and much more mature) than the crowd at a high school lunch room. You can tell without asking what these guys think. They look you in the eye. And if you can stand to look back you'll see into the eyes of the undefeated. There is no quit here, no early out, no cut and run. These are young men with an ugly job, America's finest sent to do our worst and best, and they make me feel old and inspired all at the same time. So here is the first impression of your fine young sons: They walk straight and tall with heads held high in this war-torn world, in this sagging land. I wish you who can only read of defeat trumpeted in your newspapers or on your TVs could have walked among them and seen this for yourselves. I read where someone said George Bush and Dick Cheney are the only people in America who think Iraq is going well. That may be so, but I don't believe for a minute they think it's a picnic. And I saw 300 young Americans in Iraq today who didn't look like quitters. Posted by Greyhawk / September 28, 2004 1:18 PM | Permalink 12 TrackBacksI remember the look very well. It is one you see in the eyes of young men (and women) with a job to do, and the confidence they have in themselves.You can tell without asking what these guys think. They... Read More If you want a view of Iraq from a soldier rather than news pundits, this is a must read. Not only is the writing elegant, the words mean something. Words mean something... If you know someone with a child or Read More UPDATE: The Mudville Gazette is being blogged from Iraq now and he's got something to say about that determination to previal in this struggle I warned the Democrats to get out of the way of. Read More One thing that you'll hear a lot of the military men and women say is that, "after eight long years of disrespect and embarrasment, we finally have a Commander In Chief worthy of the military." Does that mean that we Read More GREYHAWK checks in from Baghdad: [H]ere's what I noticed in the [Dining Facility] today: young faces. Young determined faces. Not much older (but far wiser and much more mature) than the crowd at a high school lunch room. You can... Read More Instapundit.com - THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE is now blogging from Iraq. Where, incidentally, InstaPundit and some other blogs are being blocked by Websense, the filtering service used by the military.... Read More "The Eyes of the Undefeated": here's what I noticed in the DFAC today: young faces. Young determined faces. Not much older .. than the crowd at a high school lunch... Read More Greyhawk has arrived and here's what he saw today at the Dining FACility (DFAC): But here's what I noticed in the DFAC today: young faces. Young determined faces. Not much older (but far wiser and much more mature) than the... Read More First off... any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now... here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher's Council for this week's vote. Council links:Ever... Read More Fox News beats all it's cable competitors---COMBINED! So much for it being the voice of the VRWC - because if it is that - then the Dems are truly the minority party. You don't score the combined viewership of all... Read More A run round the roll finds things hopping out in blawgland... Boudicca makes me proud to be a woman in "A Different Side to the Frizzenspark's Post". She's responding to Grau's Gender Gap post, not 'drawing her sword'. Thanks for the visua... Read More First off... any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now... the winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Sometimes Ya Gotta Speak Up by e-Claire, ... Read More 28 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Hey bro! Glad to know you are safely I.C. (I think)! This was a great post. Are all your posts now going to make me cry? It all started with the leaving the kids one, and I guess you are going to continue the trend. Great job, and nice to know what your REAL purpose there is. You may not have your own kids with you, but you can be "dad" to several hundred others. My young'un is on the high seas now (left port Sunday), so is excitedly off on his big adventure too. Got to let Mom say hi, too. Love, Sis
Hi,glad you are safe. Remember you promised to stay that way. Great post. Almost makes me change my mind about my vote. We love you and we are very proud of you. Love, Mom
Great to here you arrived safely. Pictures, stories, links for us to forward to our circle of influence to get the word out please. Thank you for your service.
Stay Safe, Bro. More'n likely, it'll be me that will be waving goodbye to you in less than a year.
Great point about the look in soldiers' eyes, never once did I see see a quitter, even when it was tough.
Buy the water helmet liner, it works.
Greetings Troop,
I returned from the "Cradle of Civilization" myself in April after 12 months in theatre (10 months in Iraq and a month on either end in Camp Arifsham, Kuwait)I know its hot like a mother but you are actually on the downslide temperature wise. The worst months are July and August. The downside to the drop in temerature is that the rain is on the way and all that fine dust becomes mud. I remember exactly the same young faces during my time in the the big sand box. Everyone has a job and are standing up to do it. Hopefully once the election passes, the doom and gloom from the left will subside at least somewhat. Hang tough and stay alert. Those of us at home are behind you, especially those of us who have been in your desert boots.
Making me cry is what you do best. The pundits think war is like a hollywood movie, it should be done in about 2 hours. You know very well there is no sense of reality there.
I posted on my blog today why we have to win. And of course, we will win. You stay strong and safe.
Rightwingsparkle
A good start GreyWolf. I am so proud of all of you. Keep your eye on the youngsters and let us know how they are doing. A very good start. God Bless and good hunting.
Subsunk
Looking forward to some first hand reporting from the scene!
That is a great post.
Don't stop telling us what you truely see.
I pray for our guys.
Keep safe. Keep talking.
Thanks
Good to hear you made it safely. Many of us refuse to believe the negative, but then again we're lucky to have MilBlogs to gather info from, and are grateful to YOU for that.
Stay safe, and keep these posts coming. Kinda like water in the desert. It's not just droopy over there!
It's good to know about the stand-up soldiers. Wishing we had more of that back here at home.
Now, about those droopy trees. They may not all be native to the area. I would guess that the ground is extremely hard, denying the root system a good hold, and not good at retaining the slight amount of rainfall to nourish the trees. So, they do the best they can.
I certainly hope a more democratic society has a better chance of taking root.
i would like to talk to you about either starting my own milblog or posting on your sight please send me an email about how to do so. i would rather post to this site but if that isn't possible then i will start my own.
my email is roberttruitt1980@yahoo.com. myself and a soldier of mine are currently in baghdad and have internet access that is not owned by the military so it would be harder for them to shut us down
Nearly all the citizens of this great nation support you guys. We love and honor your sacrifice and devotion to duty. You are the front line in this global war on terror. Building a fledgling democracy in the Middle East is a daunting taks but if successful would drive a stake in the heart of Islam's fundamentalist terrorists. God bless and come home safe. ed
Afghanistan 2001/2002
Iraq 2003
Just like to say, You people over there are all my HEROES. I did 5 years in the Navy and am a proud Veteran of the 3 tours and 4 years overseas. The press never has got it right from day 1. It's like how can you write about something you've never been through. Walk in my shoes brother then open your mouth. As a proud citizen of this country and a member of the American Legion I Salute you for your bravery and dedication.
Good to see the heat hasn't taken the fight out of you and the other dragon slayers. Take care, sir. You are missed.
I understand you’ve had problems accessing the site so I’ll mention that OneStat says your traffic hasn’t taken a major hit yet in your absence. I won’t make any claims about the quality, but we’re trying hard. You are missed.
(For the uninitiated, I’ll mention that I think Greyhawk may be able to post, and to receive emailed copies of comments on things he posted, even if the Uncle’s net nanny is blocking the site itself.)
I should proofread better before I click “Post.” “the Uncle’s net nanny” should have said “Uncle’s net nanny.”
Glad to hear you are keeping the faith (all of you !). keep safe and know that the American public (not the liberal left) prays for you daily,thinks of you more than that, and can never put into words how proud we are of you.
Check Six,
Greg
USAF vet.
Take care and blessing to you, the troops - and the families who wait for your safe return....
MJB
USAF '85-'92
Glad you safe and still logging, take care of the 'kids', as us old men say, they could be 40 and Id still call them kids. The brave wonderfull men and women that are much older than their years. I hate to see anyone mature that way and so fast. I did my service almost 40 years ago, and would be there now if I could.
Hawk, show them the ropes, its all a new school even to the old timers, only you know how to learn VERY QUICKLY. Teach them. God Bless you all.
Watch your 6.
Bro' Frog
Good to hear from you, Greyhawk. I really hope that you can tell all those young soldiers that there are many people who don't get their news from "big media" any more, and therefore don't swallow any of the crap that they dish out. Tell them please that there are thousands and thousands of us who know the value of what they do, that we know how hard they are working and that we know that there is lots of hope for the future of Iraq. That they are fighting hard for all of us to have a safer future and we thank them for it.
BTW, I saw an American General on Fox tv last night who said that despite all the damage that the terrorists are inflicting on the Iraqi police, that there are still too many men applying for police positions. These are people who want to see their country succeed, why can't CNN et al find the time to do a story on them?
A rhetorical question, I know the reason why.
Stay safe, and all the best to Mrs Greyhawk!
As a person who does not know any soldiers currently serving, I am humbled by Greyhawk's posting. I almost feel unworthy of comment, but I do feel compelled to express my family's love and appreciation for the men and women who sacrifice so me and my family can have a completely normal September day in the USA. My 5-year old son got a "red light" for rough-housing in kindergarten. My husband ate some dust on an excavator in the desert-- and secretly prayed that his bum knee never happened so he could go to Iraq. I went to work and read the newspaper about the R.O.P. (religion of peace) killing more schoolchildren in Darfur. There are no words to describe how I feel about the sacrifice our troops make, and how livid it makes me that Red Ted and their ilk are helping the enemy again, just like the 1970's. Please, Greyhawk, convey this message: the Americans that love this country also support the troops 100%. We know how much they sacrifice. And we will NEVER allow Viet Nam to happen again. Not in our name. Not EVER. God bless our troops. God help America.
I want to let you know how proud we are of you that are serving your company. There are some Americans who have no common sense but most Americans support what you are doing. We pray for you everyday. Keep up the good work and remember we are thinking of you guys.
I just wanted to add my fervent hope for your safety and success, along with that of all troops in Iraq.
Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences with us. We are many who believe that you will ultimately succeed in this most difficult and dangerous objective, and we know where to find accurate reports of the progress being made in Iraq.
I will visit this site every day and read both your reports and the comments.
Thank you all, for your well wishes
I just have one question.
Do the French have a term for "shower tent"?
Mrs. Greyhawk, I don't think they do. The closest thing they would have is "Cologne". :)
I love reading your post and want to tell you that a large number of people back in the land of the BIG PX are behind you. I know what combat is like and am very thankfull that you are safe (as) can be in that SAND BOX. Tell the Troops that we are praying for them. GOD BLESS AND KEEP AN ANGLE WITH ALL OF YOU.
Pittbull.
Thank you for the exposure to the hearts of our young men. The determination and the resolve to win the conflict and the hearts of a grateful nation (Iraq). My son is on his second tour and with each one we sent a beautiful/eager/nervous/determined/excited/anxious/well disciplined ....group of young heros to protect our country and build a better world. The youth of this military is breath taking to see, as you said no where else would you see this age group project the maturity and discipline. Thank you from a grateful and proud Marine Mom.
Jeri
An awesome story of the first couple of weeks in Iraq is the book A Table In The Presence by Lt. Carey H. Cash. It tells what God did in the life of our heroes as they went through Baghdad, and how their faith gave them courage.
Thank you so much U.S. Troops, you have impacted thousands of lives with your determination.
God Bless